Reading inbox-outbox: Week of 23 March

I went a little crazy with the book buying this week… but, I completed my March reading challenge! So, reward! Right?

March is technically not over yet, but I don’t think I’m going to finish any more books this month. So, I’m going to summarize my March reading stats now:

• Total books finished: 7
• Favorite book read: Lock In by John Scalzi
• Book(s) read by diverse authors (per my 2015 reading project): The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Now, let’s get back to all those books I bought this week…

Inbox (books acquired)

• X-Men, Vol. 1: Primer by Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel (paperback) — My favorite X-Men character is Psylocke. Over the course of my sophmore and junior years in college, I searched for, bought, and read as many of the X-Men comics that featured her storyline as I could find. Then, sadly, during one of our many moves, my husband convinced me to get rid of my comic collection. I don’t even think I bothered to sell them. I probably just gave them away. Sadness. Regret. Sigh… So, when I read that Marvel had come out with a new series featuring an all lady X-Men team that includes not only Psylocke, but two of my other faves: Storm and Jubilee, I decided I must buy it.
• Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona (paperback) — While I was giving in to comic book nostalgia, I decided to finally order Volume 1 of this new series as well. I have been hearing nothing but raving reviews from all over the Interwebs. So, I am really looking forward to diving into this one.
• X-Men: Psylocke by Christopher Yost, Harvey Tolibao (paperback) — Okay, so maybe I went a little crazy with the comics this week. I think I’ve read these already, but, as I mentioned above, I got rid of my comic collection. So, I’m not entirely sure. But how could I resist a collection featuring my favorite of the X-Men?
• Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum (Kindle, pre-order) — I saw this listed as a new release somewhere (probably on Book Riot), and I immediately added it to my wish list. It comes out on Tuesday, so technically I am “pre-ordering” this, but I think it will be worth it. This is a topic near and dear to me and I’m always fascinated by people’s reasons why they did or didn’t have kids. I’m in the “no kids” camp, but I’m constantly wondering if I’m missing something or if maybe I was absent the day they handed out biological clocks, because I’ve just never had a burning desire to have kids. I love kids, I love my friends’ and family’s kids, and I hope they will love me, too, but I just never felt the need to have any of my own. So, I’m really interested in reading this and will probably start it right away when it is magically delivered to my Kindle on Tuesday.

Outbox (books finished)

• Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Kindle) — Guess what? As predicted, I liked this book! Surprise! It wasn’t my favorite Rainbow Rowell book (that’s still Fangirl), but I tore through this one, just like all the others, not wanting to put it down. I don’t usually like stories about people struggling in their marriages, especially when it’s struggling best friend / soul mate marriages, but the quirky details and side-plots, the pop culture references, and the unique characters kept things light-hearted enough that I kept going. My copy had “reader questions” at the end, and I mostly skipped those (as I almost always do), but one stood out to me. It was asking if you thought the ending was “happy.” So, slight spoiler, maybe, but I think the ending was “hopeful,” and to me, hopeful = happy. So, I’m going to go with, yes. Also because I really needed Neal and Georgie to have a happy ending.
• All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (hardcover, signed, special edition) — I just finished this one today. So, I probably don’t have enough distance from it yet to say anything terribly useful. It’s not a book I would have picked out on my own, yet I enjoyed it. It’s heartfelt and well-written and funny and sad and tragic, yet also hopeful and thoughtful. Maybe after I’ve had some time to reflect on it, I’ll have something more thoughtful to say about it.

Queue (what I’m reading next)

• I’ve already started Half a Yellow Sun… this is a long one with a lot of unfamiliar names of people and places, and I need to finish it before it’s due back at the library…

I am already planning my April reading list. I’m planning on reading fewer novels in April because I need to shift the balance a bit and use more of my precious free time for writing. So, there will be no ambitious April reading project. April will probably be mostly comics, at least one novel, and that book of essays on not having kids.