Look at all this cool loot!!

This story actually begins way back in March 2010.  One of my favorite authors, Jennifer Weiner recommended a book by a new author.  The book was The Opposite Of Me and the author was Sarah Pekkanen.  I was looking for something new to download to my Kindle that I had just gotten for Christmas. So I bought the book.  I started reading The Opposite Of Me on May 1, 2010.  I finished it on May 3, 2010.  I have to tell you that I have not read a book that fast in nearly 20 years.  I. Could. Not. Put. This. Book. Down!!  I even wrote a blog post about it the next day.  You can read it here, if you'd like.


OK, fast forward to the week before Christmas 2010.  Sarah is a friend of mine on Facebook now (along with about 1500 of her closest friends).  She had a new short story (All Is Bright) coming out for eREaders for only 99 cents.  As an incentive for people to buy it, she was doing a 5 day give away where each day she was adding another prize to the pile. All you had to do was buy her short story  to your Kindle, Nook, eREader and forward a copy of the receipt as proof of purchase to her email account. So I did!  Sarah also reminded everyone that Jennifer Weiner also has a short story (The Half Life) coming out the same day.  (Do these ladies look out for each other or what!!)   Day one prize was her new book, Skipping a Beat (that will be in stores at the end of February 2011) , Day 2 prize was Skipping and Jennifer Weiner's latest book, Fly Away Home.  Day 3 add The Opposite Of Me, Day 4 add Godiva Chocolates and a $50 donation to a shelter of your choice  to the mix and Day 5, all of the above and an eREader!  


Everyone was hoping they'd win, especially Day 5!!  I already have a Kindle, so I said to my daughter, Dani, who was turning 20 on December 26, "If I win the big prize, do you want the Kindle?"  Of course, she said YEAH!!!  I never ever dreamed I'd win, but I did!!!  Sarah left me a message on Facebook, telling me to look at her homepage.  And there was my name!!!  Woo hoo!!!!


We emailed back and forth, so I could send her my address and which charity I wanted the donation to go to, and which eREader  I wanted.  A few days later, I get a package in the mail from Sarah with Sarah's 2 books, The Opposite Of Me (which I'm sending to my daughter in Delaware because she's a reading machine! but I want it back because it's signed! ), a signed copy of Skipping A Beat (an advanced copy!  you can't even buy it until February!) and a box of Godiva Chocolates.  You can't see the candy because I ate it!  I saved the box so I could take a picture of everything together!


Yesterday the package from Amazon arrived with a copy of Jennifer Weiner's newest book, Fly Away Home (which I have on Kindle, so this is also going to my daughter in Delaware) and the newest generation of Kindle!  


I activated the Kindle, charged it up and put The Opposite Of Me on it and will be mailing it tomorrow to Dani at school!  She's excited to get it!  I hope this will get her to read more.  I bought my son a Kindle for Christmas and he's been reading like crazy!  Gina, my reading machine daughter in Delaware has a Nook that she loves too!


So,all in all, it was a pretty good week!  If you're a reader and you haven't done it yet, give Sarah's book, The Opposite Of Me a try.  It's truly wonderful!!  Then get Skipping A Beat when it comes out next month!  Trust me.  You won't be sorry you did.  And I'm not saying that because I won all this cool stuff!!  She really is a great writer!  And she answers your comments on Facebook!