Writing, Music, Theatre, The Detroit Red Wings, Cupcakes, Candycorn, Grilled Cheese, Vernors
Music
Make Your Own Soundtrack!
THE GIRL I WANTED TO BE - UNOFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK - Disc A: THEN
1. Summer Breeze - Seals & Croft
2. Head Over Heels - Tears for Fears
3. Grease (Theme Song) - Bee Gees
4. Africa - Toto
5. How Much I Feel - Ambrosia
6. Mona Lisa & Mad Hatters - Elton John
7. Reminiscing - Little River Band
8. Baby Come Back - Hall & Oates
9. If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
10. Sweet Painted Lady - Elton John
11. How Long Has This Been Going On? - Ace
12. Sail On - The Commodores
13. Never Tear Us Apart - INXS
14. We May Never Pass This Way Again - Seals & Croft
15. Desperado - The Eagles
16. Someone Saved My Life Tonight - Elton John
17. I Can't Help Falling in Love With You - Elvis Presley
THE GIRL I WANTED TO BE - UNOFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK: Disc B - NOW
1. Summer Breeze (acoustic, Seals & Croft cover) - Jason Mraz
2. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (Smiths cover) - Josh Rouse
3. Fix You (live) - Coldplay
4. Africa (live, Toto cover) - Howie Day
5. To Be Alone with You - Sufjan Stevens
6. Rise - Josh Rouse
7. Against All Odds (Phil Collins cover) - The Postal Service
8. Where I Fall - The Reindeer Section
9. Slow Motion - David Gray
10. Lover You Should've Come Over (Jeff Buckley cover) - Jamie Cullum
11. Tiny Vessels - Death Cab for Cutie
12. Sunday Afternoon (Live at the Loft/XM Radio) - Rachel Yamagata
13. Come Pick Me Up - Ryan Adams
14. Delicate - Damien Rice
15. For Blue Skies - Strays Don't Sleep
16. Ghost in You (Psychedelic Furs cover) - Counting Crows
17. I Can't Help Falling in Love With You (Elvis Presley cover) - Eels
Movies
An Inconvenient Truth, Brick, The Squid and the Whale, The Royal Tennebaums, Almost Famous, Waiting for Guffman, Spellbound, Friends with Money
Television
Freaks and Geeks, Lost, 24, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Shield, Rescue Me, The Office, My So-Called Life, Love Monkey, Arrested Development, Weeds, The Office, Top Chef, Project Runway
Books
Grosse Pointe Girl: Tales from a Suburban Adolescence - Sarah Grace McCandless
Freight Train Graffiti - Roger Gastman, Darin Rowland, Ian Sattler
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
The Everlasting - Jamie S. Rich
A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That - Lisa Glatt
The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
The Wonder Spot - Melissa Bank
Tenth Grade - Joe Weisberg
Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin - Paul Feig
I'm Not the New Me - Wendy McClure
An Ocean in Iowa - Peter Hedges
A Little Bit More About Me - Pam Houston
How to Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer
Twins - Marcy Dermansky
Go Ask Ogre - Jolene Siana
Miss New York Has Everything - Lori Jakiela
Heroes
Tina Fey, Mariska Hargitay, Judy Greer, Kyra Sedgwick, Pam Houston, Lorrie Moore, Lisa Glatt, Melissa Bank, Sarah Silverman
About me: About the Book
As a lowly freshman named for "The King," Presley Moran walks high school corridors paved with the stuff of family legend. Her cousin Barry, a senior heartthrob and brainy varsity letterman, insists that looking good on paper is the key to success. But Presley's young aunt Betsi, a former homecoming queen, has her own ideas about good looks and how to use them.
Can you keep a secret? Betsi asks Presley, who, at age fourteen, is eager for entrée into the adult world of beauty, attraction, and romance. But as Presley is about to discover, some secrets are better left unsaid. Will the illicit thrill of being a trusted confidant, privy to the details of muddled entanglements and incompatible desires, be worth the consequences of guilt by association?
Propelled by the crash of falling idols, The Girl I Wanted to Be is a timeless and true portrait of passion, loss, and hard-won wisdom.
"Touching and heartfelt. Sarah Grace McCandless navigates the minefields of family and adolescence with grce and skill. She's a writer to watch."
- Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries and Queen of Babble
"Sarah Grace McCandless's The Girl I Wanted to Be is a unique coming-of-age story where not only adolescents are growing up, but beautifully flawed adults -- complicated characters whose secrets are revealed with precision and candor, with a deft eye and plenty of heart."
- Lisa Glatt, author of A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That and The Apple's Bruise
"McCandless skillfully maintains an uncomfortable tension...and writes in an authentic adolescent voice about a young person's attempts to reconcile her own intuition and experiences with the patronizing doublespeak and contradictions in the adult world...These sharply perceptive moments showing how children navigate the puzzles of their own families will impact readers as much as the story's larger tragedies."
- Gillian Engberg, Booklist
"Presley's voice comes through with a believable mixture of confusion, innocence, and growing wisdom. Her story is enhanced by a narrative style that employs brief episodes and story gaps. The resulting breaks in the book deepen its complexity, providing space for conflicting emotions and paralleling Presley's need to deny and ignore patterns until forced to confront loss and forgiveness."
- Library Journal
"(A) thoughtful novel... the delicate manner in which sophomore novelist McCandless relays...comes as a surprise."
- Publisher's Weekly
“McCandless strikes just the right tone. This book is miles ahead of most…it's McCandless' deftness that I admire.”
- Marta Salij, The Detroit Free Press
“Presley, the narrator, is a gem, and McCandless indulges her with wonderful lines and memorable epiphanies...the writing is confident and honest.”
- Steve Duin, The Oregonian
“(The Girl I Wanted to Be is) even more accomplished...before this book is over, (Presley) will learn that some losses are permanent, no matter how badly one wishes to turn back the clock…a book for young adults and adults.”
- John Mark Eberhart, The Kansas City Star
“An affectionate story...McCandless nails the pain and humor of adolescence.”
- Newcity Chicago
“On the field of young writers, Sarah Grace McCandless is one to watch.”
- DCist.com
“Blending pop culture appreciation with the voice of adolescent confusion and maturation, Sarah Grace McCandless’ books are sophisticated indulgences that explore life in the suburban teen wasteland.”
- Venus Magazine
“The Girl I Wanted to Be documents the coming-of-age of 14-year-old Presley Moran but eschews typical teen rites of passage such as periods, prom, and losing one’s virginity. McCandless focuses on fallen idols, family tragedies, and other more wrenching points of maturation.”
- Washington City Paper
Who I'd like to meet: You! At an upcoming event...
Hiya - I would personally like to invite you to visit www. novel-storm. com - we went live last week after a long wait. We really need people to register which is free and takes seconds. I would love to read any comments you have which you can leave in the forum. The forum directs you to where new material is posted also.
Hi Sarah. Thanks for adding me. I hope to get to know you. Drop in any time and kick back. And feel free to comment on your thoughts as they come. I always love hearing from my friends. Again, welcome, my new friend. Take care, with all my best.
Ms. Sarah -- I always wanted to be The Girl I Wanted to Be. Congrats on such a great read! (Funny connection... Lisa Glatt is an old friend of my husband's. We're all in Gerald Locklin's crew. My son's named after Locklin, so there you go. Really, the whole world is six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It really is.)
Congratulations on your book! It looks like you're really getting yourself out there. Um.....if you have any tips for a first time novelist....let me know.
I wanted to drop you a line to thank you for taking the time to listen to the music. I sincerely appreciate the gesture of your time, your kind words, and am thrilled and flattered that you like the material. It always feels great when someone tells me that the music connected with them in a meaningful way.
We have a lot of exciting news to come this year, including a new album due out in a few months. With your permission, I'd love to keep you abreast of what's happening with us. I also invite you to sign up for email updates at our website.
It would be great to hear from you to say a simple hello or to hear how you're doing. I genuinely hope I've made a friend in this process.
Wishing things are happy and well with you,
Roger
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