Shut In Theater: Weekend Reading 207

May Day has come and gone, and now it’s time for Weekend Reading 207! Be sure and let us know what you’ll be paging through as you avoid the arrival of Monday in the comment section below or over on social media at our Bluesky page.

AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’ll be reading The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel. Not super sure what this one is about but it has a fair amount of positive buzz and the elephant on the cover is adorable. And then as far as comics go, after reading Samantha Puc’s excellent review, I’m eager to check out Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Vera Brosgol this weekend.

TAIMUR DAR: This weekend is Free Comic Book Day. There’s definitely a few titles this year I’m quite eager to read. Among the top is the FCBD Transformers & G.I. Joe: Welcome to the Energon Universe Special from Skybound. I’ve had a passing interest in Hasbro brands like G.I. Joe and Transformers but would never classify myself as a huge fan. But thanks to Skybound I’m a new convert. Also at the top is the IDW’s FCBD Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Special from writer/artist Juni Ba which will introduce the Nightwatcher. Other titles that are a priority to read are the Hellboy / Stranger Things book from Dark Hose and Johnny Quest from Dynamite Entertainment.    

DEAN SIMONS: This weekend I aim to finish off Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master & Margarita (translated by Michael Glenny). It’s a quirky ride where the devil visits Soviet Russia and causes chaos.

Editor’s Note: Also this novel features enormous black cat Behemoth, please consider reading it if you haven’t. — AJK

D. MORRIS: After going in blind seeing Spy x Family Code: White, I’ve decided to start reading the Spy x Family manga by Tatsuya Endo. The mix of spycraft and family shenanigans sold me while Enzo’s art is very appealing. With Blood Hunt now upon us, I also need to catch up Doctor Strange by Jed MacKay, Pasqual Ferry, and others.

KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: This weekend I’m going for two different manga. First up is the first volume of a new BL by Yuu Nagira and Megumi Kitano called My Beautiful Man. It’s about Hira, a teenaged boy with a stutter, who has always been at the bottom rung of the social ladder, and Kiyoi, the beautiful boy he’s fallen for. After that, I’ll be reading volume four of My Androgynous Boyfriend by Tamekou. In this manga, Wako has been dating the titular androgynous boyfriend Meguru for a while, and he’s now a part of an idol group called the Unicorn Boys. WIll their success get in the way of Wako’s relationship with Meguru?

You can peruse the 206 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.