UPDATES!

Most of my blogging friends know that I have been busy with real life and why.. but I don't want to publish personal stuff on the net where I have no control of who is seeing what. But I did want to let my followers know that I have made a personal decision to not focus so much on the general blog business like I used to. After a year and a half of posting to The Burton Review, I am going to take it in a different direction.

I will not be participating in read-a-thons or events such as the recent Book Blogger Awards, and I have resigned from the HF Round Table. I will however, always be reading when time permits, and I will still publish my thoughts on the book here at The Burton Review, so I am not going to disappear off your radar altogether. I have current obligations for guest posts, reviews and giveaways through October, but after that I will host no more of those until further notice.

Since I am no longer going to accept guest posts and the such in the near future I will forward those requests to the new HF Connection site. This little blog takes a lot of time and thought to keep going, more than I am willing to give at this point. My kiddos need their mama, my hubby deserves more attention, my house needs to be cared for, and I work full-time (not that I want to!). And I would like to sit and watch TV this season as well. I am looking forward to Survivor (addicted!), Lone Star, and Hawaii Five-O. Let's see if I watch past episode one. I have also recently acquired some fish and two hamsters.

As advance review copies wind down, my reading goal is focusing on my own personal stash of books which range from contemporary fiction to historical fiction, and even some mysteries. I am going to dive into some Jean Plaidy novels, and Georgette Heyer. And work on the 400 other books I have accumulated that have been waiting impatiently for me to get to. These are titles that have come highly recommended by fellow bloggers like you and I cannot wait to get to them! And in case you were interested, my reviews that I have posted are listed here and will continue to be. (Of the year 2009 published here to date: Qty. #64; of the year 2010, published to date: Qty. #49)

SO.. for one last big hurrah.. there will be a bunch of guest posts and giveaways from now through October.
Be sure to check back in and see what new giveaways I have added. Because once they are gone, I will then only be doing the newsletter only giveaways for the email subscribers to the newsletter for personal copies that I am willing to give away to followers in the USA. (See the Subscriber link under the Google Followers gadget on the left sidebar).
Subscribe to the newsletter soon, because I am adding The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet by Pargeter very very soon. And The First Assassin by John J. Miller.

Basically, what the big update is that you will soon see only Book Reviews. I will not be doing Mailbox Mondays any longer either unless I am utterly bored one day.

I ran a recent poll (see the right sidebar) and the results also helped me to make this decision:
Why do you most visit The Burton Review?
Book Reviews 23 (82%)
Book Giveaways 15 (53%)
Author Interviews 9 (32%)
New Book Alerts 12 (42%)

I think that there are plenty of other worthy Historical Fiction sites out there that can fill your "book news" needs (see my blogroll on the right!).. therefore, I feel no guilt in just focusing on book reviews, and although many of my reads will be historical fiction, I am going to occasionally pick up something like Jonathan Franzen or Janet Evanovich, and I will be happy to share my thoughts on those types of reads also.

Current Giveaways are for:
The Mistaken Wife
Bluebells of Scotland
Coming tomorrow:
Giveaway & Guest Author: Come Again No More by Jack Todd
Upcoming:
Giveaway and Guest post by Anna Elliott and another by Laurel Corona which will have a book giveaway as well.

I may occasionally sneak in 'personal' posts as well so that I can enjoy virtually connecting with you. And for those who are on Facebook, I troll around there almost daily, so feel free to friend me & then you can see what I am really up to!! You can also find me on goodreads where you can follow what I am reading in real time.

See you on the web!