Murchie Plus Books: March 22nd to 28th

The premise: I love my dog. I love books. I bring the two together by placing every book I read in close proximity to my tiny, skittish dog. Sometimes he runs away. Sometimes he lets me take his picture. It's a crapshoot, basically.

The photos: go live on Instagram as I edit them and appear here in digest form every Sunday.

Not pictured: I never make Murchie pose with the comics I get through Marvel Unlimited. Last week, I devoured NEW MUTANTS (2003), a series I started mostly because it was co-written by a woman and ended up really enjoying. I also jumped on Bendis and Marquez's MILES MORALES: THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN as soon as a full arc's worth of issues was up. I enjoyed it very much, but I think I'd have gotten more out of it if I were familiar with the wider Ultimates universe. It's on my list.

Here it is, friends! One of my top ten most anticipated releases of 2015--and boy, did it ever live up to my expectations. I loved the hell out of it and will have a full review for you next week.

I may have loved THE VIRGIN, but I read it so frickin' slow. I don't know what's wrong with me, y'all. It doesn't seem to matter how much I like a book--I just can't settle down and read prose fiction.

I'm still limping along through LONG HIDDDEN, too. Even my comics consumption has taken a sharp downturn over the last couple of weeks. I hate periods like this. I want to read ALL THE BOOKS, but my stupid brain just won't focus on them.

I'm doing slightly better with audiobooks.

I finished ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS last Wednesday. What a lovely, lovely book! I wasted no time in purchasing LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR with one of my discounted Audible credits, but I couldn't dive in right away. I've already had to renew THE MARTIAN, Andy Weir's much beloved SF novel, once; it's best I get through it as quickly as possible so someone else can have their turn.

Listening speed shouldn't be much of an issue. THE MARTIAN is fabulous so far, and so me. It's packed with lots of jaw about How Stuff works (my very favourite), with plenty of woe and tension and the very real possibility that the forcibly upbeat narrator will snap and lose himself before anyone notices he's still alive and mounts a rescue mission. I find myself inventing listening time so I can gulp it down quick as can be.

I've finally hunkered down and started some nonfiction that isn't essays. (I'm still working on REFLECTIONS, thanks for asking. It's gonna take me nine hundred years at my current speed, but I will finish it). THE HANDMADE MARKETPLACE by Kari Chapman is designed to help crafters who want to start selling their wares for fun and profit. I've done a couple of craft sales, but I'd like to up my in-person game and also branch out into online sales. This book has given me an excellent checklist to follow as I do so. Some of the details are a bit dated, but the core information is solid. I've gotten a ton of good tips for starting a small business--and best of all, Chapman makes it sound doable.

I like doable things.

And now for a queer classic, which I probably shouldn't have started during an argh-novels-why-can't-I-read-anything period. STONE BUTCH BLUES, Leslie Feinberg's semi-autobiographical novel about a young butch finding her way in a world determined to punish queer women, is often cited as a seminal text that's possibly more a queer history than a piece of fiction. I had trouble sinking into the first fifty pages this time around, perhaps because of my foggy fiction-consuming brain and perhaps because Jess's young life is so very terrible, but it'll remain on my list of books to return to somewhere down the line.

Time for more HEXED! I came to this series backwards, as I do with so many comics these days, but luckily my library was able to lend me the characters' first solo outing. I haven't yet started it as I write this, but I intend to gulp it down on Saturday evening and will report back.

Next week: I don't even know, y'all. I've got this huge-ass stack of library comics to get through, so maybe I'll tackle those? I've also sorta-kinda started SHADOW by K.J. Parker (which I'll photograph with Murchie in time for next week's post), and I'm hoping it'll stick.