Happy Sunday to all.. As some of you are aware, one of my favorite bloggers, Arleigh, (historical-fiction & Royal Intrigue) has been affected tremendously by the recent floods in Georgia. I am happy to report that everyone is alive and well, but as she puts it, "her house is not." So sad, I hope that she has Wonder Woman strength to rebuild and recoup. The event has saddened me, and made me think. Not only do I feel so helpless for Arleigh's situation, it makes me thankful for the simple things that I have, for which I have taken for granted.
This week I have been busy selecting winners for the Historical Fiction Bloggers Round Table Event, which was fabulous fun during the BBAW week. If you missed some of the interviews and guest posts, you can see them all here through this label link. The 7 bloggers interviewed each other and each had special posts and giveaways, and a good time was had by all.
I updated my blog to a new address to http://www.theburtonreview.com/, and so I am trying to keep up with the broken widgets etc. that it caused but it's always hard to tell if blogger in general is acting up or if it was the custom domain. 
It's been a slight pain in the butt. I've attempted to update my gravatar and blog graphic links as well, I'd love for you to grab a new banner and put the logo on your blog. You can do it the old fashioned way by right-clicking and saving the image to your hard drive, or if you know how to add the HTML/Javascript option to your sidebar you can link from my own storage at photobucket by copying the code that is below my button on the left sidebar. I hope you like the Graphic, pretty simple, isn't it?
I even managed to update my favicon. The favicon (when it is working properly, as some browsers do not recognize it) would be the orange B that you see either in an internet tab or the teeny image before the web address in the address toolbar, when viewing a blogger blog. I had my old button there which was kinda cool but now I just put that teeny little swirl there. Also, in IE, when you save a specific site into your bookmarks section, the favicon image shows up next to the website listing in the bookmarks. So delete your current bookmarks for The Burton Review, and add it again so that you get the current http://www.theburtonreview.com/ address and the cute little teeny tiny swirl next to it. The whole favicon thing is the biggest pain in the butt also to do, & please don't ask me to explain it because I am so darn lucky I got it right this time. But I googled favicon and took it from there, and found this site to create the file type.
Have not seen the newest widget on the left sidebar? It is the one underneath the Technorati button. This newest thing is Shared Items From Google Reader, so whenever I am within my Google Reader I click the "share" link for those posts that I enjoy the most or simply want to share. All I do is click that share link, and boom it shows up in that widget on my blog for all to see. If I type a comment when sharing, some of the comment will show as well. Isn't that the neatest thing? See this post here on how to add it to blogger which tells you to go here.
Another change for this past week has been some links to the Amazon Store I created. I started working on this awhile ago by adding text links to certain blog posts, but I now have enough stuff going on there to officially mention it now. How the amazon associates program works is that I will get a small percentage of qualified purchases that are made by you if you purchase it from my store. Most important, check out the different sections where the book titles are broken up into different categories, from Tudor Fiction, Other Historical Fiction, to Jane Austen and Sequels. A preview here of the store:
The actual theme may change as I grow bored with the current one; I am trying to find a color scheme and set-up that I really like still. But the main items are up and running, which is the most important thing, and I will add more items when I get a chance to; so bookmark the Store when you feel the urge to buy your next book. I would greatly appreciate the support.
If I ever get a penny I will let you know (& thank YOU in advance!).
I reviewed Barnes' The Tudor Rose for you last Monday, and I started reading The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers. Not even halfway through with that brick of a book. So there may be a while before my next review posts here, as this one is 748 pages. Then on Wednesday I lamented about Elizabeth's Women by Tracy Borman, I can't find it online in the USA, but I was overjoyed when it appeared in the mail on Thursday! Definitely awesome, so The Maiden's Court and I are going to do a sort of group read with this as my next read in October. I am looking forward to interacting with her about the book, it is chunky non-fiction book that looks full of information. See my Wednesday post for the rest of the information and synopsis.
In fun across-the-pond news, the Pope is meeting with Queen Elizabeth II next year, which is to be a grand event over there.. and I just found out there is a new book coming out in October:
The Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross
The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century.Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore’s ten children—was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one could have imagined that her long life (she died in 2002) would come to reflect a changing nation over the ourse of an entire century. Now, William Shawcross—given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother’s personal papers, letters, and diaries—gives us a portrait of unprecedented vividness and detail. Here is the girl who helped convalescing soldiers during the First World War . . . the young Duchess of York helping her reluctant husband assume the throne when his brother abdicated . . . the Queen refusing to take refuge from the bombing of London, risking her own life to instill courage and hope in others who were living through the Blitz . . . the dowager Queen—the last Edwardian, the charming survivor of a long-lost era—representing her nation at home and abroad . . . the matriarch of the Royal Family and “the nation’s best-loved grandmother.” A revelatory royal biography that is, as well, a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.
This one sounds like a potential interesting read.
Although I am moving at a snail's pace as far as reading and reviewing goes, on October 5 and 6, I will have the review and guest post with giveaway for The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairview, as part of a blog tour. (I enjoyed the book!) The tour is starting now, so follow along if you want to win this book:
September 28: Fallen Angel Reviews Guest Blog
September 29: The Review from Here/ScribVibe
September 30: Everything Victorian
October 1: The Good, the Bad, the Unread Guest Blog
October 2: A Bibliophile’s Bookshelf
October 5: Grace’s Book Blog, name change to Books Like Breathing
October 6: The Burton Review
October 7: Austenprose
October 7: Bloody Bad Books
October 8: The Long & Short of It
October 9: Love Romance Passion
Date undetermined, but some time this week: Curious Statistical Anomaly
October 12: Good and Bad Books
October 13: Lib’s Library
October 16: Fresh Fiction
I will soon have another fantastic Mailbox Monday post to share; it took me a long to time to compile it, so stay tuned for that fun on Monday! I am so swamped with books to review I feel so behind. But I can only do so much, and having a family and working full time and doing the blogging thing takes away actual reading time. But I'll read what I can, when I can, and blog about it, when I can..
Also wanted to say thanks for The Super Scribbler award from Robin at Lady Gwyn's Kingdom. I appreciate the mentions from awards! I've seen this one already given out at my favorite blogs and I don't want to inundate them with the same award. I've got End of month and Quarter close out (taxes!) to do this week, plus have to figure out how Cobra works for an ex-employee, so I don't have very much fun coming towards my way this week as far as work goes. And I am hoping the rest of the family and I do not catch the toddler's flu. He is driving me crazy, needless to say. Hope everyone in blogosphere is well and reading a lot!
The lucky Winner of my Robin Maxwell 2 book giveaway that ended Sat. PM was ibeeg of Mom-Musings! It was her Blog posting that got her the winning entry. If she doesn't respond to my email then Tutu is up next. That's the last of my HF Bloggers Round Table giveaways, whew! One last giveaway for the Sourcebooks promo, I'll draw that this week.
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