The Sunday Salon (04.05.09): Week In Review

This week was pretty successful, though you might not be able to tell it from the fact that I only read 2-1/2 books and posted three reviews. With one of those books at over 600 pages, I figure it's almost like I read 3-1/2 books this week. :-) Happily, the books were all 4 and 5 star titles for me, so I really enjoyed what I was reading. Here are the links to those reviews:
Publish or Perish by Margot Kinberg (4 stars)The Host by Stephenie Meyer (5 stars)Sin & Vengeance by CJ West (5 stars)


Sadly, I did have one book that I couldn't finish: Threshold by Bonnie Kozek. Happily, I was able to pass that along to another book blogger for review, and will be getting that out in the mail to Crystal at My Reading Room tomorrow!
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Speaking of Sin & Vengeance, if you haven't read it and enjoy a good thriller, I highly recommend this book--check out my review. What's even cooler is that CJ West has embedded codes within his book that lead to two hidden messages! I have been spending entirely too much time playing with that this morning, first by starting with deciphering a code on his web site and then looking for other clues he's hidden. You can learn more about it by visiting West's web site and subscribing to his newsletter. Sin & Vengeance is slated to be made into a movie and I think it will be a huge hit!
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In other news, I was awarded the Zombie Chicken Award for the second time, courtesy of LuAnne at A Bookworm's World. I haven't posted about it yet, so I figure what better time to give out the award to my choices than in a Sunday Salon post. So here goes:
"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all..."

Again, I'm not one to risk the wrath of zombie chickens, so here are my 5 picks for this award:
ReaderbuzzReverie Book ReviewsBookish RuthMy Cozy Book NookPenny's Pages
Be sure to check out their blogs if you haven't already!!
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I've also been actively participating in this week's Weekly Geeks project--linking reviews. Thank you to everyone who has given me a link to a review and posted one of mine in return! I've also now made my link exchange policy clear with a handy tab in my header and an easy-to-use submission form if you don't choose to leave a comment.
Linking reviews is just part of my own ongoing blog improvement. The header tabs you see when you visit my blog now were a HUGE part of that project, as well. It took me awhile last Sunday, but I finally got those pesky tabs posted and in working order. Now some of what I consider the most important and useful information is easily accessed right at the top of my page! I also got my label cloud under control by cleaning up some of the labels I'd been using. Since I added a Reviews by Author tab, I decided I didn't need to post authors' names in the labels section, among other things I chose to delete. My most recent "improvement" is just something fun I wanted to do and finally figured out how yesterday--I added a favicon, so now you see one of the butterflies from my header in the address bar of your browser when you visit my page!
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And last but not least, here's what I'm hoping to get to this week (not necessarily in this order) but I know this may be a stretch:
Uglies by Scott WesterfieldDeadly Exchange by Geoffrey M. Gluckman
No Place for a Lady by Maggie Brendan

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris