Hello lovely book nerds!
It’s been a few months since I posted anything and I’m very excited to be back! Back in March I realized that I had taken on too many things in my life and that I needed to take a step back and recharge. I’m very happy that I took that break and took care of myself and now I’m really excited to dive back into blogging!
I have a ton of posts lined up for next month–all about Queer books to celebrate Pride month! I’m really looking forward to sharing them with you and I can’t wait to start posting them on June 1st!
For today’s post I thought I’d share what I’ve been reading over the past couple of months. It’s not much, I needed my break to get over my reading slump as much as anything else, but I still read some amazing books and comics that I want to post about!
Over the last couple of months I’ve only finished two books, I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch, and Admission by Julie Buxbaum. I really enjoyed both of these books.
I Kissed Alice is an enemies to lovers YA romance which features two girls who hate each other in real life, but write an Alice in Wonderland in space AU together after they connect online on a fan fiction site.
Admission is a fiction story based on the college admissions scandal that happened in the US a few years ago. It’s pretty heavily based on the scandal, though all of the characters are fictional. This story centers on a high school senior who’s actress mom and wealthy father help her get into the college of their (not her) dreams, without the main character realizing what’s going on.
I really enjoyed both of these and I’m excited to be sharing my full reviews of them with you guys soon!
I may have only read two books these late few months but I’ve read quite a few comics. With DC starting to reboot/reset their universe I decided now was a good time to start reading some of the new runs and start reading single issues, rather than waiting for the collected volumes.
My wallet hasn’t appreciated this much but I love going to my local comic book shop each week and picking up a few titles to read.
Most of the comics I read are DC comics but I’ll read a few Marvel comics here and there.
First up is Batman: Urban Legends. I’ve really been enjoying this one, though I’m not super thrilled about how Jason Todd is being written in this run. Still, it’s a great story and I’m really looking forward to the next issue!
Next up we have Nightwing. Jason maybe my favorite former Robin but it’s impossible to hate Dick Grayson. This new run of Nightwing has been incredible and is by far one of the best stories I’ve read–comics or otherwise.
I’ve also decided to dive into DC’s new run of Teen Titans, Teen Titans Academy. This run is exploring who the character Red X is. Red X has been explored as a character over the years in both the comics and even in the Teen Titans cartoon that ran on Cartoon Network way back in the day. Their identity has never been confirmed though so I’m excited to see what happens in this run and if we get to find out who they are. Personally I don’t have any guesses about their identity but we’ll see if I agree with it if we ever get to find out.
DC has also started a new run for Damian Wayne, Batman’s son and the current Robin. I absolutely love my little gremlin assassin child and he’s currently run away from home to fight in basically the hunger games for assassins. Bruce and the rest of the family have no idea where Damian is but I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon enough. DC has also brought Rose Wilson into this run which I love. Rose is Deathstroke’s daughter and like her father she’s an assassin who’s very good at her job. In this story she’s basically adopts Damian as her little brother and I love it. Rose is also from time to time Jason Todd’s (Red Hood) girlfriend so I’m curious to see if Jason will show up at some point. I don’t think he will unless the rest of the Batfam shows up but we’ll see.
The last few DC comics I’ll talk about are Catwoman #31, Future State: Gotham and Red Hood and the Outlaws #25.
I picked up Catwoman mostly because it reintroduces and character that canonically doesn’t (well now it’s didn’t) exist. Before DC rebooted their universe with New 52 this character was running around though they did die rather tragically (and actually stayed dead). She goes by Shoes these days or Cheshire Cat and while she’s running around with Selina Kyle I have no idea. I also do not agree with this decision at all. But I won’t get into that too much. I’m not sure if I’ll continue reading Catwoman in single issues but we’ll see. (I’m not naming the character here just because spoilers though I feel like most people who read DC comics will know who I’m talking about).
Future State: Gotham is one of DC’s current black and white runs, meaning it’s all done in black and white–no colors at all. It’s a really interesting art style/story telling method. I picked this one up because this story centers around Jason Todd AKA Red Hood. DC can never decide on how to write Jason–they literally brought him back as a villain and then decided he couldn’t be one because his character became so popular. I guess it’s fine to give other characters (the Joker) their own run as a villain but not a member of the Batfam. I have lots of feelings about Jason but I won’t get into those because I’m pretty sure you guys don’t want to read an essay about why a fictional character deserves better.
And finally I also read Red Hood and the Outlaws #25. This issue was part of the 2016 run of Red Hood and the Outlaws which was Jason’s solo run. And by solo I mean he adopted an amazon warrior who’s almost as powerful as Wonder Woman (Artemis) and a clone of Superman (Bizzaro). This particular issue I re-read because I hate myself and wanted to cry over fictional characters. Basically Jason does something Bruce doesn’t agree with and so he nearly beats his son to death. And the only reason he stops is because Jason’s best friend, who he ‘broke up’ with, comes in and saves him. I don’t care what DC says because 1. Batman would never nearly kill one of his kids and 2. Jason Todd and Roy Harper are in love and you will never convince me otherwise. Will they ever be a couple in canon? No. Do I want them to be a couple in canon? Absolutely not. I trust DC as much as I trust myself to not buy a book when I go into a bookstore. Meaning not at all. I love Jason and Roy but DC needs to leave my idiot best friends alone.
Anyways that’s probably way more than you guys wanted to read about Jason, Batman and all the rest so I’ll stop there.
I’ve also read a couple of Marvel comics recently, though not nearly as many as DC.
Thor and Loki: Double Trouble is the only Marvel title I’ve read in recent months. This is just a cute, fun, feel-good run of my favorite Marvel brothers and it just fills me with joy to read about their adventures.
Anyways… thank you so much for reading this post that turned out to be much longer than I anticipated. I hope you didn’t mind my comics nonsense too much.
Be sure to check back on June 1st for my first Bookish Pride post! I’ll be sharing a ton of Queer books coming out during June that you can add to your TBR! I also have more Pride posts lined up featuring books about Asexuality, Queer authors, Must Read Queer Graphic Novels and a whole lot more!
Thanks so much again for reading!
Basement.Bookcase 