It's a little more than halfway through the year, here are the books I've most enjoyed so far, in random categories. They are all fiction, because that's what I read most. I'll put links in for each book; I am terrible at describing books in medium detail. I can do it in paragraphs or in a sentence or two, nothing in between. I'll add my couple of sentences, but if you want to read more, click on over to Good Reads.

Fiction: The Immortalists by Chole Benjamin. Four siblings grow-up knowing the date they will die. Best cover of the year so far too.

Audio Fiction: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. An absolutely original take on one woman's madness, heart wrenching and brutal, especially if you or someone you love has any mental illness issues. The book is read by the author, brilliantly.

Best Mystery: IQ by Joe Ide. A sly and well-crafted nod to deductive reasoning. This Sherlock is young,lives in a dangerous LA neigborhood,and out smarts them all.

Best YA or Book to Live Up to the Hype: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. It seems that any children's or YA book that has a group of kids and magic gets compared to Harry Potter. For me this is the only one that lived up to the hype. It's the right mix of magic, mystery, brutality and adventure. It also manages to shine a light on our current world and politics.

I rarely speak negatively about books. Everyone has their own opinion and sometimes I can just be in the wrong mood for a book. I recently read a mystery that, well, at the very least, proceed with caution. There was so much hype about this book I should have known better. There was nothing I liked about The Woman in Window by A.J. Finn. From the traumatized, addicted, unreliable narrator, to the twists that I could see coming for a mile. I listened to this and the reader was a bad fit too. I'm not sure why I finished it.

What are your favorite books so far this year?