Made a library trip yesterday, the first book to be chosen is Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey. According to the cover blurb, it's about a translator traveling to Brazil trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of an author. I have a bingo square for a book "set south of the equator," and as most of Brazil qualifies for that and this book sounded interesting enough, I picked it up. Hopefully it won't be a disappointing read.

EDIT (2/27): Ways to Disappear read quickly, which was good news for me, honestly. It's not exactly a BAD book, but, well, I could have, once again, done without the bedroom time. And certainly could have done without the infidelity. If the bedroom time, at the very least, had been left out/glossed over/merely alluded, I probably would have considered it an at least decent read. As it is, it's mediocre at best for me.

Next book will be a good palate cleanser; Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire. It's part of the Wayward Children series, and it's about a mermaid!

EDIT (2/28): Like all the Wayward Children books, Where the Drowned Girls Go was a very fast, but very good read. It gives some more story to some characters I knew from the other books, which I particularly enjoyed!

Next up is Square[sup]3[/sup] by Mira Grant. It's about novella-sized, so it'll likely be a quick read, too.

Square[sup]3[/sup] was a good read! I LOVED the characters, and the plot was fun! (Kinda wishing for a short story or something to give me a little more, I loved it so much.)

Pulled something from my shelves to hold me over until I go to the library again; Sphinx by Robin Cook. It's some sort of thriller centering around the tombs of some ancient pharaohs and an Egyptologist.

Now I'm reading Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker (another pseudonym for Seanan McGuire). I went hunting for it at the library immediately after seeing it on a list of books McGuire has written, and was pleasantly surprised to find they had it. It's a book that's mentioned as being written by a character in another book (Middlegame), and is written under that character's name. I enjoyed Middlegame, so I'm really looking forward to reading this one.

Currently reading The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. It's about some history of poisonings in jazz age New York and the advent of modern forensic medicine and toxicology. I'm enjoying it so far!

72 Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell is my next read. Seems to be about the struggles of a mother with a mentally ill child and the failings of the mental health system where an adult child is involved; all that the institutions and programs can really offer is a 72 hour hold, then the person can just check themselves out at will because they're a legal adult. That's what I've gleaned from the cover blurb, anyway, I've not read very far yet.

EDIT (3/27): 72 Hour Hold was better than I expected. Really heavy subject matter, though, so I had to read it in smaller chunks than I normally would. It's well written, though, and the topics are treated realistically and respectfully for the most part.

Onward to All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers. Pretty standard crime mystery novel so far.

My next book, Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed, is turning out much better thus far. My library categorized it as fantasy, but it's more sci-fi than fantasy. Maybe it needs its own genre, sci-fantasy. Regardless, it's FASCINATING. It's set in, like, an alternate version of our earth where certain events happened differently and one of the main characters has progressed some technologies leaps and bounds beyond our own, and then add in some lovecraftian monsters and sprinkle a little magic over the top.

Next book is Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri. It's about a ghost! A ghost that, as the title would suggest, lingers near the Tokyo Ueno station. It starts out reading almost like poetry. A peek at further pages indicates that won't last the whole novel, but I still think it's an interesting stylistic choice. I rather like it, to be honest.

EDIT (4/13): Tokyo Ueno Station was an interesting read. Basically a glimpse of a side of Tokyo that most books don't show.

Now I'm reading Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. It's kind of... post-apocalyptic fantasy, I suppose is the best way to categorize it. Climate disaster results in a huge flood that covers a good portion of the world's landmasses, and we follow the main character, a Navajo woman with clan powers, as she hunts monsters.

EDIT (4/18): Trail of Lightning was amazing~!! I stick by my previous categorization of it, it leans pretty heavy into the fantasy part of that. It also has a sequel! I'm planning to pick it up on my next library trip.

Current read is The Love-Artist by Jane Alison. It's a fictional account explaining how Ovid came to be banished from Rome and why only a few lines of one of his works have survived to modern times.

EDIT (4/23): The Love-Artist was weird. Not bad or anything, just weird, but then considering Ovid's works, I suppose at least a little weirdness was to be expected. I did enjoy it, though, it seemed well-balanced to me, and the ending didn't make me want to throw things, which is always a plus.

Now I'm reading A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed, which is the sequel to Beneath the Rising. I'm loving it already, quite glad I was able to pick it up on my last library trip. Also found that there's a third book in this series, looking forward to snagging it in the near future.

After that was the second book in The Sixth World series, Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse. Which was a phenomenal read. I love the world-building, the characters, and it's interesting all the way through. I'm upset that there does not appear to be any follow-up books, though the ending kind of leaves it open for future installments, so maybe I'll get my wish for a sequel some day.

Just finished Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire a couple nights ago. It's another book in the Wayward Children series, and it is definitely high on my mental ranking list of the best books in the series. I'd probably describe it as a feel good, learning to accept yourself kind of novel, with a healthy dose of fantasy (because it's not a Wayward Children novel without fantasy).

And finally, my current read is The Void Ascendant by Premee Mohamed. The last book in the Beneath the Rising trilogy! I'm so excited to read through this one. I probably would have cried if it had been checked out when I went to the library last...