Let's Help Shooting Stars Mag Celebrate 12 Years of Blogging with a Giveaway!

I am not sure how long I've been following Lauren over at Shooting Stars Mag, but when she came up with the idea of making an extra long celebration of her 12th Blogoversary, I wanted to be a part of it!  I thought it would be fun to have Lauren do a Top 10 post for me.  Her idea was a fun one, hope you enjoy it!

Top 12 Bookish Items On My Bucket List 

1. Stay at the Library Hotel in New York: https://libraryhotel.com/en/

2. Become a published author 

3. Visit The American Writers Museum in Chicago: https://americanwritersmuseum.org/

4. Visit the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, France: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/

5. Visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, FL

6. Write an article for Book Riot: https://bookriot.com/

7. Stay at Gladstone's Library in Great Britain: https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/

8. Go on a Writer's Retreat

9. Visit the New York Public Library

10. Read another book by Jane Austen (so far I've only read Persuasion)

11. Donate books to a Little Free Library

12. See a Harry Potter film being played with a live orchestra

Lauren has some great posts, and I enjoy seeing not only what she's been reading, but also all of the fun things she's been doing, like those you see in the list above!  Here's a picture of Lauren, along with her bio from her blog:

My name is Lauren Becker, and I’ve been running Shooting Stars Mag since around August 2007. It’s been through some changes and ebbs and flows, but we’re holding on strong. I just want to say that I appreciate every single person that leaves a comment, spreads the word about something we’re doing or have posted, and for everyone that has emailed/tweeted/messaged. It really does mean a lot and is a large reason I keep the blog going.

The blog is mostly my work, but I do have a co-writer for some YA reviews and her name is Alicia. If she wrote it, her name will be on it.

I also include guest reviews every now and then. These are sometimes done by my sister or mom, as they like to help out. Again, these are all noted within the post.

You should definitely follow Lauren, and there is an option in the Rafflecopter below to do that!  I've also included a link to her blog in case you don't care about entering my giveaway below and just want to go check her blog out:  Shooting Stars Mag.

Giveaway:

For my giveaway, you will have a choice of two prizes.  One is a book of up to $10 from The Book Depository, your choice!  The other choice is to pick 2 books from my giveaway piles below, but this one is only open if you are a winner from the US.  Here are the pictures to choose from:

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Promo Post: Another Girl By Allison Burnett

Back in August I was contacted by Lauren from Shooting Stars Mag and asked if I might be interested in doing a promo for his new book.  It's not necessarily my normal type of book, since it's really NA as opposed to YA, but the story sounded interesting because it does have to do with online friendships and other types of online relationships. And so I wanted to talk about the online friendships I feel I have, both the ones that are just online, as well as the ones where I've actually been able to meet them in person!

I feel like I have had online friendships for a long time, since clear back in the late 90s.  I belonged to an online discussion group on AOL for people who loved dachshunds.  One of them was so nice that when I had a science teacher conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where she lived, she came and picked me up from the airport and drove me to the hotel.  She even took me out for dinner one night that I was there as well. 

In more recent times with Twitter, Facebook, and blogging, I've had more opportunities to talk to authors online, as well as even get to meet them!  The first one I want to talk about is Cara Lynn Shultz.  Her book, Spellbound, was actually the first e-galley I ever got.  And as I read it, I first looked to find her on Twitter, as I do for any new author, and she followed along with me as I read and loved and reviewed her book.  We became good "Twitter buddies" and found all kinds of things we had in common. We both loved New Kids on the Block when we were younger (I still do) and listened to the same kinds of music, as well as loved movies like Twilight.  When my younger sister moved to NYC, I was tweeting about all the places I went to visit when I got to go stay with her.  And when I suggested maybe we could meet somewhere, she said yes!  We ended up meeting in a public place, over by the New York Public Library that is located by Bryant Park.  It was November, so we went to a little bar they had in the park by the ice skating rink. We talked for hours!  Then she took me and my sister to see a little speakeasy in Grand Central Station, and we talked even longer.  Here we are that first night when I got to meet her.

Another author that I had followed online, and then recognized while standing in line at my first BEA in 2012 was Michelle Madow.  But I didn't even think to ask for a picture with her until the last time I saw her, my 2nd time at BEA in 2014.  And then I had just tweeted about hoping to run into her when she walked right by me while I was in line to see Becca Fitzpatrick.  Here we are:

I feel like I haven't had as much chance to meet a lot of bloggers in person as I would like to. In fact at times, I feel the blogging world can be a little "clique-ish", as I've had bloggers I knew were somewhere at BEA, but the didn't seem to want to meet up.  Others I've met in line at conferences and immediately had great conversations and definitely made friends with.  But there are many that I feel I talk to regularly and that we do make sure to go back and forth and comment on each others' blogs all the time, even if we may never get to meet in person.

Okay, enough about me.  Let me talk a little about this book that I'm sharing with you today.  Another Girl is actually a sequel to another book by the author, Undiscovered Gyrl, which was made into a movie that is now available on Netflix, called Ask Me Anything.

Here is the Goodreads blurb for the first book:

Only on the internet can you have so many friends and be so lonely.
Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.
Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie's fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.
Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, Undiscovered Gyrl is an extraordinarily accomplished novel of identity, voyeurism, and deceit.


Purchase links for Undiscovered Gyrl:
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307473120/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=httpwwwgoodco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307473120&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2
Barnes and Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/undiscovered-gyrl-allison-burnett/1103375212?ean=9780307473127

 Purchase link for Another Girl:
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Another-Girl-Allison-Burnett/dp/1516887514/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440376812&sr=8-1&keywords=another+girl 

Here's the movie poster:

I haven't seen it, but I am a fan of Justin Long, so may have to check it out soon!

So, do you have any awesome online friendships you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear about them!