Sarah Dessen
Sarah Dessen (born June 6, 1970) is an American novelist who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Born in Illinois, Dessen graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her first book, ''That Summer'', was published in 1996. She has since published more than a dozen other novels and novellas. In 2017, Dessen won the Margaret Edwards Award for some of her work. Two of her books were adapted into the 2003 film ''How to Deal''. Early life, education and personal life Dessen was born in Evanston, Illinois, on June 6, 1970, to Alan and Cynthia Dessen, who were both professors at the University of North Carolina, teaching Shakespearean literature and classics. As a teenager, Dessen was very shy and quiet. She became involved with a 21-year-old when she was 15 but cut all contact with him shortly after. In a piece penned for Seventeen, Dessen wrote "for many years afterward, I took total blame for everything that happened between me and T. After all, I was a bad kid. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Texas Book Festival
The Texas Book Festival is a free annual book fair held in Austin, Texas. The festival takes place in late October or early November. It is one of the top book festivals in the United States. Beginnings The festival was established in 1995 by Laura Bush, then the First Lady of Texas, and Mary Margaret Farabee, wife of former State Senator Ray Farabee. The festival was initially created to benefit the state's public library system, promotes the joy of reading, and honor Texas authors. The first festival took place at the Texas State Capitol in November 1996. Expansion Since then, the festival has greatly expanded, with a focus on nationally known authors, attracting major bestsellers and award-winners. The revised mission statement: "The Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination." With the assistance of Honorary Chairman and librarian, Mrs. Bush, and a task force, the festival has grown ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New York Times Best Sellers List
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago'', Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992. Since October 12, 1931, ''The New York Times Book Review'' has published the list weekly. In the 21st century, it has evolved into multiple lists, grouped by genre and format, including fiction and non-fiction, hardcover, paperback and electronic. The list is based on a proprietary method that uses sales figures, other data and internal guidelines that are unpublished—how the ''Times'' compiles the list is a trade secret. In 1983 (as part of a legal argument), the ''Times'' stated that the list is not mathematically objective but rather editorial content. In 2017, a ''Times'' representative said that the goal is that the lists reflect authentic best selle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". No official definition exists regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of ''The Decameron'' (1353). ''The Decameron'' featured 100 tales (named nov ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lock And Key (novel)
''Lock and Key'' is a novel written by author Sarah Dessen. It is her eighth published novel. It was published by Viking's Children's Books in 2008. Plot After her drug and alcohol addicted mother abandons her, child services forces 17-year-old Ruby Cooper to move in with her sister, Cora, who had left for college when Ruby was young. Ruby is upset about this arrangement and continues to wear the key to her old home on a chain around her neck. After learning she will be transferring to a new high school, Ruby attempts to run away but is found out. Nate Cross, Jamie and Cora's next-door neighbor, covers for her. Over the span of the story, Ruby slowly becomes closer to Nate. As Ruby adjusts to her new life, she learns Cora had not been avoiding her; in fact, Cora had been trying to rescue Ruby from their mother but had always been stopped. Ruby feels overwhelmed with all this, so she skips school to take alcohol and drugs, and later finds herself in Nate's car when he picks h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Truth About Forever
''The Truth About Forever'' is Sarah Dessen's sixth novel. It was published in hardcover on May 11, 2004, and in paperback on April 6, 2006. In 2006 the audiobook adaptation of ''The Truth About Forever'' was one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's selected picks for that year. Plot summary The novel begins with Macy, who is trying to recover from the sudden loss of her father, saying goodbye to her boyfriend, Jason, who is going away to Brain Camp. Since her father died during one of their habitual morning runs, Macy gives up running and keeps all of her feelings to herself. Her overwhelming grief keeps her from moving forward in most aspects of her life. Macy is filling in for Jason at the library, and when she attempts to communicate with him about her unhappiness with her coworkers, he is not supportive. At the end of one of their e-mails, she tells him that she loves him, and he replies saying he thinks it would be for the best if they took a break until he retur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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This Lullaby
''This Lullaby'' (2002) is a young adult novel written by Sarah Dessen. Plot summary Remy is an eighteen-year-old who is about to leave for college. Her father, a musician, wrote his one and only hit song the day she was born. The song, called "This Lullaby," became extremely popular, but he died soon after its release. Now, Remy's mother is getting married for the fifth time. After her mother's previous failed marriages, love is something that Remy doesn't believe exists. One day, she randomly meets Dexter at a car dealership that her mother's fiancé owns. He claims to feel a connection with her the second he saw her. He is messy and a musician, two of her least favorite traits. But he is persistent. She slowly finds herself falling for him. She doesn't want to care about him, but somehow she just can't bring herself to get rid of him. Eventually, they start dating and she is surprised by how open and honest and caring he is. When Dexter overhears Remy saying that she only ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Keeping The Moon
''Keeping the Moon'' is a young adult novel by author Sarah Dessen. It is her third novel and was first published in 1999. Plot summary While her mother, a famous television fitness coach, is on promotion tour in Europe, fifteen-year-old Colie has to spend the summer holidays with her aunt Mira in Colby, North Carolina. Having endured a tough time at school, Colie is not looking forward to Colby. In her hometown Charlotte, Colie is an outsider as she used to be very overweight and, after losing weight, mean rumors about her being easy to get were spread. After Colie arrives at the train station in Colby, she is picked up by Norman, Mira's subtenant. Soon after her arrival Colie gets to know Morgan and Isabel who serve as waitresses in the Last Chance Diner where Norman is working as cook. At first, Colie is very dismissive but later regularly helps out in the restaurant. Over time, her initial defensiveness vanishes and they become friends. Also, she enjoys staying with her eccent ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Someone Like You (novel)
''Someone Like You'' (1998) is a young adult novel by Sarah Dessen. The movie ''How to Deal'' was based on this novel as well as one of Dessen's other novels, '' That Summer''. Plot summary The book is split into three parts. Part I: The Grand Canyon Halley and Scarlett Thomas live in directly opposite houses and both had jobs at Milton's Market. At the beginning of the summer, Scarlett starts dating Michael Sherwood but they decide to keep it quiet, with only Halley really knowing, because Michael recently broke up with cheerleader Elizabeth Gunderson and he claims he didn't want her to get upset. For the last two weeks of summer vacation, Halley is sent away to Sisterhood Camp against her will by her mother, who is having difficulties coming to terms with Halley growing up and changing. Then disaster strikes and Halley gets a phone call from Scarlett telling her about Michael's death. Scarlett asks Halley to come home and be with her. Her mom, even though she is unhappy ab ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Best Fiction For Young Adults
The American Library Association's Best Fiction for Young Adults, previously known as Best Books for Young Adults (1966–2010), is a recommendation list of books presented yearly by the YALSA division (Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...). It is for "fiction titles published for young adults in the past 16 months that are recommended reading for ages 12 to 18. The purpose of the annual list it to provide librarians and library workers with a resource to use for collection development and readers advisory purposes." In addition there is a "Best of the Best" list of the top 10 titles, made available since 1997.Betty Carter with Sally Estes and Linda Waddle, ''Best Books for Young Adults'', 2nd Edition, YALSA, ALA, 2000. The lis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection ''Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayiti'' (2011), the novel ''An Untamed State'' (2014), the short story collection '' Difficult Women'' (2017), and the memoir ''Hunger'' (2017). Gay was an assistant professor at Eastern Illinois University for four years before joining Purdue University as an associate professor of English. In 2018, she left Purdue to become a visiting professor at Yale University. Gay is a contributing opinion writer at ''The New York Times'', founder of Tiny Hardcore Press, essays editor for ''The Rumpus'', co-editor of PANK, a nonprofit literary arts collective, and the editor for ''Gay Mag'', which was founded in partnership with Medium. Early life Gay was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Michael and Nicole Gay, both of Haitian descent. Her mother was a hom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Siobhan Vivian
Siobhan Vivian (born January 12, 1979) is a bestselling American novelist, editor, and screenwriter. Early life and education Siobhan Vivian was born in New York City on January 12, 1979. At a young age, Vivian moved to Rutherford, New Jersey where she went to school and often got in trouble for sneaking out and not doing her homework. A 1997 graduate of Rutherford High School, Vivian has used her childhood in Rutherford as a "deep well" of ideas for her work. Vivian moved to Philadelphia after high school where she attended the University of the Arts and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Writing for Film and Television. Vivian then moved back to New York City where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Children's Literature from The New School. It was while in graduate school that Vivian met fellow authors Morgan Matson and Jenny Han, the latter of which she would go on to cowrite the Burn for Burn Trilogy with. Career After college, Vivian worked as an editor at Allo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jennifer Weiner
Jennifer Weiner (born March 28, 1970) is an American writer, television producer, and journalist. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, published in 2001, was '' Good in Bed''. Her novel '' In Her Shoes'' (2002) was made into a movie starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine. Background and education Weiner was born to a Jewish family in DeRidder, Louisiana, where her father was stationed as an army physician. The next year, her family (including a younger sister and two brothers) moved to Simsbury, Connecticut, where Weiner spent her childhood. When Weiner was 16, her father abandoned the family. He died of a crack cocaine overdose in 2008. Her first novel, '' Good in Bed'', is loosely based on her young-adult life: like the main character, Cannie Shapiro, Weiner's parents divorced when she was 16, and her mother came out as a lesbian at age 55. Weiner has said that she was "one of only nine Jewish kids in her high school class of 400 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |