Tag: books

Whatcha Reading, Geekly? June 2026

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Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here, and today, our writers share what they’ve been reading over the past month. Feel free to share what you’ve been reading over the past month because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang. I’ll get things started with what I’ve been reading this past month.

Kyra’s Fiction

Yes! In preparation for the upcoming Supergirl movie (releasing later this month), I read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and I’m glad I did. I like the addition of Ruthye. Ruthye serves as a Nick Carraway-style narrator (The Great Gatsby). The story may be Supergirl’s, but it’s told in Ruthye’s voice. While Ruthye has a tendency to monologue, I love it when Supergirl’s actions contradict Ruthye’s narration. For example, “Many view Supergirl as soft,” and Supergirl swears while beating someone to a pulp, to which Ruthye will add, “In my experience, that was not the case.” Instant chuckles.

Tom King wrote Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. I figured I would enjoy the title, because I enjoyed Tom King’s (sometimes maligned) run on Batman. Honestly, I don’t know why some readers didn’t care for King’s Batman run. I blame it on King killing off Alfred Pennyworth during the City of Bane (2019), and Batman’s faithful butler has yet to return. The fact that Alfred has remained dead shocks me. Good on DC Comics. I mention King’s work on Batman to suggest that he takes risks, and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow takes risks. Future authors codified Supergirl Kryptonian with PTSD in future Supergirl stories, but King took the first leap.

And this is a heck of a first leap. I can’t wait to see what Season thinks of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. After I was done reading the story, I shared it with her, and she finished it in one sitting. Yay! And after Season was finished, she handed the book to Skye. We may have a three-way crossover this month. Woo hoo!

As you can see, I went on a DC Comics kick this month. Comic book writer Greg Rucka is another favorite. I liked his runs on Wonder Woman, so I was excited to try out Batwoman: Elegy. We begin in medias res (in the middle), and I appreciate Batwoman: Elegy refusing to hold the reader’s hand. But I was confused. Some context could’ve helped, but the story flows. Super fast. I blew through Batwoman: Elegy, and I don’t recall Rucka’s Wonder Woman reading that quickly. In short, Rucka made the right choice. Batwoman moved through this story so quickly, as if she were trying to run away from something. Turns out, it’s her past.

The context I complained about not having at the beginning reveals itself toward the middle of Batwoman: Elegy. This story’s speed gets the reader to those ah-ha moments faster. Only one thing bothered me in Batwoman: Elegy. The story overcommits to linking Batwoman to Batman. While I appreciate Batwoman: Elegy trying to link its character with the rest of Bat Family, at times it felt forced, and other times it was downright confusing. Evidently, Batman had a similar case to Batwoman’s, and Batwoman: Elegy remixes the two events. Batwoman: Elegy is a great origin story for the character, but at times, it get turned around.

This is my final DC Comics entry, I swear. I didn’t know what to expect from Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens. Paul Dini (writer of Batman: The Animated Series) is another excellent comic book writer, and Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens serves as a source material (of sorts) for the Harley Quinn: Animated Series. The final product reads like a series of odd occurrences, some of which make their way into the Harley Quinn series. I expected a comical tone. Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens took itself far more seriously than I imagined.

The stories were engaging. Short, but engaging. Dini tends to write short-form comic book stories. If you’re expecting a longer narrative like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow or Batwoman: Elegy, you won’t find it with Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens. This is the third graphic novel I read this month, and frankly, I needed a change of pace. Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens fills that role. Don’t enter reading this story thinking it’ll be as comical as the Harley Quinn: Animated Series.

Kyra’s Nonfiction

I mentioned last month (I think) that I had read the Proactive Roleplaying Guide from the Game Master’s Handbook line, and I was going to start reading The Game Master’s Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design. Phew! That is a long title. But the title’s length makes it easy to search online for the book. I love this series. I knew I’d love this book. And didn’t disappoint. Jonah and Tristan Fishel hand game masters the keys to incorporating the methods in this book into any tabletop role-playing game, even ones that are underway.

The biggest hurdle will be letting go of some authority as the game master. When the Fishels say collaborative campaign design, they mean it. The game master and the players craft the world and campaign they wish to play. Funnily enough, this leads to more buy-in by the players. Players take ownership of the game and its world. And it alleviates pressure on the game master to always come up with something. Will The Game Master’s Handbook of Collaborative Campaign Design work for every situation? No. It wouldn’t work for the two-hour session I have planned for the upcoming Comic-Con: Nebraska (stop by and say hi), but I can’t wait to try out this method with a longer campaign.

That’s all I have for what I’ve been reading. Let’s check in with Season and Skye.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Cover

Skye’s Fiction

With the upcoming release of the Supergirl DCU film, the rest of the Geekly crew has convinced me to take a closer look at the movie’s inspiration, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. I am in the process of reading Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, but what I’ve gleaned is this is a complex tale about the emotional struggles of the title heroine following the destruction of her home planet. Kara is despondent that her people have been wiped out. As a result, she’s developed a habit of taking trips to planets with red suns to repress her powers and drown her sorrows in booze. It’s genuinely depressing to see a beloved superhero in such a state, but I look forward to seeing how the story conveys the need to rise above one’s circumstances.

Season’s Fiction

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Cover

Same! I also read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in preparation for the upcoming movie. As previously mentioned, I read it in one sitting. Can you tell I enjoyed it? I appreciate the story not being told from Supergirl’s perspective. I mean, she began the story wasted, so her being the narrator would have been less reliable. There is a point in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow when Ruthye makes conjectures about what happened when Supergirl left her on a safe planet. I’m curious whether they’ll include this in the upcoming movie.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow had good pacing and evened out the heaviness of the story with goofy moments. The ending is truly something to behold and is well-earned.

The Spellshop is a popular 2024 romantasy title. It’s also my first time reading a romantasy. Kiela ran away from the city of Alyssium to the remote island of Caltrey with illegally acquired spell books due to a revolution in Alyssium. I thought most romantasies had a lot of hot and heavy moments, but The Spellshop proved me wrong. Kiela focuses on survival in her new/old home (her parents’ house before they moved to the city), and all of her neighbors want to help her. Kiela isn’t a social person, so the help is unwelcome at first. She warms up to the villagers (and a local guy) and manages to thrive on Caltrey. There are a couple of scenes with kissing in them, but acts of service are the primary love language in The Spellshop.

Did I mention Kiela’s best friend, Caz, is a talking spider plant? Honestly? Caz is the main reason I picked up the book. Tee hee!

Back in April, I mentioned The Husky and His White Cat Shizun. I’m still reading that (I’m on Volume 5), but I’ve also started reading Heaven Official’s Blessing. I watched the anime for Heaven Official’s Blessing, and the ending was abrupt. Apparently, they’re releasing a new season this year. Anyway, the light novels have a faster pace than the anime, though they’re redundant in places. Seriously, if Mo Xiang Tong Xiu cut out half of the redundant sentences, I guarantee the first volume could have been shorter by at least thirty pages. I still enjoy the story, and the characters are cute. I’m excited to see what lies beyond the anime.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here again. Those are all the books our writers have been reading this past month. What’ve you been reading? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Reading Geekly March 2026

Whatcha Reading, Geekly? March 2026

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today, our writers share what they’ve been reading over the past month. Feel free to share what you’ve been reading this past month, because we’re all a part of the Geekly Gang. I’ll start things off with what I’ve been reading this past month.

Kyra’s Fiction

The Comedy of Errors was a welcome change after Titus Andronicus. Slapstick comedy, mistaken identity, The Comedy of Errors has it all. This is another one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, and while the puns don’t always land (you’ve gotta love how language can change over almost half a millennium), the situational comedy of two sets of twin brothers habitually getting confused for one another bridges most eras.

It also helps that The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays. It didn’t take long to finish; I half wondered if my anthology (which is over a decade old at this point) might have missed or omitted a portion of the play. Nope. The Comedy of Errors was that short of a read. If you’d rather begin with a light-hearted tale of Shakespeare’s, you can’t go wrong with The Comedy of Errors.

I also restarted Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings in audiobook format. I’ll mention it here and again in my next segment, but audiobooks totally count as reading a book. The only issue I’ve found is stopping an audiobook and then returning to it can be difficult. More difficult than physically reading the book. That’s why this past month wasn’t the first time I began reading The Way of Kings. But that may be my problem and not everyone’s issue.

The narration of The Way of Kings switches between Kate Reading and Michael Kramer. Both narrators are a joy to listen to and bring extra pizazz to the text. Kramer is a long-time narrator for Brandon Sanderson’s books. He also narrated the Mistborn series. And I like how Reading and Kramer narrated different characters in the novel. Excellent. This eased my getting into the characters’ heads. I don’t know which one of the two stories I enjoy more. Sanderson does a good job of making both protagonists’ storylines unique and a page-turner.

I like listening to audiobooks as I walk, and I’ve gotten in a lot of walking. Thank you, Brandon Sanderson.

Kyra’s Poetry

I’m sticking with Shakespeare this month and going with an unconventional way of consuming The Bard. During the pandemic (2020), Patrick Stewart self-taped himself reading each one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Here’s a link to Shakespeare Network’s playlist. I’ve heard Stewart has teamed up with a company to rerecord these with higher-quality audio, but I like Stewart’s original recordings. These recordings show Stewart in various rooms of his home and in his favorite reading spots. Simply magical.

Stewart’s performance elevates the sonnets. I love reading along with him, and typically, he gives some mild commentary with each poem. He even shares which sonnets are his favorites. Want to know? You’ll have to watch or listen. P.S. I count audiobooks as books I’ve read. People have shared stories long before they began writing them down. And listening to someone knowledgeable–and I would consider the Shakespearean-trained Sir Patrick Stewart knowledgeable of Shakespeare’s work–informs the listener of how the writer may have intended the written word to be perceived.

I could listen to Patrick Stewart for hours, and with this YouTube playlist, I can listen to Patrick Stewart for hours. Yay!

Kyra’s Nonfiction

I’ve been reading The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures and figured I’d read its companion piece, The Element Encyclopedia of Fairies. I always thought of fairies as predominantly a European invention, and they are for the most part. But this encyclopedia shares fantastic creatures from around the world. Creatures from East Asia tend to be my favorites. Which ones are yours? Let us know in the comments.

That’s all I have for this month. Our other writers don’t have entries for this month. Hopefully, we’ll hear from them soon. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Reading, Geekly: April 2025

Published on by KyraLeave a comment

Today’s post marks the end of our first month of the Whatcha Wednesday series. Let’s finish strong with Whatcha Reading, Geekly. Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. Today’s theme is reading. This can include novels, poetry, short stories, essays, comic books, and anything in-between. As always, feel free to share what you read this past month. We’re all part of the Geekly Gang.

Kyra’s Reads

Edgar Allan Poe

The Geekly Gang went to the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy last month. This event featured actors interpreting Poe’s short stories and poems and cocktails based on the tales. My favorite cocktail of the bunch was the Cat’s Meow. And I started reading my collection of Edgar Allan Poe short stories. This may have also influenced my binging of true crime shows. Watching someone perform “The Tell-Tale Heart” and another actor portray “The Black Cat” got me wondering if Poe had homicidal tendencies. JK But I do think Poe’s work informed my choice of television shows.

Batman: Arkham, Catwoman

Staying on the subject of black cats, I also read the Batman: Arkham, Catwoman collection. I enjoy reading classic DC Comics stories, and the Batman: Arkham series is good for catching up with a villain’s history. Catwoman’s been around since the 1940s. Early stories are products of their time. Then, the stories jump to being cheesy and using a heap of cat puns. It’s difficult to read. Late Eighties comics that feature Catwoman were influenced by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, so they leaned into Catwoman’s updated origin as a former prostitute. Despite this, I liked Mindy Newell’s “Downtown Babylon.” Newell may have been forced to use this backstory for Catwoman, but she makes it her own. My only gripe is that “Downtown Babylon” was the second issue of a four-issue miniseries, and that’s Batman: Arkham’s biggest issue. Often, readers will get a random issue plucked from an ongoing story.

I may track down Newell’s 1989 Catwoman mini-series. What I read of it got me invested. The other standout in this volume was Ed Brubaker’s “Joy Ride.” This story is contained within a single issue and does a great job of showing Catwoman. She’s an anti-hero with a checkered past and a mischievous streak. Batman: Arkham, Catwoman is a good jumping-off point for further reading about the character. And that’s what I like best about this series.

Isaac Asimov I Robot

I, Robot

It may be sacrilege, but Asimov’s I, Robot made the DNF (did not finish) pile this month. The prose was more archaic than another book I started shortly afterwards, The King in Yellow, which was written fifty years prior. All is not lost. I’ll give I, Robot another go in another month or two. I’m also open to reading suggestions. I finished Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built a month prior and fell in love with how “human” Chambers made Mosscap. I picked up the follow-up, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, so spoiler alert for next month.

That’s all I have for this month. Thank you for reading, and let’s see what Season and Skye have been reading.

Season’s Reads

Fledgling

I’m finishing out my final semester in college, and Octavia Butler’s Fledgling is a novel we read in class. We read the first half one week and the second half the next week. I got so enamored with the story that I almost read the entire thing in a day. Fledgling follows Shori (pictured on the cover) as she discovers who she is and finds her purpose. She’s also a vampire called an Ina. Ina and humans live symbiotically with one another. I’ve never seen a story explore a mutual symbiosis with humans and a humanoid creature before. I highly recommend Fledgling for those who are interested in vampires, societal issues, and journeys of self-discovery.

There were talks back in 2022 of turning Fledgling into an HBO series. There isn’t much information on a release date or if the project was canceled. Personally, I’d love to see one of my new favorite books on screen.

The Nose

I read a collection of Russian short stories. “The Nose” by Nikolai Gogol stood out to me. It’s literally about a guy whose nose jumps off his face. The nose has a life of its own and even tries to leave the country by stagecoach, passport, and everything. There isn’t a clear main character within the story, but it’s about perception and how people handle the information provided to them. In classic Russian fashion, many characters have more than one name, so it can be difficult to follow at times. If you’re looking for something unique and wacky, I’d recommend “The Nose.”

Skye, what have you been reading?

Skye’s Reads

Yes, I also read on occasion. Here are the books I’ve been tackling lately.

The Crystal Witch

This should give you a crystal-clear idea of who I am. See what I did there? I practice New Age Spirituality. What draws me to it is its “a la carte” approach to faith. There’s no “right” way to practice it, and my preferred method is through rituals, tarot cards, manifestation, and crystals. That leads me to The Crystal Witch.

For folks like me who want a clearer picture of symbolism, spiritual power, and how to get started practicing New Age, The Crystal Witch has it all. So far, I’ve learned a lot about sacred altars, the importance of colors in practice, and descriptions of the most common crystals. I can’t wait ‘til I can categorize each of the crystals in my collection and start using them in everyday spiritual practice.

Revolutionary Witchcraft

Honestly, I’m unsure how I feel about the term witchcraft. While I’m empowered to be a part of a community, the term carries negativity. New Age is primarily built on positivity and the connection of humans to the rest of the universe. When words like “witch” are thrown around, it’s distracting. Although I’ll admit that New Age does have roots in the Occult, Paganism, and Wicca.

What does that have to do with Revolutionary Witchcraft? Well, Revolutionary Witchcraft teaches “witches” such as me how to use our beliefs to create positive change in our communities. I don’t know about y’all, but I always hear the latest news headlines and shudder. Because of that, I want to give back to my community, my country, my species, and my planet by properly directing my beliefs. Maybe we can finally see some good news, so here’s hoping.

The Filmmaker’s Handbook (5th edition)

Even in a segment about books, I still managed to circle back around to movies. That’s just what I do. I love visual art forms. I even like to make my own films. Eventually. Not now of course. Do you have $300 million? ‘Cause I don’t.

I’m reading The Filmmaker’s Handbook to give me an idea of where to start. What kind of shots work best to create a specific mood? When should you use live-action and animation? What are the basic building blocks of cinematic storytelling? How do you become an independent filmmaker? All that and more in The Filmmaker’s Handbook.

Also, I’m giving myself an excuse to judge films more harshly. I’m a critic at heart. What’re you gonna do?

Jesus’ Son

I’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on non-fiction books, so I asked my sister if she could recommend any fiction for me. She led me to Jesus’ Son. Thanks, Sis! I haven’t gotten very far into it, but so far, I have a lot of thoughts. Jesus’ Son is a collection of short stories with thought-provoking themes. Considering the first story is titled “Car Crash While Hitchhiking,” that’s a fair assessment.

Even though I haven’t read much, I feel like I could read the whole thing in one night. Unfortunately, I can’t. I’ve got stuff to do. Life be like that sometimes. The themes and emotions that arose after reading the first story were difficult to describe, but deeply intriguing. Because of that, I feel the need to re-read, re-re-read, and re-re-re-read to gain a deeper understanding. These are my favorite kinds of stories, stories that Shrek would compare to onions. These are some exciting layers.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle again. That’s all we have for you this month. Let us know what you’re reading in the comments, Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.