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Guest Blogger: Sara Benincasa on Her Memoir and Mental Illness

Today’s guest blogger is award-winning comedian Sara Benincasa, author of Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom, available in paperback April 9^th. In Agorafabulous!, Sara uses her trademark humor to chronicle her attempts to forge a wonderfully weird adulthood in the midst of her lifelong struggle with agoraphobia, depression, and unruly hair.  In today’s post Sarah shares with us how writing her memoir has surprised her in more ways than one.

Hi. I'm Sara. I'm a comedian. I wrote a funny book about going crazy and getting (mostly) better.

In the year since the hardcover edition of Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom was published, I've been deeply moved by the many emails, tweets, and Facebook messages I've received from folks who were touched by the book. They write to me about misery, depression, loneliness, addiction, anxiety, and fear. They write to me about hope, recovery, and the joy of excelling in ways they previously never could have imagined.

I've also met many college students during my lecture trips, and I found that they also really benefited from the book—which is good, because when I was their age, I really could've used a book like this one.

There are a lot of us in this diverse, brilliant, troubled tribe of people who struggle with mental illness, and there are also many caregivers and family members and friends who can't escape the reality of a loved one's condition.

I wrote this book for all of them.

With the publication of the paperback edition, I hope Agorafabulous!  will reach a new, wide audience of readers who could benefit from a laugh (or several laughs) in the midst of pain. It's also enjoyable, I'm told, for people who have zero experience with mental illness, because, believe it or not, this book is pretty amusing.

Join Sara for a virtual book chat tomorrow night on Shindig.com, 6pm ET. Click here to RSVP.

Follow Sara on Twitter or like her on Facebook.

5 Reasons Books Make the Best Valentines - Guest Post from Sara Benincasa, Author of Agorafabulous

I've spent a fair number of Valentine's Days with gentleman callers, and have even scored a few gifts over the years. Maybe I'm biased because my own book, Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom, comes out on Valentine's Day this year, but it recently occurred to me that a book would make the best possible present for the most romantic day of the year. Here's why.

1.)  It's incredibly sexy. I mean, duh. Is there anything hotter than a guy who reads? How about a guy who reads Pablo Neruda's love poems, realizes they're the perfect aphrodisiac, purchases a volume of them, wraps it in pink and red paper and presents it to a swooning lady love?

2.)  It's incredibly affordable. Diamonds are boring and often come from ethically suspect sources. Chocolate makes you fat and sluggish. Books have the potential to make you smarter, more interesting, fitter, richer, and better in bed! At the very least, a good read will improve your dinner party conversation.

3.)  It lasts forever. Or at least for the rest of your natural life, which is more than I can say for some stinky pile of flowers or some soon-to-be stale red velvet cake.

4.)  It won't leave you with a headache in the morning. Reading a book is an inherently good choice, and while its content may vary, the book itself can't make you do crazy things. A bottle of champagne, on the other hand…that's a different (and potentially far more salacious) story.

5.)  It’ll help you weed out an unsuitable suitor. Two words: “The Fountainhead.” You’re welcome.

Now go forth and get some! (Books, that is.) And a happy, happy Valentine’s Day to you.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day I'm giving away copies of Sara’s new book Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from My Bedroom to five randomly selected commenters who comment on this post today!

Click to watch the book trailer and connect with Sara on Facebook and Twitter.