What books are you looking forward to this summer?

On Friday, I hop on a plane and fly to New Orleans for the ALA annual conference! I'm really excited, because last year I got a TON of amazing books (most of which were ARCs) and I can't wait to see what they have this year.

I'm already making a list of books I want to ask about at the various booths, but I thought I'd get your input, too, in case somehow I missed something amazing while I was perusing the internet. What summer and fall releases are you most looking forward to reading this year? (On that subject, is anyone going to ALA?)

Also, don't forget to enter my THE IRON WITCH giveaway in celebration of my graduation from college!

Fun news and THE IRON WITCH GIVEAWAY!!!! (EASY to enter! So come enter!)

This past weekend, I did something really exciting. I'll show you a picture to give you a hint.

Why yes, I DID become a college graduation regalia model!

For serious, though, I graduated from college summa cum laude with a degree in English - Creative Writing! (You can't see it, but one of the cords I'm wearing around my neck is for Phi Beta Kappa. My GPA was a 3.99. Ok I'm done bragging now, really.)

This calls for a celebration! And what better way to celebrate than to give something away on my blog?

So, just a couple days ago I got a package in the mail from Karen Mahoney. I won some really sweet books over at the Deadline Dames website, and they finally arrived. But something else even more awesome was in the package. Karen sent me a personalized copy of her novel, THE IRON WITCH, which was a total surprise. Karen is one of my favorite authors and bloggers, because she lets me e-mail her with all kinds of crazy and panicked and stupid questions, and she answers them like they're not crazy or panicked or stupid, but totally valid. Plus, she has a really inclusive blog, where she tries to reply to almost every comment, and constantly does writing activities (like her Spring into Summer writing challenge). And, it was her birthday yesterday.

Now I have two copies of THE IRON WITCH, and that just doesn't seem fair. I'm going to give away my original copy (the American one--the one she signed is a British one since she's from England) as a celebration for graduating from college and Karen's birthday! And just because it's awesome and you should read it. If you haven't, take this opportunity. You know you want to.

Fill out this form to enter.

CLICK ME TO GO TO THE FORM! (ETA link removed)

All you need to do is give me your e-mail (and I hope you'll give me some version of your name, too) and you're entered. If you want extra entries, you can do a couple things. Tweet about this contest. Follow Karen on twitter. Add TIW to your Goodreads "to read" list. Blog about the contest or stick it in your sidebar. You'll get an extra entry for doing any of these things. You do NOT have to be following me (I'd rather you follow Karen).

I'm going to be gone this weekend, and then next weekend I'll be at ALA (YESSS!!!!), so the deadline to enter this contest will be two weeks from tomorrow, which is July 1. After that, I'll post and contact the winner to get an address!