So excited to be launching a new meme on Sunday called The Sunday Best. It's for book bloggers to link to their favorite post of the week AND of course, for us to check out those links and leave comments. My greatest fear is that no one will participate since this is a relatively new blog - so PRETTY PLEASE come back on Sunday and leave a link to your favorite post of the week!

Wowza - what a week for book bloggers with the drama surrounding the popular Young Adult book blogger, The Story Siren, plagiarizing blog posts on plagiarism ... that's some crazy sh%!, so I wrote a poem about it, wanna hear it, here it go' ...

I've read quite a few dystopian novels and have more on my list to read this year, but I'm interested in reading more post-apocalyptic books too, so I bought 3 on my list of The 10 Creepiest Book Covers From the 2011 Bram Stoker Awards Nominees.

This week, I wanted to pick up some books nominated for the Nebula Awards, which honors the best writing in science fiction & fantasy. I've already read Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor (loved it), so I picked up another book nominated in the Young Adult category. And I've already read Embassytown by China Mieville (didn't love it), so I also picked up a book nominated for Best Novel.

It's National Library Week in the USA (Apr. 8-14) and as I get 99% of my books from the library, you know I showed up quite a few days this week at my local library, with goodies in hand, as a thank you to the people who work & volunteer there. I've moved a LOT in the past few years, and the 1st thing I do is usually get my library card. So if you haven't yet - check out your local library & thank a librarian :-)

The weather is glorious outside and it's just been heaven to sit outside on the porch swing listening to an audiobook. From the library this week ...

Greetings earthlings :-) I've gotten a few emails this week loving the look of this here website - THANK YOU all! Things to know: the graphics you see here can be done with the FREE image editing software Gimp or GimpShop (although I use Photoshop which is decidedly not free). All I do is take pictures with my digital camera (a GE E1250 TW - which I LOVE), and add text with a wicked nice font downloaded from DaFont.com - they are FREE (the font in the header of the blog is "Disco Diva"). Sometimes I might add effects to the photos, e.g. to make it grainy, darker, or lighter - but certainly nothing major, as I am not a graphic designer (not even close).

I spent some time spiffyfying this here website as part of the Bloggiesta Challenge Weekend hosted by Suey's Books. I participated in almost all the mini-challenges which resulted in me adding new social media icons, a subscribe by email option, updated Pinterest boards, a new header, paginating the archives, changed up the category system, decluttered the side-bar a little - and I got some reading in too.

I'm definitely holding strong on not requesting too many books from the library at once, so I don't feel pressured by those due dates. I only have to read one more book from March Library Loot {1} (the book that my step-son is taking his sweet time with), so I got 2 more from the library early this week.

Hugs pillow courtesy of the husband as a "just because" gift.

The books I'm listening to on audio this month are quite a departure from last month when I was on a young adult kick with Legend, Neverwhere & Will Grayson, Will Grayson (all of which I liked). This month, it's seems to be all about literary fiction. This wasn't intentional - my strategy for choosing books is to look among what's available now, and pick titles that I've thought about reading in the past, but aren't really on any reading list that I have.

This year, I've resolved not to check out too many books from the library. I did pretty good with my February Library Loot, and only have 1 book un-returned, After the Apocalypse, which I'm reading now. So, this weekend, I went to get just a few more books - I only picked up 3 and hope to get these read over the next 2 weeks.

In February my main goal was not to borrow so many books from the library that I would have books over-over-due and have to return them unread. I think I got it under control ... finally - because I'm done with almost all of these.