Bookburger

30 Sec Lit Crit: How Not to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler

It's a great moment in burger history: the first book review by AMANDA, the latest in a long line of lovely teen reviewers (well, actually the line is rather short, but quite distinguished). She is 16 and a passionate reader who dreams of becoming a writer herself one day....and we are just completely happy to be posting her reviews. So here's the first one....take it away, Amanda!

          

How NOT to Be Popular is a new, fantastic book by Jennifer Ziegler that is hysterical and fast-paced, with unique and kooky characters and situations. It’s a fresh take on high school and a reinvention of the typical young adult themes of how to become popular and be the alpha dog of the school. It’s about a girl named Maggie, whose real name is Sugar Magnolia (no, I’m not kidding), whose hippie nomad parents make her move away from her boyfriend and friends in Portland, Oregon to a new home in Austin, Texas. The title of the book comes from Maggie’s plan to not be popular at her new school, so that when she leaves shortly, it won’t be as painful and hard to do. This book is a truly fun and entertaining story full of laughs, heartache, and ugly clothes.
       Since the book’s chapters are in the form of a list, I’ve decided to make a little list of my own:
        How to NOT write a boring book (inspired by Jennifer Ziegler):
1.       Write about zany characters with equally weird names and situations. Example: Sugar Magnolia, a love child of hippie parents, Rosie and Les. Rosie and Les like to study astrology, herbs, and befriend any stranger they meet on the side of the road. They also like to experience life and move every 8 months. Oh, and walk around naked.
2.       Make the story relatable, but still very creative.
Example:  After Maggie comes up with her great big unpopular plan, she falls in with a bunch of “losers” (or so she initially thinks), with a love for helping the community. She meets a “Young Republican” named Jack, and starts to feel genuine feelings for him. While this whole storyline is something that many teenagers probably haven’t gone through, many have feelings for people they don’t want to, or people who they initially think are too opposite of them. Many teenagers can identify with Maggie’s thoughts and opinions, while still being entertained by the craziness of her life.
3.       Write in a new and different format, that foreshadows the events of the next chapter.
Example:  Ziegler writes the story in chapters that are titled according to a list of how to not be popular and feature tips on how to achieve the unpopularity quotient. These tips tell what’s to come in the next few pages, and are really fun to read and predict what’s next for Maggie in her quest. My favorites are: Chapter Two’s “In order to be unpopular, you must look the part. Remember four words: “plastic flowered swim cap”and “Unpopularity is a state of mind. Feel Nerdy, It also helps to use the word vaginal a lot.” Yeah, this book is just that funny.

So run out and get this book, How NOT to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler. After you lend your friends the book, you’ll sure to be the most popular girl around. Trust me.

quite possibly the biggest giveaway in burger history

Burgerfolk, this is epic. We're giving away FIVE SETS of the following juicy reads....

Gossip Girl Prequel: It Had to Be You by Cecily von Ziegesar

Poseur by Rachel Maude

Sealed With a Diss: A Clique Novel by Lisi Harrison

Beautiful Stranger: An A-List Novel by Zoey Dean

Lucky: An It Girl Novel by Cecily von Ziegesar

So how does one win this five-book set? We're trying a new giveaway strategy:

1. If you email us, you're automatically entered to win--only one entry per email address allowed. Send emails to mail at bookburger.com.

2. HERE'S HOW TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES BIG-TIME: Mention bookburger on your MySpace, Facebook, blog, or any other page, link to us, then copy the link in a comment below. Do that, and you're entered FIVE times. So you've got FIVE times more chances to win....

Get it, burgerfolk? The contest is open until midnight, February 12. Good luck, hungry readers!

bookmooch

the following is a public service annoucement:

burger fans, we know some of you are a little short on pocket cash. To feed your reading habit, there's always the library, of course...but sometimes you just want to possess, right? For that, there's now this cool new site bookmooch. Trade your used books! Get rid of the dud novels on your shelves and get new reads for free. There's a lot of give and take, you earn points for making other readers happy, and heck, it just sounds like good karma to us. cute site, too...

bratfest at bookburger

holy manolo! We just realized that there's less than one month to go until the Feb 5 pub date of the next Clique meisterwerk...Bratfest at Tiffany's!

Just a heads up: we'll be marking this mega-important event with one of our biggest giveaways ever...so stay tuned, clique-oids! (and to all you clique-haters, we feel your pain...trust us: you'll want to wallflower this one...)

carolyn mackler...between the buns

OK, we'll admit it. We burger-flippers are boy-crazy. We are guyaholics and we don't want to go to rehab (we say, no, no, no....) It's not that we're endorsing a boy-addicted lifestyle. It's just that we're having too much fun to quit.  So we knew we'd adore Carolyn Mackler's newest novel, Guyaholic.  This follow-up to her deliciously-titled Vegan Virgin Valentine centers on the same main character, the obsessive-yet-loveable V. The story makes some interesting connections between V's guy-chasing ways and her mother's. It's a quick read and it in our opinion it's entirely succulent (no that doesn't mean it sucks--it's our new, vintage-2008 way to say "it's real good"--like it?)

So anyhow, we asked Carolyn to take our fun and funky pop quiz. Here 'tis:

Who is your favorite writer that most people have never heard of?

I've been racking my brain and I actually think most people have heard of all my favorite writers (Megan McCafferty, Judy Blume, Nick Hornby, David Levithan, Rachel Cohn, Sarah Dessen).  Which is a great thing because it means they're getting the popular success they deserve.

What kid or teen books rocked your world growing up?

Anything by Judy Blume.  Autumn Street by Lois Lowry.  Anything by M.E. Kerr.  The Great Brain books.

Describe your ideal place to write.

At my desk in the corner of our bedroom (with a huge cup of coffee at my side).

Your life is a TV series. Name the theme song, one event that would be on the "best of" episode, and one that would be on the blooper reel.

Theme song: "The Only Living Boy in New York" by Paul Simon.  (I'm a girl, but it still fits)
Best of: Getting married, having my son
Blooper reel: Junior High.  Can that please go in the trash bin?

Burger-flippers want to know: have you ever had a job that required you to wear a geeky uniform? Details, please!

No uniform jobs.  However my current work-at-home writer uniform isn't exactly cool.  Sweats, T-shirt, and these UGLY blue slippers.  Boy, do I need new slippers.

We'd like to name a burger in your honor.  What kind of fixins should it have?

Veggie burger (I'm a vegetarian), swiss cheese, avocado, onion, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, ranch dressing.  Oh my god, YUM.

lovely and sad....

winner takes all: the Official Punk Rock Book of Lists goes to...

Juwaira!
You are so punk rock, babe! Congrats, and thanks to all who entered...you rock too. Juwaira, please email me at dj @ bookburger dot com to claim your prize....and happy 2008 everybody!