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Three years ago I started using reading challenges to step outside my usual authors and experience books I might not have read otherwise.  In 2024 the challenge was my local library's "Judge a Book by its Cover" and I read 66 books.  Last year I used Read These Banned Books: A 52-Week Reading Challenge from the American Library Association and filled in some extras to get up to 94 books.  I realized at the end of the year that it's difficult to remember them all, so I started thinking about ways to keep up with what I've read. 

This year, I'm using the ALA's 52 Award-Winning Titles Every Book Lover Should Read 

 and for the first time I want to write down a little bit about each book so I can remember them more easily.  Hopefully I can keep this up all year. 

At the beginning of this year, I felt like I was in a reading slump.  I kept reading the same type of book and was getting a little tired of it.  My preferred genre is fantasy or sci-fi, so it's easy to find enough recommendations to never get out of the two. 

To help break up the pattern, I decided to do the Popsugar Reading Challenge for 2023.  For the prompt "A book about or set in Hollywood," I chose Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. 

The wait forT a digital copy was too long, so I listened to the audiobook.  Amazing mix of a noir feel with a very creepy, menacing magic world.  And the main character is the perfect amount of morally questionable.