Happy Monday, book friends! I hope you had a good weekend and that your week is off to a good start.

Last week, I mentioned that I went to a new bookstore to browse for books and ended up grabbing a book I hadn’t heard of while I was there. But the book I couldn’t seem to locate on the shelves was one I’ve been wanting to read for a while–True Biz. I got some gift cards for Christmas, so I figured I’d go ahead and order this book because I’m interested in reading it very soon.

Yesterday, it arrived on my doorstep along with a new external webcam since my personal laptop’s internal one no longer works.

I first heard about True Biz on a podcast I ocasionally listen to called Book Reccos, and it was also a Reese’s Book Club pick. The story follows a teacher at a school for the Deaf, as well as her students, during a particularly tumultuous time. When I heard about the plot, it sort of reminded me of Switched at Birth, a show that also heavily featured students at a school for the Deaf and the regular teenage drama they lived through while also fighting for their school. I loved that show, so I am extra excited to read this book.

That’s it for book mail this week since I really am focusing on my physical TBR at home this year! Do you have any exciting new additions to your shelves?

It’s a good sign that in a year I promised to read more from my physical TBR and buy fewer new books, I’m already coming at you with a Book Mail Monday post, right? Right.

My original book friend and her wife are in town visiting, and one of our traditions includes hitting up Pittsburgh’s Strip District to visit a place called Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. A new bookstore opened up in the area recently, so naturally we had to check it out while we were there.

As a teenage book nerd, the main way I found new books to read was just browsing the shelves at Borders to see what interested me. That mode of discovery is pretty rare these days now that you can stack up a massive TBR via the bookish internet. But every now and again, I’ll come across a book I haven’t heard about when browsing the shelves.

This bookstore was interesting in that none of the shelves were labeled. You had to sort of figure out for yourself how they were organized, which did lead me to browse a bit more closely than I might have otherwise. There on a shelf that I presume was recently released nonfiction, a book called All of the Marvels caught my eye with its bright red cover and superhero-esque font.

I’d not heard about this one, but as soon as I read the jacket flap I knew it would be coming home with me. The author, Douglas Wolk, decided to read the entire existing Marvel comics catalog and write a book about what he learned. I’m a huge Marvel nerd and love a good memoir of taking on a massive project and learning along the way, so this book was basically written for me as far as I’m concerned. I’m pretty excited to dig in.