Conquering the Ebook Pile

I'm not proud of this but in the 5 or so years I've had my Kindle, I've acquired over 500 ebooks & egalleys that...I still haven't read. And some of them I downloaded the first week I had my Kindle. I kept falling for the trap of the cheap ebooks and the freebies. Plus when looking at Netgalley or EW, I grab books I wouldn't normally or I'm not sure about so I can give them a chance. All in all, it's added up to a lot of books, especially books I'm not even sure I'd love.

My goal in 2017 is to finish one at least ebook a week. Which, initially, you kind of go??? That's only 52 books. That's like 1/10 of what you have. TRUE, but I have to finish the books - if I DNF, it counts towards my read total, but not towards this challenge. (DNFs are gonna be my saving grace in these challenges.) I'm also not going to include library ebooks, since I don't really own those, I'm just borrowing them, so it's no huge burden.

Some that I'm absolutely determined to get to (I'm not listing all of them):

1. The Bone With by Rin Chupeco
2. Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein
3. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
4. A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
5. Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata
6. Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy
7. Luck on the Line by Zoraida Cordova
8. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
9. Hunted by Meagan Spooner
10. The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler
11. First & Then by Emma Mills
12. Burn by Elissa Sussman
13. The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins
14. Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker
15. The Marked Girl by Lindsay Klingele
16. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
17. A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White
18. The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig
19. Overexposed by Megan Erickson
20. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
21. You're It by LeighAnn Kopans
22. Violins of Autumn by Amy McAuley

--Julie

Most Anticipated of 2017

Since the world is a clusterfuck, I'm kind of iffy on talking about books on twitter right now. But I CAN combine it all into one blog post and I miss being excited so let's go with this.

These are the 2017 books I'm kind of dying to get my hands on.

2017 Releases I Need
Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me by Andrea Portes
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner
27 Hours by Tristina Wright 
A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi
Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
Prince in Disguise by Stephanie Kate Strohm
Cold Summer by Gwen Cole
Among the Red Stars by Gwen Katz
Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows
Garden of Blood and Dust by K.K. Perez
Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta
Noteworthy by Riley Redgate
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
The Inconceivable Life of Quinn by Marianna Baer
The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi
Mirage by Somaiya Daud
Now I Rise by Kiersten White
The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
What Girls Are Made Of by Elena K. Arnold
Dare Mighty Things by Heather Kaczynski
Lost Causes by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
Heartstone by Elle Katherine White
The Hundredth Queen by Emily King
My Fair Duchess by Megan Frampton
Saints, Misfits, Monsters and Mayhem by S.K. Ali
Fat Girl on a Plane by Kelly DeVos
Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh
Matroyshka by Catherynne Valente
The Ends of the World by Maggie Hall
The Art of Feeling by Laura Tims
The Traitor's Kiss by Erin Beaty
My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma
The Cursed Queen by Sarah Fine
Romancing the Throne by Nadine Jolie Courtney
Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer
The Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana
Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean

And books I have as an egalley/ARC and hope to get to SOON (but tbh I'm slow as hell at egalleys so...)
The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig (egalley)
Hunted by Meagan Spooner (egalley)
Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas
Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts
By Your Side by Kasie West
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza
Roseblood by A.G. Howard
The Freemason's Daughter by Shelley Sackier
The Valiant by Lesley Livingston
Wait for Me by Caroline Leech
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (egalley)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (egalley)
A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White (egalley)
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Frostblood by Elly Blake
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
Girl Out of Water by Laura Silverman
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
The Star Thief by Lindsey Becker
Gilded Cage by Vic James
Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Shannon Hale
The Spectacular Sisterhood of Women by Hope Nicholson

--Julie

A Non-Fiction Reading Challenge

I've been stockpiling a lot of non-fiction for the past few years. There's so much more I want to learn about the world and now that I'm not in college, the idea of learning for fun is a reality and far more appealing since I can pick and choose what to read. So, in 2017, I really want to dedicate myself to read more non-fiction. I have a ton of it listed on my reading list for the year already, but figured I'd make a dedicated post because...I can.

I want to spend the month of February reading non-fiction. Since my reading pace with non-fiction is kind of slow, it tends to frustrate me that I'm not finishing books, so I'll throw in romance novels when I just need something light and quick I can finish off - I certainly have plenty.

Additionally, I want to read at least one non-fiction book every other month of the year. That'll get me at least 11, plus (hopefully) 10 or so in February. The downside is that since a lot of my personal interests tend to be written by white people, it does eat into my goal of 50%+ diverse books, but I am aiming to read mostly women, at the very least. And, this will help clear out my shelves so I can look for more non-fiction to add.

From My Shelves
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
The Spy Who Loved by Clare Mulley
Romance is My Day Job by Patience Bloom
Hijacking the Runway by Teri Agins
Angel of Vengeance by Ana Siljak
Marie Antoinette by Evelyn Lever
We Two by Gillian Gil
All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher
The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost by Rachel Friedman
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Liberty by Lucy Moore
Empress Dowager Cixi by Chang Jung
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling
Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda McRobbie Rodriguez
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen by Hope Nicholson
Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum

On My Wishlist
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
The Magnolia Story by Chip & Joanna Gaines
Spy Princess by Shrabani Basu
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
Underground in Berlin by Marie Jalowicz Simon
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie
Black Earth/Bloodlines by Timothy Snyder
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
Shrill by Lindy West

This is obviously more than the predicted 21 I'll read, but I'm allowing wiggle room for DNF-ing books (which I count as read, but don't want to count towards the challenge) or losing interest in something or not being able to get my hands on something or reading it before 2016 ends. Plus, I could always end up reading MORE than 21.

If anyone else wants to join in and do a non-fiction reading challenge in 2017, I highly encourage it and I'm happy to give recommendations! I also highly recommend browsing BookOutlet, which is where I find a lot of new-to-me titles and I think they'll be having a sale around Boxing Day/Christmas? So, that would be an excellent time to stock up!

A Reading Story

I've spent a lot of time thinking about my reading habits as the end of year lists begin forming and due dates for them approach. And...I'm not thrilled with how I've done this year.

Read: 110 works
7 graphic novels
3 picture books
16 romance novels
5 non-fiction works
8 adult novels
3 (completed) books for school
67 YA novels
1 short story

I DNFed 12 of those books. And while that all seems like it's pretty good, the real problem is how white my reading list was.

Of all the books I read, only 16 were about PoC and only 11 were by PoC - that's not a great ratio. I also only read 13 books about queer people. There was also really little diversity beyond that - neurodiversity, fat people, disabled people - they were all pretty minimal. It didn't feel like it because there were quite a few books with really diverse, well built casts, but that's still...not great.

So, I want to be more aware of what and who I'm reading. For the rest of 2016, I do want to focus on marginalized authors and characters, but I also need to work on 2016 books for the sake of end of year lists, so I'm going to try to find a balance in there. I hope to read Fate of Flames, When the Moon was Ours, Spindle, Outrun the Moon, Seven Ways We Lie, Enter Title Hear, You Know Me Well, Beast, A Fierce and Subtle Poison, This is Where the World Ends, Stealing Snow, Symptoms of Being Human - just some of the books on my TBR that I haven't gotten to yet this year.

And in 2017? I want to do even better. I want at least 50% of what I read to be by/about marginalized people. I want to limit myself to no more than 12 books by men, one per month - admittedly, a pretty easy part of the challenge since I only read 4 books by men this year, and 2 of them were for school. But again, I want to try to make sure those books are largely by/about marginalized men (or about women, tbh). I want to put my reading where my mouth is - what kind of diversity advocate am I if I'm not actually putting my reading list - and my wallet - where my mouth is?

I do have a small caveat in that I hope to find work in publishing in 2017, and therefore will have required work reading and I am a freelance editor and I take the jobs I can get. Therefore, this challenge only extends to my personal reading; if it's for work, it doesn't count.

This is where I leave you. I will do monthly updates about what I've read and keep up my count. Sometimes I'll talk about specific books or other bookish topics, but I'm not really planning to officially review anything. This is just for me to monitor myself. Feel free to tag along and make your own personal reading goals.

--Julie