Long Way Home Release Day Blitz

The highly anticipated third book in Katie McGarry’s Thunder Road Series is being released today! Long Way Home is a young adult contemporary romance being published by Harlequin Teen! Grab your copy of the next book in this emotionally charged series, and don’t miss Violet and Chevy’s story!

Pub Date: January 31, 2017

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Genre: Young adult contemporary romance

Format/Source: DRC, from the publisher

Status: Book 3 of the Thunder Road companion series

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Violet has always been expected to sit back and let the boys do all the saving.

It’s the code her father, a member of the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, raised her to live by. Yet when her dad is killed carrying out Terror business, Violet knows it’s up to her to do the saving. To protect herself, and her vulnerable younger brother, she needs to cut all ties with the club—including Chevy, the boy she’s known and loved her whole life.

But when a rival club comes after Violet, exposing old secrets and making new threats, she’s forced to question what she thought she knew about her father, the Reign of Terror, and what she thinks she wants. Which means re-evaluating everything: love, family, friends . . . and forgiveness.

Caught in the crosshairs between loyalty and freedom, Violet must decide whether old friends can be trusted—and if she’s strong enough to be the one person to save them all.

Purchase Links:

   

Praise for the Thunder Road series: 

"An intoxicating and unforgettable story that kept me glued to the page."

—Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling author

''McGarry...creates a story that readers will not want to put down...This novel will be enjoyed by teens looking for a romantic and thrilling escape.'' —School Library Journal

"Katie McGarry is a master of her craft!  Raw emotion, pure grit, I hang on every word.  Her characters are real people with real problems and I cheer them every step of the way." 

—Gena Showalter, bestselling author

Excerpt:

The instructions of the English homework I didn’t do hangs out from the top of my folder: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both.

Story of my life.

According to my football coach, I chose wrongly on the two crap paths I had to face last week. I just ran into Coach on the way to English, and he ripped into me for my sorry decision-making skills when it came to me choosing to stand up for the Reign of Terror Motorcycle Club instead of a member of my football team.

I didn’t just get my ass chewed out, his tirade made me late for English with no tardy note. Which is great since my English teacher hates late students like I hate riding my motorcycle in forty degree weather while it rains.

I round the corner, then peek through the small window on the door of my class. Ms. Whitlock stands in front of her desk in her patented white button-down shirt, gray pencil skirt, and dark-rimmed glasses. From the back row, my best friend Razor meets my eyes and shakes his head. Damn. That means she’s in one of her moods where she’s refusing to let anyone in.

I’m not a tail-tucked-between-my-legs type of guy, but this lady is one of the few who can reduce me to begging. If she doesn’t let me in, then she’ll mark me as absent, the front office will think I skipped, and that means I won’t be able to play at tonight’s football game.

The window rattles when I knock. The entire class turns their heads in my direction, but Ms. Whitlock doesn’t. The muscles in my neck tighten. She is one of the hardest core people I know and my grandfather is the president of a motorcycle club. That says something.

She starts for the white board and I knock on the door again. This time, Ms. Whitlock does look my way and she grants me the type of glare reserved for people who kick puppies. I got it. I’m late. I’m the scum of humanity, so let my ass in so I can play football.

There’s this guy in my club, Pigpen. He’s about the same age as Ms. Whitlock, late twenties, and he’s a walking hard-on for this woman even though she would never give him the time of day. He practically runs into walls when she’s around because he’s too focused on checking her out. I don’t see gorgeous—all I see is seriously pissed off and the person standing between me and playing.

Ms. Whitlock points at the clock over her desk. She’s telling me I can wait. If I’m lucky, she’ll open the door after the quiz that I’ll receive a zero on. If I’m not so lucky, she won’t open the door at all.

Two pathetic paths and I could only travel one. Nowhere in that stupid poem did it mention there was good and bad to both paths and that sometimes it’s best not to choose, but to set up camp at the fork and do nothing at all.

I slam my hand into the nearest locker, almost relishing the sting.

“Feel better?”

A glance across the hallway and I freeze. Doesn’t matter how many times I see her in a day, she still manages to take my breath away.

Don't miss the first two books in the Thunder Road series! 

Nowhere But Here

Walk the Edge

About the Author:

Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie is the author of full length YA novels, Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, Crash Into You, Take Me On, Breaking the Limits, and Nowhere But Here and the e-novellas "Crossing the Line" and "Red at Night."

Her debut YA novel Pushing the Limits was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, an RT Magazine's 2012 Reviewer's Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. Dare You To was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.

Author Links:

    

Giveaway:

1 winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many thanks to  of  for giving me the opportunity to be part of this Nerd Blast. You ladies are awesome!

Event Recap: ALA Midwinter 2017

This past weekend, I flew over to Atlanta for the annual ALA Midwinter meeting. I've been to a few TLAs, one BEA, and lots of festivals and individual signings, but this was my first ALA conference. My plan was threefold: see two of my closest friends, spend time with my family, and find some amazing books! I am happy to report that I was successful on all three counts!

It is ironic that Neil Patrick Harris, who was the ending keynote speaker at ALAmw, currently plays Count Olaf in the new A Series of Unfortunate Events series because my trip TO Atlanta was a series of unfortunate events that almost had me missing my plane. But I DID get to see my good friend Jenny Martin (Tracked, Marked) at the airport, and that helped. Pro-tip for flying: if your flight hits chop or turbulence, turn on Hamilton. My plane hit the WORST turbulence ever. I honestly felt like I was on a roller coaster, and we were all thrown around like rag dolls. But listening to "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down" made me feel like I was headbanging on purpose.

Friday

I spent Thursday night and Friday morning with my family, playing rounds of bridge (my mom is still not over the mistake I made playing a double trump, which made us lose one round. Oops! I haven't played in ages!) and talking politics (BIG mistake). We also went to a darling if unfortunately named and located used bookstore.

  

                  Humpus Bumpus in Cumming, GA                           HB's YA section

                        ARE YOU KIDDING ME

HB's kids' section

Friday afternoon I hopped on the MARTA and rode into ALA with style. It's always an amazing feeling, walking into an exhibit hall full of book nerds, and the Georgia World Congress Center is more dramatic than most, with escalators depositing you at the front entrance to the exhibit hall. Sadly, I never take a ton of pictures in the exhibit halls (I am too busy and my arms are usually full of books and my battery is always dying), but trust me: it was a glorious sight to see. Friday night I went to dinner with Tonya of Lily Bloom Books, who is one of my favorite people.

Saturday

Saturday I got up at the buttcrack of dawn to make it in for an early breakfast with National Geographic and Kwame Alexander. Again, I wish I'd gotten some pictures because heavy morning fog in a city as lit up as Atlanta is gorgeous, but alas, I did not. I can tell you Kwame's picture + poetry with NatGeo, Animal Ark, is extraordinary and that Kwame is a dynamic speaker. He was telling us a heartbreaking but hilarious and heartwarming story about a school here in Texas where the kids were stealing copies of his book The Crossover after he visited. The teacher had to put the remaining books under lock and key, but the stolen copies were raffled off after each student read it. Kwame told us how fantastic it was—but wrong. Fantastic! But WRONG. He and his publisher donated 150 copies so the students could each have one, and he said the most marvelous thing: "I gave those kids a book, and it was like they had been given gold. And they HAD been given gold. Between the pages of a book are treasures waiting for us to discover." *gets chills*

Bestie best frans

The rest of Saturday was mostly spent in the exhibits with Tonya and our lovely friend Ellice of Paper Riot. We bummed around, talked books, picked up books, and met Jeff Zentner and Nic Stone.

Sorry for the bad quality, but me, Tonya & Ellice with Jeff

I also attended a luncheon hosted by Simon & Schuster and Baker & Taylor where Hena Khan introduced her upcoming book Amina's Voice and its inspiration. Hena is a WONDERFUL speaker, and I wish I'd written more of her talk down. S&S then introduced some of their most anticipated spring titles in everything from picture books and easy readers to middle grade and YA. I definitely got a good idea of which books to purchase for my library and which to request the children's librarians pick up.

It's not pictured, but one book I am especially excited about is Sandhya Menon's When Dimple Met Rishi, which just sounds like the cutest thing I've read since To All the Boys I've Loved Before. And speaking of Jenny Han, I saw the cover mock-up of Always & Forever Lara Jean, and I need that book asap! Dimple isn't pictured because I have lent it to a friend, but that book will be in my hands asap!

Later that afternoon, I hung out with Nicole Castroman (Blackhearts), and we met Laura Silverman, who was present to sign her debut novel Girl Out of Water.

It was so amazing to meet you at #ALAMW17 @knoxdiver! Thank you for saying hi 💕💗

A photo posted by Laura Silverman (@ljsilverman1) on Jan 22, 2017 at 5:24pm PST

And I want to give a shout out to all the women in Atlanta who went to the women's march. I did not go since I really wanted to concentrate my time that weekend on the conference, but I spent time among many of the marchers on the train, and it was great to see everyone united and sharing both love and anger. It was truly inspiring.

Sunday

Sunday was another day of exhibits, talking book, finding new titles to be excited about. But the coolest part of Sunday was leaving the conference center and immediately being swept up in a tide of football fevered fans. The GWCC is right next door to the Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons, and the NFC championship starring the Falcons and the Green Bay Packers was in full swing!

RIP Georgia Dome. It was fun being there at your last big hurrah! GO FALCONS!
This picture is super deceptive because I managed to find one single spot that was
clear. This whole area was swarmed with both Falcons & Packers fans!

Tonya, Ellice, and I are so close because we are in an all-lady bookish fantasy football league (S/O to Lauren, Andi, Isa, Sarah, Danielle, Jess, Lindsay, Morgan, and Wendy!). Our three teams—Seahawks, Giants, and Texans—had already been booted from the playoffs, but we still love football so we hit a bar right down the road and settled in to watch some ball. We watched Atlanta SOUNDLY kick the Packers' butts (sorry, Sarah!), and called it a day.

Monday

The last day of a conference is always a fun experience. Sometimes publishers only bring a couple copies of a book or they already gave out all the copies except a display so on the last day, they dismantle the displays and let attendees take the last few copies. Cleaning out the displays is fun because you can grab your MOST WANTED titles or find new ones, but it can also be upsetting (I was THISCLOSE to getting Seekers by Veronica Rossi). But the big part of Monday was actually the closing keynote by Neil Patrick Harris which I attended with Ellice.

Yes, yes we are wearing the same shirt in different colors!

You may remember Neil from such roles as Doogie Howser or Barney on How I Met Your Mother or Hedwig and the Angry Itch or Dr. Horrible in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog or Count Olaf in the Netflix Series of Unfortunate Events. But Neil is currently writing a middle grade series called Magic Misfits about a group of kids who do magic. Not like fantasy magic, but magic trick magic. Neil gave a wonderful speech about his own experience with reading and showed a short film with his two children where he interviewed them about reading and books. In a word, it was delightful. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"Books allowed me to experience worlds that were only limited by my imagination."

"I love immersing my brain in unknown territories."

"You don't start reading a complex, nuanced book like Gone Girl without reading Dr. Seuss first.

"So many books speak down to young readers. Kids are always smarter than we give them credit for."

Afterward, he held a short Q&A and then PERFORMED A DANG MAGIC TRICK FOR US ALL THAT WAS AMAZING AND IT WORKED OMG I CAN'T EVEN.

Then we had the opportunity to MEET NEIL and talk to him for approximately 20 seconds, and that was also magical.

^actually me during & after meeting Neil

Sadly, this is where I parted ways with Ellice, but our group is making plans to reunite (with everyone) next year at ALA annual *fingers crossed*.

I stayed an extra day on Tuesday to spend more time with my Nana and my uncle, and I spent a veritable fortune on shipping (WORTH IT). Then, I hopped on a plane and read a non-ALA arc (After the Fall. Read my review here!) on the flight home.

I am super grateful for the opportunity I had to attend ALA mw because I got to spend time with dear friends and family AND I got some good tips on upcoming MG/YA titles, which is good for both my blog and my job.



I know you're probably dying to see a haul pic, which I'm not going to do in its entirety, but here are a few of the titles that I am most excited about. My thanks to the American Library Association and the library and school marketing teams for Bloomsbury, Disney, Harper Collins/Harlequin, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Listening Library, Little Brown/Hachette, Macmillan/Tor/St. Martin's, Penguin Random House, Running Press, Simon & Schuster, Soho, Sourcebooks, and Workman/Algonquin for their patience and enthusiasm for teens, books, and teen books.

A photo posted by Mary H (@knoxdiver) on Jan 30, 2017 at 10:57am PST

Are you looking forward to any of the books mentioned in this post? Which should I start with? 

Blog Tour: After the Fall by Kate Hart

Rating: 4 stars

Pub Date: January 24, 2017

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Genre: young adult contemporary romance

Format/Source: ARC/DRC, from the publisher

Status: standalone

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review as part of the blog tour, which was organized & hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. The full tour schedule can be found HERE. Please go give my fellow tour hosts some love!

Summary:

A YA debut about a teen girl who wrestles with rumors, reputation, and her relationships with two brothers.

Seventeen-year-old Raychel is sleeping with two boys: her overachieving best friend Matt…and his slacker brother, Andrew. Raychel sneaks into Matt’s bed after nightmares, but nothing ever happens. He doesn’t even seem to realize she’s a girl, except when he decides she needs rescuing. But Raychel doesn't want to be his girl anyway. She just needs his support as she deals with the classmate who assaulted her, the constant threat of her family’s eviction, and the dream of college slipping quickly out of reach. Matt tries to help, but he doesn’t really get it… and he’d never understand why she’s fallen into a secret relationship with his brother. The friendships are a precarious balance, and when tragedy strikes, everything falls apart. Raychel has to decide which pieces she can pick up – and which ones are worth putting back together.

Review: Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra & Dhonielle Clayton

Rating: 4 stars

Pub Date: May 2016, 2015

Publisher: HarperTeen

Genre: young adult contemporary thriller

Format/Source: hardcover, my own copy

Status: book 1 of the Tiny Pretty Things duology

Summary:

Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

Mary's Minute: The Do's and Don'ts of Being Excited About A Book aka the Road to More Books

Recently I read a book that I ABSOLUTELY ADORED (Geekerella by Ashley Poston) and I wanted to tell everyone about it. The same day, author Adam Silvera posted on Twitter about the frustrations of books being placed on bookstore shelves and subsequently sold before their official release date. 

How are these two things connected? Well, one thing that is important to me is for the authors I love being able to write more books. And something that helps publishers pick up an author's future books (be it a sequel to an established book or another series or book altogether) is if that author's book hits the New York Times Bestseller list. USA Today is also good. Winning awards like the Newberry, National Book Award, or the Morris (etc etc) can also help, but many of those aren't necessarily reader controlled so let's save those for another discussion, maybe. Weirdly, the Goodreads Choice Awards can also help because it's reader picked (and most of those titles are bestsellers/end up on the bestseller list after they win). So I'd like to go over some do's and don'ts of being excited for a book that will hit both topics above.

DO tell the author! These magical literary creatures appreciate when people are excited about their work! It's nice to be appreciated.

DON'T beg the author for a copy. They probably don't have one to share with you, and also, I'll say it so the author doesn't have to: authors deserve to be paid for their work and they don't owe anyone a free copy. Except maybe their mom.

DO enter a giveaway or, if you have an outlet such as a blog, booktube channel, bookstagram, etc, DO request a copy from the publisher. You might win or the magical literary creatures known as publicists *may* send you a copy.

DON'T download illegal copies online. I can't say how sad and angry it makes me when I Google a book's title, and the auto-fill options include some form of "[book title] full pdf download," and I don't even have my own book. Imagine how the author feels. These are pirated books, and the author and publisher don't receive a penny. Not only are you committing THEFT by downloading, you're also encouraging the bad people who run those sites to steal MORE books from that author and others.

DON'T buy arcs. There's been much discussion about this hotly debated issue, but here's the thing: if you buy an arc from ebay or whatever, the author doesn't receive any percentage of that sale. They aren't being paid for their work. Even worse, the publisher won't count that sale. If you buy that arc but not a finished copy, you've effectively made a -1 sale because the publisher paid for the creation of that arc but they're not seeing any benefit from it. If everyone buys arcs instead final copies, not only is the author not getting paid, but the publisher thinks their books are not salable AND WILL STOP ACQUIRING BOOKS FROM THAT AUTHOR so that's a good way for you to contribute to your favorite authors losing their jobs and never writing anything again. We can have the full arc debate another day, but for now, let's just say no.

DO create reviews, playlists, book tags, videos, pictures, mood boards, cosplays, aesthetics, makeup looks, nail art, recipes, fanart, fancasts, snapchats, insta-stories, etc whether or not you have the book (well, if you're writing a review, you should definitely have read the book). Spreading the love for a book you're excited for is like Christmas for an author. These are concrete ways for the publisher to know there's interest. I will say this, though: try to post bigger things like reviews closer to release date because that has a bigger affect on sales 1-2 months pre- and post-release than 7 months in advance. Just keep that in mind.

If you have permission from the author, DO also create merchandise like themed candles, decor designs, beauty products, bookmarks, totes, etc! Same as above, but I'm including getting permission because there are some wibbly wobbly copyright laws that deal with licensing so cover your bases.

DON'T spam the author. I do think it's okay to talk to authors about their books and tell them how much you like it, but let's not go overboard.

Link to video

I just think it's good social media etiquette not to tag the author in every single tweet about the book. Like how if you're in a group discussion and if someone's not responding, it's okay to drop their handle from the convo. In the thread where I talked about Geekerella, I included Ashley in the first tweet so people would know who the author is, but then I focused on the book.

DO preorder the book (if you are able). Preorders are excellent. The publisher and author can see how excitement and buzz literally translate to financial benefit. The publisher might give the author more promotion. They might do a preorder bonus (and we all love those!!). They might order more books in the first printing. They might plan a tour or any number of cool things. Also, preorders count toward the first week a book is out, which is one of the best opportunities it has to hit the bestseller list.

DO request your library purchase a copy—yes, even if you preorder a copy. I can't say how good this is. People always wonder how libraries can be good since like with used bookstores, authors won't see money from checkouts aside from the initial purchase (I've heard in England authors DO receive money from each checkout, which is super awesome & I wish that could be a thing in the US). But libraries offer exposure to readers. Library staff make lists and newsletters and displays directly aimed at our patrons and their tastes. We booktalk a LOT and do tons of readers advisory (helping library patrons find books) on a regular basis. If a book is popular, we'll buy lots of copies for all our branches in every format available AND we'll make a note to keep buying that author's books in the future. If we're on a committee, we might nominate that book for a library award or some such. Trust me: request request request! Your library probably has a request form on their website or at their customer service desks OR (and I know this might be crazy talk) you CAN actually talk to library staff people about the books you like/want to read. *gasp* I KNOW. Sounds super weird, but it WORKS.

DO request that your local bookstore (be it indie or B&N or anything else) carry it. Not only with the store order a copy for you, they'll probably get at least a couple extras. After all, since one person is asking, they assume others will too! This is SUCH an important step for mid-list and small-press authors. Your bestsellers—your Veronica Roths, Leigh Bardugos, John Greens, Sarah J. Maases, Marissa Meyers, Kiera Casses, etc—the bookstore will typically order those. But the "smaller" authors, the haven't-hit-the-list-yet authors, those guys may not have prime placement in a store or even at all. Your passion and your request can help get their books on the shelf and in front of readers. Because if readers who aren't deeply involved in the online community probably won't be aware. They go to the store and they want to buy the book in front of them; they don't want to wait. Do the work for them. Make sure your author's books are on that shelf! This is also good to do after a book is out. If you don't see it on the shelf, ask! It may be in the back or again, the store may have to order it, but they'll probably grab an extra copy or two.

If you see the book on the shelf early, DON'T buy it. If the book releases on Tuesday, February 21, it doesn't matter if you find it on the shelf on Friday, February 17 or Wednesday, January 18, buying that book early is not good! I know it's hard to wait. I KNOW. But as Adam said, if you buy that book early, the sale of that book won't be counted in the first week of sales the way preorders and actual first week sales will be. This is important because it could hurt the book's chances of listing. If you see a copy early, DO tell the bookstore it's out early and request they place it in the back until release date. They may not accommodate your request, but it never hurts to ask. It may have just been a mistake!

Once the book has released, DO post reviews on consumer websites. Goodreads is great and all, but posting reviews to consumer sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble can DIRECTLY influence shoppers' purchasing decisions. Someone who is on the fence about The Tales of Marg might scroll down to the reviews on Amazon to see if they want to buy it or not. Also, once a title reaches certain milestones on Amazon, those books get put in an algorithm that helps sell them better.

Basically: DON'T keep your excitement to yourself! DO tell your friends, family, coworkers, next-door neighbors, dog walkers, cousin's hairdresser's llama! Again, you're helping to spread the word which creates real interest. When I closed Geekerella's back cover, I immediately took to Twitter to tell EVERYONE about this amazing new book I adored and it led to some great conversations between people who have already read and loved it, people currently reading and loving it, people who were maybe on the fence about it before, and some people who hadn't heard about it at all. I felt fantastic spreading word about a book I adored, and readers' TBRs grew three sizes (okay, well one book) that day.

One thing I want to make clear is that I'm not accusing anyone of "bad behavior." We've all made errors because we didn't know doing something (like buying a book early) was not the best idea. If you buy a book early, you're doing a good thing. If you buy a book after it releases, you're doing a great thing. But if you can preorder or at least buy a book during the first week after it releases, you're doing an awesome thing. Just keep in mind that there are a lot of ways to support books, support authors, and you could always help your fave sell more books!

Blog Tour: The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser

Rating: 3.5 stars

Pub Date: January 3, 2017

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: young adult contemporary romance

Format/Source: ARC, from the publisher

Status: standalone (I think)

Summary:

Amy Lennox doesn't know quite what to expect when she and her mother pick up and leave Germany for Scotland, heading to her mother's childhood home of Lennox House on the island of Stormsay.

Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House—but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy's new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts—at whatever cost.

2017 Resolutions

It's that time again when everyone takes a moment to contemplate the previous year and make plans for the new one. Here's my list of what I'd like to work on in 2017. 

Read 120 books total. This one is pretty explanatory. I used to aim for 150, but I discovered that 120 is a good number for a "bad" reading year for me, and if I go over, great.

Read at least 60 inclusive titles. Previous to 2016, my ratio of white-cishet-able books by white-cishet-able authors to diverse books by diverse authors was not so great. By September, I made a goal to actively increase the amount of diverse titles I was reading, and I did okay. In 2017, I am going to aim for at least 1/2 of the books that I read to be inclusive in some way. Although I am open to books by marginalized authors that aren't necessarily own voices or books written by non-marginalized authors as long as they contain good, inclusive rep that has been vetted such as Becky Albertalli's The Upside of Unrequieted or I.W. Gregorio's None of the Above, I do want half of those (at least) to be #ownvoices titles.

When I wrote this goal, I was initially aiming for 40, but then I realized that was way too low a goal for overall inclusivity so I decided to increase it by double. I don't think I'm asking too much of myself for 1/2 of the books I read to feature positive diverse rep. And that's still leaving room for plenty of whiter than white bread books so.

Read 50 new audiobooks. I've really gotten into audio the past couple years. It helps to have a book playing while I work or do chores or whatever. This year I read over 74 audiobooks, some of them a few times. I'm aiming slightly less than that because I'm sure I'll be doing a few more audio rereads for certain series as they conclude (like I'll listen to Illuminae & Gemina before Illuminae 3 and ACOTAR & ACOMAF before ACOWAR, etc).

Finish at least 10 series. I am so bad about finishing series. I'm great at starting them, but HORRID at finishing them. I have a Goodreads shelf called Unfinished Series that has NINETY-SEVEN books from, I think, about FIFTY series that I've started but not finished. I am not a finisher, but I want to try in 2017.

Read at least 3 entire series start-to-finish (2 backlist). If you think it's embarrassing that I have over fifty unfinished series, you might actually die if you hear which series I've never read at all. I want to pick up a couple backlist series while I'm at it and give love to older books.

Themed bingo. There are so many fun themed bingo challenges, and I want to try one. Do you have any recommendations which one I should give a whirl?

Publish 52 posts. I'm always touchy about picking resolutions for my blog because while I enjoy blogging, I always want the freedom to be able to set it aside if I need to and come back when I want. But when I did the 2016 Statistics Survey, it made me sad that I'd only posted 44 times. I want to aim for 52 so that it's about once a week, but I don't want to hem myself in with that goal so I'll go with a weekly average.

Post more reviews. I don't have a specific goal in mind here, but I want to be better about posting here about the books I love. So often I gush on Twitter and Goodreads, but I don't always post here or cross-post on retail sites where my comments can actually help sales more directly.

Cross-post old reviews. I tried to do this back in November, but I definitely didn't finish. I want to go back and cross-post all my old stuff on Amazon and B&N for sure.

Update old posts. I've tweaked my formats a little and added purchasing links over the years. I want to go back and update links in my old posts so everything is more uniform and easy to read.

Work on in-post design. I want to be better about spicing up my posts with graphics and designs. I'm trying to get used to using Canva, and I want to give PicMonkey and Creative Market a shot.

Walk 30 minutes every day. Oof. This one will be hard, but when I used to live in Tennessee, I was a lot more active, and I loved going for walks. I want to get back into this. Not only is it good for my body, it's great to destress and also listen to audiobooks.

Learn how to cook better. My mom is a really good cook, and I did not take after her. I own a ton of cookbooks, and I've found a few good ones at my library too and also pinterest exists so there's no reason not to learn how. Plus, it saves money, it's healthier, etc etc. I'm going to look into maybe a basic class if I can.

Create a library. I own a ton of books. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that my personal library is large and also sort of homeless. While most of the books at my parents' house in Tennessee are housed on several shelves, my Texas books are not so lucky. They are haphazardly stacked in my living room, which is no way to truly enjoy them. Buying new shelves and organizing them is on my to-do list for 2017!

Save more money and keep to a budget. I'm a horrendously unorganized person so I want to take better control of my personal finances, set and keep a budget, and put more money away. I definitely need to trim my book-buying budget for sure, as sad as that may be, but I need to look out for the future. Plus, I work in a library. Finding books is not difficult. And, as stated before, I have a massive personal library right at home! Time to give my own books some love.

Get back to church. For several years, I've been experiences not exactly a questioning of faith but a lack of it. Now more than ever, I think it's important to have hope and work for a better world. Those two things are of complete importance, and I think going back to church and actively practicing will help.

Be more active politically. I've never been particularly active when it comes to politics. I vote in elections and... well, that's it. If 2016 has taught me anything, it's that I need to be aware of what my representatives are doing and let them know both when I agree with their words and actions and when I don't agree and want them to change course. Since the election, I've called my senators and congressman a couple times, but I'd like to be more informed on local, state, and federal levels.