The Glutton, A.L. Blakemore-- Wow. Chose this entirely for the cover, which also happened to be part of the reading challenge, and wound up just rapt with a new favorite. Queer and lush and exhilarating and poetic and disturbing and beautiful and heartbreaking.

King Nyx, Kirsten Bakis-- What a weird little book. Started off as a very moody, ambient feminist gothic mystery and then just kept taking turns into other stuff. Disappointing.

Paradise Rot, Jenny Hval-- What a weird little book. Very artsy and slow and dreamlike and hallucinatory.

The Daughters of Ys, M.T. Anderson-- This was for my read a graphic novel entry in the reading challenge and I enjoyed it a lot. Great fantasy retelling of an old Breton folktale, gorgeous art, good humor.

The Hike, Lucy Clarke-- Absolutely terrible. I love a good adventure thriller, but these women were so godawful annoying. I wanted all of them to die on that mountain.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Terry Prachett-- I actually read this one when it came out, but that was over twenty years ago so I'm counting it. This was a friend's book club pick and it was fine, bland since its more middle grade/YA.

Cows, Matthew Stokoe-- Hoping this would be one for my transgressive collection but it didn't earn it. Just terrible.

Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield-- A sad, eerie slow burn meditation on love and loss and the sea, tinged with body horror. Needed to adjust my expectations but loved it when I did.

Jewel Box, E. Lily Yu-- A new favorite. I picked this based totally because of the weird cover and it truly was a jewel box of heartbreaking, moving, funny, lush stories. Old school feeling retro sci-fi and fantasy that were absolute fairy tales like centuries ago. Wonderful.

Strange Sally Diamond, Liz Nugent-- What a frustrating book. Spectacular and compelling for the first 3/4, then an awful ending that undid every bit of character development and plot. Such a disappointment.

The Butcher and the Wren

Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee-- This was fun but a bit underwhelming. Loved the setting and worldbuilding, loved the nonbinary and queer and poly rep, loved the mech dragon. I just wish it was all more fleshed out.

All The White Spaces, Ally Wilkes-- This one was for my URC goal "a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit" and it did deliver on that, with tons of great detail and ambience about Antarctica. But as a story, it was more like if the Terror was middle grade. Fun but I wanted and expected much more.

Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum-- Picked this one at random based on the cover as quick work read, and it was very odd. Dark and surreal but not entirely successful, didn't quite work for me. Very interesting, though.

Exhalation: Stories, Ted Chiang-- Wow, this was an impressive sci-fi story collection. Harder sci-fi than I normally read, meaning I spent a lot of the time on Wikipedia brushing up on chemistry or quantum physics, but the challenge was delicious. I really liked how a lot of these read like op-ed pieces on imaginary new tech.

The Blackhouse, Carole Johnstone-- This had a great spooky atmospheric setting in the Scottish Outer Hebrides, but the plot was just ridiculous, including some absurd twists and a boring forced romance. Disappointing.

My Murder, Katie Williams-- This one was a book club pick and a fun mix of near future sci-fi, domestic thriller, and meditation on self, anxiety, and motherhood.

Rouge, Mona Awad-- I loved her book Bunny and this was very similar-- creepy, surreal, darkly funny, and this time with a lovely fairy tale vibe.

Fuzz, Mary Roach-- The January pick for my book club and a lot of fun. I always enjoy Mary Roach's witty, breezy style meandering with footnotes. A very interesting, sometimes sad look at how human laws try to deal with animal pests.

A Court of Silver Flames

A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins-- This was for "read a mystery/thriller" on my reading challenge, which is already a genre I adore and read a lot of and this was a great example of the genre. Lots of deliciously unlikeable characters all with tons of secrets, and very satisfying to see all the threads come together in the end.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enríquez-- I loved her last collection and this one was also extremely good. Visceral, raw, surreal stories about Buenos Aires, about death, about ugly imperfect love. She's brilliant.

A Court of Frost and Starlight

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas-- This one was for my romance novel goal on my URC and it was aggravating but also fun. I loved the lush descriptions, the setting, the monsters, the main romance, but it was also so tropey with such an annoying protag. Fun read but I'm not sure if I'll continue the series.

1/101 Complete - You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero. Rating is 3/5 stars. It's The Secret kind of stuff, there's some truth to it, some of it is woo, no idea how much of each. But told in an entertaining way, at least. And I do like the qualification that she gives at the beginning: if you're listening to this book, you have some degree of privilege. I like to refute the ideas like this by saying things like "yeah, right, like if you're living in the slums of some gigantic city, where your family has lived for generations, and have no access to education and health care, *positive thinking* is totally going to get you out of there." And this argument still has some validity because if these are powerful laws of the universe, why shouldn't they apply there? But Sincero says that people who have access to her book have no excuse about their own lives.
As for it being hullabaloo, she makes another argument that is why I read it and give it a decent rating and will use her advice: if you're reading this book, something in your life is not working, so just give her way a try. I'll take what works and leave what doesn't. All in all, I'm glad I read it.

I don't think I'll rate or review each book, but I always abandon any book that I can't give better than 2/5 rating by 1/4th of the way through. There's too many books to read to waste time on anything I don't like. I'm listening to one right now that I think I will abandon. I'm only about 10% of the way through, so I'll keep trying it. It's supposed to be funny, but I haven't even smiled at anything she's said.

Started The Eye of the World on 7/13.