Link Salad (10)

Welcome to Link Salad! I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to post a Link Salad in quite a while. But this week I’ve got a mixed bag of interesting links I’ve found around the internet, including two “sneak peek” reads, a cool instructional blog post, an extremely difficult quiz, and a fascinating look behind some secret “doors.”

Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave doesn’t hit stores until May 7th, but it’s quickly becoming one of the top “must read” books of spring. This YA thriller about aliens taking over the planet has received rave reviews, and now Penguin Teen is giving you the chance to read the first 70 pages free, before the book comes out! Click here for more information on how to download the chapter sampler from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Acid by Emma Pass is a book I’m eagerly awaiting, but for some strange reason it doesn’t come out in the U.S. until 2014. (It just released in the UK this week.) Acid is the story of a kick-ass heroine who breaks out of a futuristic high security prison, and it looks amazing! Although I’m jealous of you UK readers who don’t have to wait, Emma has posted Chapter One of Acid on her website here. Check it out!

And for an opportunity to read even more of Acid, you can enter to win a copy here from Daydreaming Bookworm!

Ever wonder how bloggers find these cool 3D book images? Well, I just found out how you can easily make your own (I created this 3D cover of Arclight in about three minutes!) Oh, Chrys! Book Blog gives a very simple tutorial and shows you how to use Pixlr for free. Click here to get started!

I absolutely love secrets. I hope to live in a house someday that has secret passage-ways going from room to room. If you love secret doors, check out The Fire Wire‘s list of secret places around the U.S. where getting in is a lot harder than simply turning the door knob. From Disneyland’s Club 33 to Prohibition Bar in Atlanta, you’ll discover some secret places that most people don’t know about. Click here to enter…

Are you a Stephen King fan like I am? Then you might be interested in taking The Stephen King Opening Line Quiz over at ShortList.com. Test your knowledge of thirty of SK’s books by matching the opening sentence to the book. It’s harder than you think! I consider myself a SK expert, but I only got seventeen correct…Are you brave enough to take the quiz?

Are you one of the many readers eagerly anticipating Neil Gaiman’s new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which comes out this June? Amy McCulloch (author of the upcoming The Oathbreaker’s Shadow) writes about her experience reading Gaiman’s latest. Not only is it a rave review of the book, but a thoughtful exploration of the emotional connections readers will make when they read it themselves. And if this post is any indication of Amy’s writing skills, I’m giddy about reading her book as well:)

Finally, lots of people are helping out the citizens of Boston, who were attacked on April 15 during the Boston Marathon, and writers are jumping in to help as well. Author A. C. Gaughen, author of Scarlet, has a cool idea that involves, you guessed it, books! You can read about her Books for Boston campaign and how this will help in some very specific ways. Click here to read more, via another amazing author, Kimberly Sabatini!

Thanks for stopping by!