Reading

Thoughts on THE HOUSE ON GRAVEYARD LANE

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are about the same as usual. But it’s the last Wednesday of August, so there’s no time to complain about life. It’s book review time! This month, I decided to go with an old fashioned cozy mystery. The House on Graveyard Lane by Martin Edwards was released yesterday (August 27th) from Poisoned Pen Press. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Before I get started, I also have to say that there was no indication on NetGalley that this was the fourth installment of an ongoing series, so just remember that I’m judging this book on its own merits. Things might have been different if I’d read the previous books. Let’s do the thing.

The House on Graveyard Lane primarily follows Rachel Savernake as she tries to figure out why surreal artist Damaris Gethin killed herself in front of a select group of people. Jacob Flint, a crime reporter, is also interested in the case, but he has his own case to follow involving the beautiful Kiki de Villiers until the story is mysteriously quashed by the powers that be. Set in 1930s London, it’s a mystery for fans of historical fiction as well as whodunits.

The plot is deceiving. The blurb on the back and the initial setup indicate that the main mystery will be solving Damaris Gethin’s suicide, but that really takes a backseat to everything else going on in the book. They wrap it up like two thirds of the way through in one or two paragraphs that are just offhand remarks in a conversation about the other stuff that’s going on. It’s really annoying. And even the main issues in the book are arbitrarily wrapped up. There’s a “clue finder” at the end with a bunch of stuff the reader was supposed to pick up on as proof of the outcomes, but it’s all vague stuff. Yes, I picked up on everything mentioned, but none of it was solid. Everything was guesswork that only came together because the villain was too stupid to keep their trap shut. Don’t confess and there’s literally a hundred other explanations for the so-called evidence. It’s just unsatisfying all around.

None of the characters are particularly likeable. Mostly because they all turn out to be some kind of bad guy. But even Rachel and her crew are not great. She’s a nosy rich person who thinks she should be allowed to do whatever she wants without consequences. Her “servants” aren’t really fleshed out in this book, but they have potential to be good characters. Maybe they are in the other books. I don’t know. And Jacob Flint turns into a whiny little bitch at the first sign of trouble despite acting like he’s tough. There’s no nice way of putting that. Maybe the other books give all the main characters more likeable qualities, but this one leaves everyone a bit thin. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have to actually like characters, but I do have to be able to see beyond the stereotype they’re filling to make them interesting. I can’t do it here.

I did enjoy the writing and the throwback to old timey English mysteries. For what it was, the pacing was fine. If the story had been what it promised to be and the ending had been stronger, I probably would have liked it a lot.

Ultimately though, I’m not a fan of The House on Graveyard Lane. There was just too much that was unsatisfying about it. I’m not even interested in trying the other books in the series.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. If you’ve read the other books in the series and enjoyed them, you might really like this book. I don’t know. But if you’re going in blind like I did, this is perfectly skippable.

Soggy Days and Reading

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? I feel like I’ve been complaining a lot this year, which means I have been. I’m sorry. It just seems like one of those years where everything goes wrong. The government is annoying. Stuff isn’t getting done in a timely manner. The weather is insane. It’s June. We’re not supposed to be having flash flood warnings every day. We’re supposed to be staring triple digits in the face and wondering what the people complaining about the heat are going to do when summer gets here. The ground is saturated and the lakes are full. The rain can stop now. But we have been extremely lucky so far. I won’t say how because that will jinx it, but yes. Very lucky in general. So, I’m going to try to stop complaining and ramble about good things. I’ve finished reading 17 books this year, so I thought I would share some of the better ones with you.

1. White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton. I was a little skeptical at first because my minion recommended it and he’s weird. But it’s gay urban fantasy with a tentacle monster, so I had to see for myself. I know what you’re thinking. “I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going!” Alas, no. But! It’s a fun read and I just bought the other two books in the series.

2. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. I read this one for one of those Kindle challenges. It was honestly kind of a weird read. A lot of the prose was lyrical and beautiful, but much of it was stark and blunt. It was kind of jarring, but I liked it. It fit the story.

3. Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens. It’s fun and fluffy. I don’t remember much beyond that. It was super enjoyable while I was reading it, though.

What books have you enjoyed this year? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts or questions or comments here or on my social media pages!

Mindless Games as Productivity Tools

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things are still not sorted out here because the government is so very slow, so I’m not in a good mood, but I don’t want to rant. Instead, I’m going to ramble about one of the mindless games I play. Namely, Hero Wars. Ever since I started playing it, I’ve noticed a major increase in my reading productivity. I’ve been finishing reading the review books up to two weeks early (like next week’s book, I finished on the 13th instead of the 25th like planned) and not because they’re fabulous books as you know. It’s weird and sounds like a lie, but hear me out…

Hero Wars is one of those games where there’s like 50 things to do every day on top of the actual game and leveling up characters. A lot of these things are done with the auto setting permanently engaged, so you’re forced to stare at a bunch of characters battle for two minutes without actually doing anything. You can also turn on auto on the regular parts of the game which is useful when you’re just trying to collect items to level up your characters and are therefore playing the same level over and over again. It honestly gets boring, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

When I was about to give up one day because I had to read, I decided to just let the fight play out while I read. Then, after a few paragraphs, I went back to the game, set up the next battle, then read for a few more minutes. And I just kept flipping back and forth between the two which meant I never had enough time to get bored with either. I limit myself to only doing this with books I’m going to review, because doing two “for fun” things at once just seems like cheating. But it’s weirdly effective. I don’t dread my daily reading anymore. I can read as much as I want, then get a thirty second break to do something fun when I start to get bored with the book. It’s like a tiny serotonin bomb that makes the next few paragraphs or pages feel less like a chore (even when I really enjoy a book, reading can be difficult to focus on). So weird.

I’m starting to wonder what else I could apply this to. Maybe writing. I’ve only tried it while blogging a couple of times. It’s not quite the same. With the blog, I’m usually feeling pressured to get it done since I’ve waited until the last minute, so tiny serotonin bombs don’t really help. But perhaps with regular writing, it would be more helpful. I think I’ll try it.

What are some weird things that help you become more productive in certain areas? Are they limited to specific things, like helping with reading or writing? As always, feel free to share your comments or thoughts or questions here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on THE STATES

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? It’s already May. How? I have no idea where the rest of this year went, but whatever. I’m starting off this month with an extra book review! I was contacted by Simone Jung from Books Forward again and she suggested I check out The States by Norah Woodsey on NetGalley. A little slice of life with a dash of speculative/sci-fi sounded fun, so I went ahead and read it. It’s self-published and was released yesterday (April 30th). I must thank Simone and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it.

The States follows Tildy as she struggles to free herself from an overbearing and demanding family. The problem? She doesn’t know if she wants to keep up with her current life or revisit a past she has already run away from once. An old friend approaches her about a new study in lucid dreaming aimed at helping people make difficult choices. Tildy signs right up, but can she keep the dreams and reality separate?

This book is supposedly a reimagining of Austen’s Persuasion. I’ve never read that one, so I can’t tell you how well this book does on that front, but I can tell you how it is as just a book. Short version: not good. And that’s sad, because I really liked the premise and wanted to like the book. I tried to enjoy it. I read the whole thing. And while it has potential, it falls on the amateurish side of everything (plotting, pacing, character development, the writing in general, etc.). That’s not to say it’s bad and couldn’t be made better. With some rewriting, it could be a solid book. It’s just not there yet.

Plot and pacing. There’s a super slow build for the first half to two-thirds of the book and we get a lot of information, but what we get is filler while the actual story gets glanced over. Her past in Ireland plays a big part of Tildy’s dilemma, but instead of showing us what happened, we get blurry little snippets that never really come together to give us the information the reader needs. The present storyline is the same way. Lots of information, but the story itself is only viewed in the periphery. The last third of the book is beyond rushed. The stuff with Jude and the lawyer’s daughter comes out of left field like it was tacked on as an afterthought. The whole relationship with Aidan is just barebones plot points that haven’t been fleshed out and connected yet. It needs a ton of work.

Characters. First off, there are way too many to keep track of and most of them can be cut or meshed into other characters without losing anything. Secondly, none of the important characters are remotely likeable. I have zero sympathy for Tildy. She’s an heiress (granted, her family is hemorrhaging all their money away) who was smart enough to get her own job and be able to support herself, but she lets her father and sisters treat her like shit? Go no contact and get on with your life. She’s whiny and weak and just a super annoying protagonist. Jude’s a douche and not even a charming one. Aidan is supposed to be the main dude, but he isn’t even a character at this point. He’s just a placeholder for a character. I think the characters could be much better if the plot and pacing were ironed out and they were given room to grow in the actual story, but it’s not there yet.

It’s Aidan.

The writing. It’s not great either. In my earlier writing classes, I was told that my writing was stepping on itself and I needed to stop that. Basically, I would write a scene depicting a certain emotion and at the end, I would have a sentence or two telling what the emotion I just showed was. It was me not trusting myself to convey things clearly. I learned quickly to recognize it. This book is full of stuff like that. There’s also a ton of repetitive and mundane description that could be trimmed, especially early on. And a lot of the dialogue is stilted and/or used to give the reader information the characters would already know. People don’t talk like that.

Ultimately, The States felt unpolished and disappointing. It sounds like a great premise, but the execution was poor.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One and a half, actually. One for writing it and half of one for self-publishing it. But I don’t really recommend it. There have to be better reimaginings of Persuasion out there.

Thoughts on A DEADLY WALK IN DEVON

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m sure it’s lovely somewhere or to someone, anyway. It’s only Tuesday as I’m writing this, but the forecast says thunderstorms, so it may or may not be lovely here. And I’ve used the word lovely too much, so now it sounds awkward. Let’s get to what this post is about… a book review! That’s right. It’s the last Wednesday of the month. This time, I decided to nestle back into my comfort zone with a cozy mystery. A Deadly Walk in Devon by Nicholas George was released on the 26th from Kensington Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. So, let’s do the thing!

A Deadly Walk in Devon follows Rick “Chase” Chasen, a retired San Diego detective who is grieving the death of his significant other. He’s struggling with life in general, so he decides to go on a walking tour of Devon where he meets up with Billie, a woman he knows from previous trips, and a handful of other guests who booked the same trip. On particularly annoying guest confides in Chase that he’s been receiving death threats and enlists Chase’s help in staying safe. Chase is hesitant, but also tempted by the puzzle of it all. When the man falls to his death, Chase feels the need to figure out what really happened.

The plot. An old, rich jerk falls to his death in a strange place surrounded by strangers. Or are they strangers? Cue the suspenseful “dun dun dun.” Of course, everyone except Chase suspects the trophy wife. Even the British inspector. Throw in a second, seemingly unconnected, death to stir things up. There are plenty of red herrings and a disturbing number of “jokes” that are technically attempted murder. A bestie who encourages all of the shenanigans is included as well. And there’s a potential love interest. Also, if you’re at all familiar with cozies, it isn’t difficult to figure out whodunit. It’s standard cozy mystery fare, which is what I was hoping for.

My only complaint is that a lot of the characters were pretty flat. Chase and Billie were great. The inspector was an amalgamation of a number of great detectives (Holmes, Columbo, etc.), but only if they were completely inept. Which is fine. But there were at least eight suspects and not much room in the book for them to be fleshed out, so a lot of them felt like stereotypes. It’s not that big of a deal, but I do enjoy more meat on characters, especially when they all stick around for the whole book.

The writing is nice and the description of the scenery is great. The pacing is a little on the slow side, but they’re on a walking holiday, so it kind of fits the story.

Ultimately, A Deadly Walk in Devon is a perfectly adequate cozy mystery. I enjoyed it. The whole walking trip angle makes for a fun series set up with plenty of settings to explore. I will definitely check out the next book in the series when/if it comes out.

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Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. It wasn’t perfect. The characters need work. But if you enjoy cozies, I think it’s worth picking up.

Women Authors

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are normal. I’m procrastinating on everything. Dogs are settling into a rhythm. Dad’s got a project going (he’s fixing the ceiling in the spare room). Life is usual. Anyway, it seems that March is both Women’s History month and National Reading month, so I thought I would share a list of women authors that I enjoy reading. It was difficult to narrow it down, because I apparently read mostly women authors. I don’t know how that happened. Oh well. Here are five women authors I read in no particular order. I didn’t include people I know on this list. Maybe I’ll do a list of friends next week.

1. Rainbow Rowell. I honestly don’t know why I keep reading her stuff. She tells the same basic story over and over again, just in different settings, but somehow I enjoy it every time. I really only noticed it when I read a collection of short stories by her. As long as I space out her work, I always enjoy it, though.

2. Vivien Chien. I love her noodle shop mystery series. It’s fun and there’s food and the characters are interesting. I always look forward to a new one being released.

3. Shea Ernshaw. I enjoy her writing so much that I keep buying her books even though the stories themselves are always disappointing. Her first book was actually pretty rape-y if you thought about it too much. The rest of her books that I’ve read are just predictable. But her writing is wonderful.

4. Sherry Harris. I haven’t read her garage sale mysteries yet, but I love her sea glass saloon mysteries. The setting and characters are fun. It’s a great little escape if you like cozy mysteries. And her writing makes for smooth, quick reads.

5. Holly Black. The whole enemies to lovers thing is one of my favorite tropes. Some of hers are a little problematic for some people. Especially since her “enemies” tend to be bullies. I don’t mind that. The stories are fun and I enjoy her writing. And I like the characters even though a lot of them are jerks.

Who are some of your favorite women authors? As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on FATHOMFOLK

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are about the same as always. The weather is drunk, but that’s normal for February in Texas. Anyway, it’s the last Wednesday of the month. You know what that means. Book review time! I decided to go with some fantasy this time because I love mythological water creatures. The book is literally called Fathomfolk, so you can see why I went with it. It’s by Eliza Chan and was published yesterday (the 27th) by Orbit Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing.

Fathomfolk follows three main characters: Mira, Nami, and Cordelia. They each find themselves in Tiankawi (one by birth, one by exile, and the other by seeking sanctuary), a half submerged city where the tensions between humans and fathomfolk are reaching a boiling point. Two of them are trying to fix things using vastly different tactics, and the other just wants to manipulate things to best serve herself. Can there ever be peace between humans and folk? Can it be achieved through laws or must violence lead the way?

The plot and moral of the story. As you can probably guess, this is a super political book that tries to address racism and immigration issues and equal rights and all of that. There are a lot of big ideas here, but the execution is not great. The entire moral of the story ends up feeling like “if everyone is the same, things will be fine.” That’s kind of icky, but it’s not my book, so I have no control over it. I thought I was overthinking it, so I looked at some other reviews and… I’m not alone. To be fair, I don’t believe that’s supposed to be the message just based on stuff leading up to the end, but that’s definitely the way it comes off. There’s supposed to be a second book, so hopefully it clears things up. If that’s supposed to be the meaning or whatever, cool. Own it. But based on just this book, it doesn’t match with the events of the story, so it feels gross.

The characters are all either really flat or they don’t show any growth by the end. Mira is the stereotypical rule follower. If she works her way up the ranks, she can fix things from the inside! But she can’t. She’s the token folk in the human police force basically. And Nami is the easily swayed rebel that gets mixed up with terrorists. By the end, she knows the dude’s a mass murderer and she still turns a blind eye just so she can make out with him. It’s ridiculous. And Cordelia never changes. The extras are all exactly what they’re supposed to be. Kai is the flawless, self-sacrificing husband (to Mira) and brother (to Nami). Everyone kind of sucks, so there’s no one to root for here.

The writing is meh. I think a really big problem with this book is that the pacing is awful. Everything is much too slow. Even the stuff that’s supposed to be action packed is a slog. But the worldbuilding is nice. That’s something, I guess.

Ultimately, Fathomfolk wasn’t for me. Like I said, there’s supposed to be a second book, so maybe it gets better. I’ll probably forget it exists by that time, though, which means I won’t read the sequel.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. I started at 3, but the more I think about it, I just don’t like the book. I think 2 stars because it tries to tackle big issues is fair. But there are definitely better books that do a better job out there.

Reading Has Been Unfulfilling

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this delightful Wednesday? Things here are a little busy this week. Just stupid things. Ran some paperwork over to our CPA on Tuesday and grabbed some Captain Ds on the way home. Have to take Bonnie in to get spayed later this week. Sophia did really well when she was spayed and is back to normal. Anyway, it’s Tuesday still and I kind of forgot about needing to write a blog post. Go me! Ugh. So, the only thing I can think of to ramble about is reading. I’ve read five books so far this year and it took me like three hours to remember four of them. I had to check my GoodReads page to remember the fifth. Needless to say, I haven’t really been satisfied with anything I’m reading. That’s usually a sign I’m burning myself out, but it could just be the books.

1. Clover Hendry’s Day Off by Beth Morrey. This was my review book for January, so you can find my thoughts here. Short version, it started out great and quickly devolved into a dumpster fire. Meh.

2. The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. It’s a Norse mythology retelling. You would think it would be right up my alley. But I don’t remember much about it. I know I enjoyed it as I was reading it, but I can’t remember any particularly wonderful moments. It basically just exists on my list of “I read this and remember the basic premise, but not much else” books. It was good enough to me simply because I enjoy Norse mythology. That’s about it.

3. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This is the one I didn’t remember at all. When I looked at my list of books, I knew what it was, but I totally forgot it existed. It’s one of those books that is super popular and people kept recommending it to me, so I read it. I really like the premise that we can spend that moment between life and death hopping around our “what if” lives and choose to stay in whichever one feels right to us. But the whole ‘suicidal person hopping lives only to realize their current one is the only one they want to live’ thing is kind of annoying and the message is super heavy handed. And frankly, it isn’t something I find believable. So maybe I just blocked out reading this book because it pisses me off when I think about it.

4. Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens. This one is probably the only book I’ve read this year that was even remotely satisfying. It’s adorable gay fluff AND it’s got the gloomy person falling for the sunshine boy! That’s one of my weaknesses. The story itself was entertaining, but kind of rushed. I was just there for the cute romance though, so I didn’t mind the actual plot being a bit wobbly.

5. Murder Off the Books by Tamara Berry. I really liked the first two books in this series, but this one was such a let down. The plot made no sense. The only character who actually behaved like they’ve been built up so far was Gertie. The FBI agents were beyond ridiculous. It honestly felt like someone input a premise with the instructions to write like Tamara Berry into some AI program and this is what came out. It starts out okay, but gradually becomes more outlandish and just idiotic by the end.

So, that’s been my year in reading so far. I’m currently reading the review book for next week’s post, another book to review the first Wednesday in May, and I just started another cozy mystery as my for fun book. We’ll see how those go. What have you been reading? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or questions here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on CLOVER HENDRY’S DAY OFF

~ shawnaborman ~ 4 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are usual. It’s the last Wednesday of the month, though. Where did January go? Anyway, that means it’s book review time! This month, I stepped back into that weird literary/women’s fiction genre. I just call it slice of life, but apparently that’s wrong. I don’t know why they have to make it complicated. Whatever. I went with Clover Hendry’s Day Off by Beth Morrey. It was released yesterday (the 30th) from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!

Clover Hendry’s Day Off follows (you guessed it!) Clover Hendry as she finally says screw everything and takes a day to do as she pleases. Skipping work and pampering herself and causing trouble wherever she ends up. Why not? All she has done her entire life is say yes to people and take everything on herself. She’s never taken a break or stopped to breathe. But that all changes right now. Will the world implode around her if she’s just a little bit selfish? It’s time to find out.

Before we go into the review, there will be spoilers. I try to stay vague most of the time, but once in a while, specific things need to be mentioned. Feel free to skip ahead to the picture that says “the end.” If this is on your TBR list, you’ve been warned.

The plot is super cute until it isn’t. As someone who imagines the worst and people pleases and all that, I immediately liked Clover. I appreciated her breakdown. But what started out as fun and relatable, quickly devolved into a petty slog. Yes, slack off work for an art show and good meal. No, don’t dump a random kid in an art installation when his parent is there, but not paying attention. Yes, stick up for your gay friend when someone is being a bigot, but when your friend says stop, you stop. Definitely don’t steal a statue from a house your bestie is watching because you’ll just be getting her in trouble. Some of the stuff made no sense. And then there was the whole rape revenge thing that was supposedly the trigger for this whole breakdown. It felt trite and completely unnecessary. Clover had plenty of reasons to go off the rails. Tossing in the rapist dude just felt like overkill. And then when revenge is had, it’s brushed off like nothing happened in favor of more family drama. There’s just too much going on and not enough room for everything to feel natural. For such a short book, it’s like they tried to jam every possible plotline into it and it becomes a checklist instead of a story. Shitty boss, check. Distant children (bonus for twins), check. Narcissistic mother, check. Etc.

Honestly, the only character we really get to know is Clover. She starts out great, then becomes annoying, and finally mellows out a bit. But everyone else are just cardboard cutouts and that’s sad. It’s part of the reason I usually avoid literary type fiction. It’s not uncommon for books like that to focus on one character and just leave the others as stereotypes. It’s fine, but meh.

The writing is actually really enjoyable. Before the plot became a slog, I was seriously considering giving this 4 stars because it was fun and it was a smooth, quick read. It was a fitting style for the story.

Ultimately, Clover Hendry’s Day Off starts out great and then fizzles out. But I did enjoy the writing enough that if I run across other books by Beth Morrey, I’d give them a chance.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It’s fun enough, but there are better stories like this out there. If it sounds like your thing, try it. If it’s not your typical genre, try something else first.

New Year, Old Me

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this first Wednesday of the year? Not much going on here. Vet trips and an upcoming doctor appointment. Things are pretty boring, which is good. I’ve failed miserably at goals the last few years, so I only have a couple this year. It’s late in the day and I’m tired, so I figured I’d share those and then go read or watch TV or whatever.

Reading Goals: read 35 books in 2024. I’ve had good luck with this number, so I’m sticking with it. Somehow, I made it through 45 books in 2023. I still don’t know how I did it. But it’s hard for me to even get through 3 books a month, so 35 it is.

Writing Goals: write something. I’m not even going to pretend to make a good goal for this. I don’t care what I write as long as I start writing again. Short stories. A book. Whatever. I don’t even care if I finish anything as long as I write more often than not this year.

It’s not much. They aren’t even good goals. But it’s all I can come up with that doesn’t feel useless or overwhelming. What are your goals for 2024?