{Story Diary} This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Jul 13, 2015

tswsylThis Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
Young Adult Contemporary
September 17, 2013 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux



Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.

Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, This Song Will Save Your Life is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.





[spotify id="spotify:user:macmillanchildrensbooks:playlist:68KPz76rEYpqs5KKCM7B1Y" width="300" height="380" /]

**Playlist found on Mac Teen Books's website**



-
"Would You Say Stop?" by Acid House Kings
"I Didn't See It Coming" by Belle & Sebastian
"So Here We Are" by Bloc Party
"The Sweetest Things" by Camera Obscura
"I'd Rather Dance with You" by Kings of Convenience
"Roadrunner" by The Modern Lovers
"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Such Great Heights" by the The Postal Service
"Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space" by Spiritualized
"Mersey Paradise" by the Stones Roses

**Playlist can be found in the back of the book (paperback)**



-
"Quarter to Three" by Gary U.S. Bonds
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by James Brown
"Do You Love Me" by the Contours
"Keep on Dancing" by the Gentrys
"Rave On" by Buddy Holly
"Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers
"Tossin' and Turnin'" by Bobby Lewis
"You Can't Hurry Love" by the Supremes
"(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson
"Uptight (Everything's Alright)" by Stevie Wonder

**Playlist can be found in the back of the book (paperback)**



-
"Evaporated" by Ben Folds Five
"This Modern Love" by Bloc Party
"Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley
"Country Mile" by Camera Obscura
"Fight Test" by the Flaming Lips
"Someone Great" by LCD Soundsystem
"I Don't Want to Get Over You" by the Magnetic Fields
"Ceremony" by New Order
"I Know It's Over" by the Smiths
"Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" by Stars

**Playlist can be found in the back of the book (paperback)**




“I believe that a person's taste in music tells you a lot about them.”

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life


“The thing about being an artist," Dad said, folding his newspaper and setting it down on the table, "is that there are always going to be people who want to stop you from doing your art. But this usually says more about them and their issues than it does about you and your art.”

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life


"Popularity rewards the uninteresting."

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life


“Throughout it all, you are still, always, you: beautiful and bruised, known and unknowable.”

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life


“I don't believe that anyone who is a legitimately interesting person can be popular as a teenager.”

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life


“I had once thought that I wanted to get revenge by dying. But getting revenge by living, and living well, was much, much sweeter.”

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life


“Some people will mess with you, whenever they want, and for no reason except that they can. But hurting yourself is giving those people all the power, and they don’t deserve it. Why would they deserve to have control over your life? Because they’re cool? Because they’re pretty? That’s completely illogical.”

-- Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life






[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmYeS4PykN0&w=460&h=290]




I was born in 1984, and I grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, with my parents and our cat. When I was little, I wanted to grow up to be a writer, actress, or singer. The writing part turned out to be easiest to accomplish, since it turns out I can’t really carry a tune, though I can do a pretty compelling karaoke rendition of “Hey Mickey.”

I wrote and illustrated approximately one million picture books when I was in elementary school, all of them about unicorns or cats or princesses, or princess unicorns who were best friends with princess cats. When I was seven, I wrote a longer story about quintuplets named Marissa, Larissa, Clarissa, Melissa, and Alyssa. The quintuplets were not princesses, but they did get invited to a royal ball.

During middle school and high school, I wrote five unpublished YA novels. I also acted in plays, competed in gymnastics meets and debate tournaments, babysat, and did an awful lot of schoolwork. My favorite school subject was math, and my worst subject was either science or Spanish.

I went to college at the University of Chicago, where I majored in psychology. I also performed in Off-Off Campus (an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe), competed in debate tournaments all over the world, helped judge the world’s largest scavenger hunt, and wrote a humor column for the school paper. And I wrote another unpublished YA novel, for which I was awarded the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for Fiction Writing.

After graduating, I got a job at a children’s book publishing company in New York City, where I remain to this day. My first novel was published in 2010, and since then, I’ve just kept working on more. During the daytime I read other people’s books, and during the nighttime I write my own. What more could I need?


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