Saturday’s arrived at Stately Beat Manor, and so too has Weekend Reading 201. What are you paging through this weekend? Be sure and let The Beat know, either here in the comment section or over on our Bluesky page.
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’m heading into the second volume of Cixin Liu’s The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, The Dark Forest. While the first and third books are translated by Ken Liu, this one is translated by Joel Martinsen, and I’m curious how filtering the text through another translator’s perspective may have affected the tone of the prose. Then, as far as comics go, I’m checking out Karate Prom by Kyle Starks. I don’t know much about this title, but I enjoyed the work Starks has done on the Rick and Morty comics and look forward to seeing his cartooning when unchained from pre-existing IP. Finally, I’m getting a dose of nonfiction thanks to A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird by Rosemary Mosco. This book blipped on my radar thanks to Mosco’s participation in a “Picture + Panel” event we covered here at The Beat, and I’m excited to learn more about our overlooked feathered friends.
GREGORY PAUL SILBER: Last Saturday, I saw one of my favorite musicians, erstwhile Against Me! frontwoman and transgender activist Laura Jane Grace, perform an intimate yet intense set in support of her new solo album, Hole in My Head. It was one of those sweaty, joyful, scream-along rock shows that’s akin to a spiritual experience. So this weekend, I’m finally reading Grace’s 2016 memoir, T*****: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, co-written with Dan Ozzi. I’ve been a fan of Grace since high school, years before she publicly announced her transition in 2012, so I’m stoked to learn more about the folk-punk singer-songwriter’s life and music. I’m just one chapter in and it’s already as raw, vulnerable, and politically bold as Grace’s songs. The only problem is that since the title is a transphobic slur, I don’t feel comfortable reading the book in public; as a cis man, I wouldn’t want anyone on the subway getting the wrong idea. Regardless, it’s exciting and refreshing to take such a frank peek into the mind of one of the most polarizing figures in punk.
TAIMUR DAR: With X-Men ‘97 on the horizon, my nostalgia for the original animated series is in high gear. To that end, it feels fitting this weekend for a reread of Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series, the book written by series creator Eric Lewald back in 2017 as well as X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series also written by Lewalad and his wife Julia, but this time published by ABRAMS after Disney acquired Fox and the X-Men rights in the process.
DEAN SIMONS: Started a new novel the other day which is a slight change of pace to the genre-fare I usually read: The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). It is my latest novel in a year where I promised myself to read only standalone prose works. It was recommended to me by a friend and I am really enjoying Lahiri’s entrancing writing style. It really draws you in.
BEAU Q.: I’m not over it. Clearly. So, I’m smoking the embers of jrpg passion on display in the Akira Toriyama Dragon Quest Illustrations hardcover. It’s been my nightstand book [lower level] for a hot minute now, but jumped to the top, because yours truly needs some safe food a weekend later. I’d pair the artbook with Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age for a truly impressive jolt of inspiration, but my tv is now a FF7R machine, especially on weekends.
KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: I’m changing things up and delving into some more serious fare with Guardian of Fukushima by Ewen Blain and Fabien Grolleau. The comic is about the deadly tsunami that hit Fukushima on 3/11/2011, and the man who stayed behind to take care of precious animals in the radiation zone after three core reactors of Fukushima’s nuclear power plant were destroyed. I remember watching the tsunami destroy Fukushima on television, and when I lived in Japan, every 3/11 we observed a moment of silence for those who were lost. I bawled my eyes out when I saw it happening live; I’m sure I’ll bawl my eyes out with this story.
You can peruse the 200 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.
