Smash or Pass (by Birdie Schae)

Just some good ol' queer YA, with excellent autism representation from our main character, Ellie, who is spending the summer at beach volleyball camp and learning to be herself.

The writing from debut author Birdie Schae is a bit tell-dont-show at poits, but the main character (and the fact that it is a sapphic romance) helped keep me engaged.  Enjoyable representation of diversity and queer joy and falls in the "cute YA, would definitely read this author again, for fans of the genre" category. 

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (by Emma Southon)

This cleverly titled book is by an historian who writes in an accessible style - including a lot of humor and pop-culture references - about the history of murder (and what was and was not seen as "murder," and the entire concept of "murder") in ancient Rome. 

I could have done with a bit less cutesy and a bit more academic rigor but I love a dense nonfiction read with lots of footnotes so that might just be a preference. As far as pop history goes, this really was very informative. Since this is a deep dive specifically about murder, I counted it as "a microhistory" for Read Harder Challenge purposes. 

And look, it's not Dungeon Crawler Carl!