Day 7: Dessen, the best medicine (Sarah)

Sarah Dessen.

She is probably one the best known author in Young Adult Fiction and one of my favorites.

My first encounter with her was This Lullaby. I had just read Speak and my librarian said that I would love this book. I kind of checked it out, because we have the same name. I was a weird eleven year old. Later that night, I was reading to the finish at 1 AM in the morning on a school night. I loved Remy and Dexter. I used to try to be a perfectionist like Remy, but finally gave up. I used to have a “Hate Spinnerbait!” shirt, but I think it was lose in the move or the letters fell off. The next week at the library, I checked out That Summer, Someone Like You, Keeping the Moon, and Dreamland. That Summer was read pretty quickly. Someone Like You was pretty good. Keeping the Moongot to me, because I haven’t ever been “thin” or “skinny” and my mom has been in face about it. It well hurts. I would also say that I haven’t ever felt comfortable in my own skin. I also have the feeling that no one will ever want to talk to me, be my friend, or anything. So, I really identified with the most Colie. Dreamland was really sad and intense, but really good. Later that summer, I saw How to Deal and saw the meshing of That Summer and Someone Like You. It was really good and got a few of my friends to read Sarah Dessen. About a year later, I checked out The Truth about Forever from the library. It became my favorite Sarah Dessen book and I love it so much. Macy, Wes, and the Wish crew were just amazing and I can’t really explain how awesome it is. I have read it at least twenty times. About a year later, my friends and I were walking around in the summer air and were just talking about books. We kept talking about Sarah Dessen’s books this and that.

Skip less then two years in to the future, I was 15 and busy with finals. Somehow my hardcore love of reading was lost. And I was stricken with the hardest challenge ever. I got sick and I don’t mean the flu or a cold. I had a rare infection in my right psoas muscle (used for walking) and it took about a month to diagnose. My friend Bridget, who I shared my Dessen love with, brought me a gift to the hospital. A bag of Seventeen magazines and Just Listen, which I hadn’t gotten to reading yet. During my recovering, I was on so much vicodin and antibiotics that I was easily confused and napped almost continually. My mom was worried that I wouldn’t recover and I tried going back to school, but I was in a fog and not quite there. I decided to try to read Just Listen. I read it in one sitting. I started reading more and going to the library. Books came a major part of my life again after this.

A year later, I had joined readergirlz and Sarah Dessen was the author for March. I loved it. The next month, I was asked by the Readerdivas to do an interview for Operation TBD on King 5. I can barely stand looking in the mirror, but getting taped on a video camera and shown on television was… Yikes! So, I had two authors and a newsman coming to my house. Dia Calhoun and Lorie Ann Grover brought me some books as a gift. I got an ARC of Lock and Key. I was jumping around with excitement and sent a picture text to Bridget with the book in my hands. I finished Lock and Key in a day. Ruby was awesome and I loved the book. My mom read Lock and Keyand started reading her other books. I decided to re-read all of her books over 2008 and had fun doing it. I also joined the YA book blogging community later that year. I also now have a copy of every published Sarah Dessen book and got Sarah Dessen Magnets somehow. Though I rarely have all the books. Along for the Ride looks amazing and I can’t wait to read it. I am an insomniac and I am actually writing this at 3 AM… I should probably be in bed.

Anyways, Sarah Dessen’s books have meant so much to me and probably helped with my major love of books and Young Adult fiction. They have helped me distract myself during really hard times and really good times I can’t really say anything else, but thanks you so much.

Sarah is the lovely YA blogger behind Sarah’s Random Ramblings.  She is also a member of the fabulous Seven Book Babes available on YouTube daily.

Tomorrow: Lindsey Leavitt, author of 2010 debut novel, Princess for Hire.