We’re excited to announce the books and graphic novels we’ll be reading this year for our book club podcast. In an effort to ensure maximum participation, we’re announcing all of the titles now as well as a reminder at the start of each month. The dates we’re recording each discussion are included below, but are subject to slight changes to accommodate hosts’ schedules or last-minute conflicts. A few days before we record we’ll post on Facebook to give you an opportunity to leave feedback, which we’ll read on the show.
January/February 2017 | The Names by Peter Milligan | 9-issue complete series | Recording date: February 25th
Available at Comixology or Amazon (see below)
Legendary writer Peter Milligan teams with gifted artist Leandro Fernandez for a savage, sexy stab at Wall Street’s dark side with Vertigo’s newest crime drama, THE NAMES! Katya Walker’s life is practically perfect. She’s young, smart, gorgeous and married to a fantastically rich man whom she loves. But when her husband, Kevin, takes a dive from his high-rise office window, the pretty surface of her world is shattered—and what’s underneath turns out to be very nasty indeed. Katya knows that her husband didn’t kill himself, but that turns out to be one of the few things she does know about him—a realization confirmed by Kevin’s post-mortem message revealing his membership in a vast criminal-capitalist conspiracy dedicated to manipulating markets and cashing in on the resulting misery. Known as the Names, the organization maintains its grip on the levers of power through enforcers like the Surgeon and her math-genius, hormone-addled stepson, Philip. As Katya dives deeper into this dark financial underworld to try and solve her husband’s murder, will she be in for far more than she bargained for?
March 2017 | The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas | Recording Date: March 25th
Available via Amazon (see below)
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas’s searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty. Soon to be a major motion picture from Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions.
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
April 2017 | Sex Criminals, Vol. 1: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky | Recording date: April 29th
Available via Comixology or Amazon (see below) | This series is rated Adults Only – DISCLAIMER: graphic sexuality
Suzie’s just a regular gal with an irregular gift: when she has sex, she stops time. One day she meets Jon and it turns out he has the same ability. And sooner or later they get around to using their gifts to do what we’d ALL do: rob a couple banks. A bawdy and brazen sex comedy for comics begins here!
May 2017 | A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab | Recording date: June 3rd
Available via Amazon (see below)
Londons fall and kingdoms rise while darkness sweeps the Maresh Empire, and the fraught balance of magic blossoms into dangerous territory while heroes struggle. The direct sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, and the final book in the Shades of Magic epic fantasy series, A Conjuring of Light sees the newly minted New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab reach a thrilling conclusion concerning the fate of beloved protagonists-and old foes.
June 2017 | Harrow County, Vol. 1: Countless Haints by Cullen Bunn | Recording Date: July 8th
Available via Comixology and Amazon (see below)
Emmy always knew that the woods surrounding her home crawled with ghosts and monsters. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she learns that she is connected to these creatures-and to the land itself-in a way she never imagined.
Collecting the first four issues of the southern gothic fairy tale from the creator of smash hit The Sixth Gun, beautifully and hauntingly realized by B.P.R.D.’s Tyler Crook!
July 2017 | Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke | Recording date: August 5th
Available via Amazon (see below)
Every story needs a hero.
Every story needs a villain.
Every story needs a secret.
Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.
What really happened?
Someone knows.
Someone is lying.
August 2017 | Barrier by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente | Recording date: September 2nd
Available via Panel Syndicate
An unconventional drama about violence, language and illegal immigration.
5 issue limited series.
September/October 2017 | Sleeping Giants (Themis Files) by Sylvain Neuvel | Recording date: October 28th
Available via Amazon (see below)
A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.
Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.
But some can never stop searching for answers.
Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?
November 2017 | The Samaritan by Victor Dandridge and Ren McKinzie | Recording date: November 18th
Available via Amazon (3-issue series)
Residents of a crime-ridden neighborhood find their lives forever changed with the arrival of a mysterious, new tenant named, “Smith.” They suffer under the plague of mankind’s inhumanity, but with his extraordinary powers, Smith aims to be the cure.
