#Maya Van Wagenen

[bookaddict24-7]

NEW YOUNG ADULT RELEASES! (MARCH 26TH, 2024)

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HAVE I MISSED ANY NEW YOUNG ADULT RELEASES? HAVE YOU ADDED ANY OF THESE BOOKS TO YOUR TBR? LET ME KNOW!

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NEW STANDALONES/FIRST IN A SERIES:

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales

Icarus by K. Ancrum

Out of Left Field by Jonah Newman

Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis

Chronically Dolores by Maya Van Wagenen

NEW SEQUELS:

Royal Scandal (Royal Blood #2) by Aimee Carter

Return of the Vengeful Queen (Rise of the Vicious Princess #2) by C.J. Redwine

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Happy reading!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🦇 Good afternoon, my bookish bats. I hope you have a good book, delicious latte, and sweet snack within reach! No TBR is complete without a few young adult novels, and plenty were released in March! Here are a few YA releases to consider adding to your shelves.

🩷 March 5 🩷 ✨ What Monstrous Gods - Rosamund Hodge ✨ The Prisoner's Throne - Holly Black ✨ Defy the Storm - Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland ✨ The Stricken - Morgan Shamy ✨ The Encanto's Daughter - Melissa de la Cruz ✨ Breathing Underwater - Abbey Nash ✨ One Last Breath - Ginny Myers Sain ✨ Bad Like Us - Gabriella Lepore ✨ Promchanted - Morgan Matson ✨ Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams - Shari Green ✨ The No-Girlfriend Rule - Christen Randall ✨ Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal - Gretchen Schreiber ✨ An Unlikely Proposition - Rosalyn Eves ✨ A Different Kind of Brave - Lee Wind ✨ The Baker and the Bard - Fern Haught

🩷 March 12 🩷 ✨ The Hedgewitch of Foxhall - Anna Bright ✨ Six Truths and a Lie - Ream Shukairy ✨ Monster Crush - Erin Ellie Franey ✨ Infinity Kings - Adam Silvera ✨ The Other Lola - Ripley Jones ✨ Just Another Epic Love Poem - Parisa Akhbari ✨ Not Your Average Jo - Grace K. Shim ✨ Book, Beast, and Crow - Elizabeth Byrne ✨ Meet Me in the Fourth Dimension - Rita Feinstein ✨ Ariel Crashes a Train - Olivia A. Cole ✨ These Bodies Between Us - Sarah Van Name ✨ A Feather So Black - Lyra Selene

🩷 March 19 🩷 ✨ Where Sleeping Girls Lie - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé ✨ Under This Red Rock - Mindy McGinnis ✨ The Last Bloodcarver - Vanessa Le ✨ The Revenant Games - Margie Fuston ✨ In the Orbit of You - Ashley Schumacher ✨ Cancelled - Farrah Penn ✨ Rules for Rule Breaking - Talia Tucker ✨ The Veiled Kingdom - Holly Renee ✨ Taka - Ryan Jampole

🩷 March 26 🩷 ✨ The Poisons We Drink - Bethany Baptiste ✨ Dead Girls Walking - Sami Ellis ✨ Royal Scandal - Aimee Carter ✨ Icarus - K. Ancrum ✨ The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist - Sophie Gonzales ✨ Chronically Dolores - Maya Van Wagenen ✨ Out of Left Field - Jonah Newman

[robinpronto]

"This is the time to remember that I’m the protagonist in my own story, facing every challenge with grace and wit." Maya Van Wagenen "ai" comic book themed image generated from a photo Sophia captured. 🥋 #karatedo #karate #comicart #aiart #protagonist #portrait #portraitphotography #enfj #personality #personalitytype playgroundai https://www.instagram.com/p/CpEAdJIPOLD/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[the--art--of--reading]

quick review | Popular

Author: Maya Van Wagenen

Genre: Memoir, YA  Non-fiction

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a lovely memoir about self-esteem and popularity from young author Maya Van Wagenen. I’m rating this book in the context of Maya’s age and experience as a writer when she wrote this (15 years old) and I find this an impressive, authentic, and unique read. Everyone remembers the inherent awkwardness of middle school and I love how Wagenen frames the experience with her own struggles and self reflection. I look forward to more works from her and recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, lighthearted read (especially readers in the 12-15 age range). 

[twobrokegirlswithbooks]

booksforthoughts BPC: Popular

🎵I'll show you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair Everything that really counts to be— Popular, I'll help you be popular🎵

-Nerdy Panda

[readingbooksinisrael]

Title: Popular: Vintage Wisdom for the Modern Geek

Author: Maya Van Wagenen

Summary: Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren’t paid to be here,” Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular?

Review: When I got this book out of the library I thought it was fiction but I think I actually wouldn't have enjoyed it if it had been fiction. For the most part it was an enjoyable book. The end was kitschy, clearly trying to deliver a message, but the beginning and middle of the book were good. It was very well written for a diary memoir though it obviously had been edited heavily, which did make it seem sort of fiction. I do wish they had left in more bad moments because those had obviously been taken out but that was the author's choice. It also bothered me that she repeated multiple times that her little sister is autistic because that is spreading out someone's private medical information. I also really hope she changed everyone's names unless they gave her permission not to.

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐(2.5/5)

[the-dogeared-pages]

POPULAR BY MAYA VAN WAGENEN!!! Popular is about a girl named Maya who decided to make her eighth-grade year a little bit of a social experiment. She embarks on a journey to possible popularity by following the advice from Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide. Will these popularity tips from the 50s lead to stunning success, or fifties-fashioned failure? As you read this book, you slowly but surely feel like you know Maya. I found this book truly inspiring and it made me want to cherish my time in school this year.

This book didn’t fulfill any goal for me.

[beautifulpaxielreads]

October Wrap-Up

Books Completed (ratings out of five stars)

A sky painted gold by Laura Wood (reread, begun in September, ★★★★1/2)

Popular (a memoir): vintage wisdom for a modern geek by Maya Van Wagenen (begun in September, ★★★1/2)

Firekeeper’s daughter by Angeline Boulley (★★★★)

It’s not you, it’s me by Gabrielle Williams* (★★★)

The winner’s kiss (The Winner’s Trilogy #3) by Marie Rutkoski (★★★1/2)

Books currently in progress

The library book by Susan Orlean

The inheritance games (The inheritance games #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Defy the night (Defy the night #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

Lives between the lines: a journey in search of the lost Levant by Michael Vatikiotis

*Australian author/s

Reflections on October and Goals for November

October was a mixed month for me in terms of reading. The last two books you see on my “in progress” list, I actually only started reading yesterday. The ones I was reading before that (A brief history of capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis and After Story by Larissa Behrendt) I DNF’d. Which was a shame, because the subject matter of both – I felt – were incredibly worthy and necessary.

I DNF’d Varoufakis’ book because despite its enlightening content, it was taking me far too long a time to read it, given it was only about 200 pages. And with After Story, I could tell was an important read by First Nations Australian woman Larissa Behrendt, but the diary-entry style format made it a chore to get through. And given that I have many books on my ever-growing TBR, I was pretty keen to get to them. So that’s how the cookie crumbled, I’m afraid to say.

· I went on a bit of a book-buying spree in October, so much so that I have promised myself not to buy any more until I have got through a decent chunk of the unread ones I have on my shelf already. And I’m going to stick to that promise. Hopefully.

My favourite book this month – aside from my reread of A Sky Painted Gold (as brilliant as ever, btw) – had to be Firekeeper’s Daughter. It was a great insight into a culture I know so little about (First Nations Americans). Least favourite was probably It’s Not You, It’s Me. I read it really quickly and the concept was great, but I think it was too fast-paced for me to take much in.

My chief goal for November is to finish the books on my “in progress” list. If I can do that before the end of the month, then I’ll be tantalisingly close to hitting my goal of 65 books read this year. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Other than the above, I’ll just keep making my way through my TBR.

That will do for now, I’ll see you in December for my November wrap-up. Until then, stay safe and happy reading!

[melon-official]

matcha for the tea asks

matcha: favourite book?

I have a whole bunch but the first 2 that come to mind are gender queer (by maia kobabe) and popular (by maya van wagenen)

[mabith]

May’s Reading! Asterisks are re-reads, bolds are favorites. Reading a ridiculous amount, but not loving enough of these, so starting to feel a little burnt out. I’ve got L.E.L. - Lucasta Miller - Really interesting biography of a quickly forgotten scandalous woman writer known in her time as “the female Byron.” There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra – Chinua Achebe Letter to Jimmy – Alain Mabanckou - This was sometimes great, sometimes tedious but a good companion read with There Was a Country The Provocative Colette – Annie Goetzinger - Very pretty, but disappointed that the focus was on her romantic and sexual relationships. Acorna's World – Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough * Drowned Wednesday – Garth Nix * Birds in Town and Village – William Henry Hudson Black Tudors – Miranda Kaufmann - Quite good, but make sure you don’t go in expecting full histories and endless detail. Heart's Blood – Juliet Marillier * Daniel Deronda – George Eliot - Eliot’s writing is so fucking beautiful and amazing, though you’ve got to fight more than the usual amount of casual/not-so-casual anti-semitism in this one. She’s trying to do a good thing, but it’s 1876... Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward - Good, though not as good as Sing, Unburied, Sing, which is understandable since they were published six years apart. Good Morning, Comrades – Ondjaki How Democracies Die – Steven Levitsky - Depressing but a super important history lesson on how we’ve avoided electing a Trump type in the past and why the previous safeguards failed this time. The Lighthouse – Paco Roca Embassytown – China Mieville - Did not enjoy. Mieville is awful at explaining this world either through context or showing and doesn’t info-dump either. Put 20 big ideas rather than focusing on a few core concepts. Spends ages telling you about things that then have no relevance as well. Plus the characters emotions and relationships to each other are very flat (all tell not show) and some leaps made little sense. Golden Hill – Francis Spufford - Meh. Just didn’t grab me. Assata – Assata Shakur Sir Thursday – Garth Nix * The Mines of King Solomon – Carl Barks Serena – Ron Rash - Love the sense of place, connection to the land, hated the melodrama and ahistorical animal details (a komodo dragon in a 1930s traveling circus for one...) Everything is Wonderful – Sigrid Rausing Lady Friday – Garth Nix * Extra Virginity – Tom Mueller Shooting Stars – Stefan Zweig - Loved it, despite ending with Woodrow Wilson and acting like he was a good guy. The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe – Elaine Showalter - New goal, go back in time and murder Howe’s husband. My Sister, The Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite - Unsatisfying ending (but I have sister issues), still really enjoyed the read and how the tensions and such were handled. Superior Saturday – Garth Nix * A Venetian Affair – Andrea di Robilant Popular – Maya van Wagenen - I really feel like this is a purposefully constructed book that doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality. Even the hard parts Maya purports that she got over with a snap of the fingers. Middle school is largely agreed to be harder than high school among people roughly my age, and I just doubt it’s better 20 years later. The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn – John Bellairs - I will always love Bellairs protagonists and their awkward unhappiness. I grew up only reading his Johnny Dixon books, so this is my first Anthony Monday and I loved it. Very sad that the other three are the usual supernatural since this was an adventure puzzle and I love that. I’m going to blame publishers for the shift. Field Notes from a Catastrophe – Elizabeth Kolbert

[bumblebaby]

11, 15, and 29 for the identity asks 😙💕

11. Describe your ideal day: Waking up early to see the sunrise, a clear, sunny day, listening to music that makes me feel alive, hanging out with friends and having a sleepover, falling asleep peacefully

15. Five most influential books over your lifetime: The only one I can think of is Popular by Maya Van Wagenen. I don’t read lmao

29. Three songs that you connect with right now: Growing Pains by Coin, Work This Body by Walk The Moon, Amazing Pt. 2 by Bohdi

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

❤‍🔥 Books for Hispanic & Latine Heritage Month

❓What's your favorite book written by a Hispanic or Latine author?

❤‍🔥 The Luis Ortega Survival Club - Sonora Reyes ✨ With the Fire on High - Elizabeth Acevedo ❤‍🔥 Brownstone - Samuel Teer & Mar Julia ✨ Suncatcher - Jose Pimienta ❤‍🔥 Mexican WhiteBoy - Matt de la Peña

❤‍🔥 The First to Die at the End - Adam Silvera ✨ Shut Up, This Is Serious - Carolina Ixta ❤‍🔥 Small Town Monsters - Diana Rodriguez Wallach ✨ I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika L Sanchez ❤‍🔥 Chronically Dolores - Maya Van Wagenen ✨ It's All Love - Jenna Ortega

❤‍🔥 Does My Body Offend You? - Mayra Cuevas & Marie Marquardt ✨ Bad at Love - Gabriela Martins ❤‍🔥 Northranger - Rey Terciero & Bre Indigo ✨ Before We Were Free - Julia Alvarez ❤‍🔥 Lucero - Maya Motayne ✨ Queerceañera - Alex Crespo

❤‍🔥 The Turning Pointe - Vanessa L. Torres ✨ Suddenly a Murder - Lauren Munoz ❤‍🔥 Always Isn't Forever - JC Cervantes ✨ It Sounds Like This - Anna Meriano ❤‍🔥 Flirting With Fate - JC Cervantes ✨ Undead Girl Gang - Lily Anderson

❤‍🔥 When We Make It - Elisabet Velasquez ✨ Diamond Park - Phillippe Diederich ❤‍🔥 Juliet Takes a Breath - Gabby Rivera ✨ Libertad - Bessie Flores Zaldivar ❤‍🔥 This Is How We Fly - Anna Meriano ✨ Viva Lola Espinoza - Ella Ceron

❤‍🔥 The Grief Keeper - Alexandra Villasante ✨ Just Another Epic Love Poem - Parisa Akhbari ❤‍🔥 Sanctuary - Paola Mendoza & Abby Sher ✨ Solis - Paola Mendoza & Abby Sher ❤‍🔥 We Are Not From Here - Jenny Torres Sanchez ✨ Azar on Fire - Olivia Abtahi

❤‍🔥 Up in Flames - Hailey Alcaraz ✨ Beyond the Break - Heather Buchta ❤‍🔥 Chasing After Knight - Heather Buchta ✨ Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas ❤‍🔥 The Sunbearer Trials - Aiden Thomas ✨ What the River Knows - Isabel Ibañez

[deteensde]

Inspirational Nugget Maya Van Wagenen is 16-years-old.  When she was 11, her family moved to Brownsville, Texa...

[enchantingpersephone]

This weeks Pinning Down Pinup History I’m doing something a little different! I picked up this memoir by Maya Van Wagenen who wrote about following a Popularity guide from the 1950’s for her entire 8th grade year! It’s fascinating to watch this young woman transform and see how she garners confidence through following the advice of Betty Cornell. While she doesn’t make a complete rockabilly transformation she does follow the advice to the T leading to fun and hilarious outcomes! This book has led me to want to try and find a copy of the book by Betty Cornell and see if the advice can still be applied to those of us who are no longer in school! After all isn’t that what we are doing with our vintage nostalgia? Taking the good of both periods and trying to do better? https://www.instagram.com/p/BusOKG4gjTA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ff6n5wrxv26d

[twobrokegirlswithbooks]

JOMP BPC: Read in January // booksforthoughts BPC: January Wrap-up

-Nerdy Panda

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen (A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Nerve by Jeanne Ryan (A book revolving around a puzzle or game)

Not pictured:

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer (A book about someone with a superpower)

Adulthood Is a Myth: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen

[readingbooksinisrael]

Reviewed

The Hero of Ages/Brandon Sanderson  ★★★ 3/5 (thoughts)

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek/Maya Van Wagenen ★★★ 2.5/5 (review)

Kristy’s Great Idea: the Graphic Novel/Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier (thoughts) ★★★★★ 5/5

Unreviewed

The Well of Ascension/Brandon Sanderson ★★ 2/5

The Alloy of Law-Brandon Sanderson ★★★★ 4/5

Rereads

The Grim Grotto/Lemony Snicket