Hey YA Readers!
Last Thursday, the wrong newsletter edition hit your inboxes. That should have been for today, which means that you got a look at two books that hit shelves this week a little early. So today, you’re getting a look at two paperbacks that hit shelves last week, plus a roundup of the latest in YA book news.
The results of the reader poll on the best and most underrated read of the year will be in Thursday’s newsletter.
Are you looking for the perfect gift for that bookish special someone in your life this holiday season? Tailored Book Recommendations is here to help! Here at TBR, we pair our customers with a professional book nerd (aka bibliologist) who just gets them. They fill out a survey and then sit back and relax as we pick books just for them. We’ve got three levels — recs-only, paperback, and hardcover — and you can gift a full year or one time, so there are options for every budget! Get all the details at mybtro.com/gift.
Bookish Goods
Race You To The Library Sticker by OpalandJuneShop
How fun and cute is this bumper sticker? I love the color scheme and its vintage feel. I’ll be racing you to grab one. $11.50.
New Releases
One of the benefits of fewer book releases this time of the year is that maybe you can eke out a little extra time with the books already flopped on your TBR. At least…we can pretend that’ll happen, right?
Here are a pair of this last week’s new paperback releases. You can grab the whole list—again, it’s pretty short—over here.
Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green
Jake and Nate’s ex-boyfriends decided to fake that they’re doing well post-breakup. Their exes are together and sharing on Instagram just how perfect their relationship is.
Naturally, Jake and Nate decide they’re going to get back at their exes and pretend to have the best summer ever. They’ll hit the ‘Gram, too, with incredible photos of their perfect road trip. It’s a big scheme to make everything look like it’s going great, and the two of them are mourning the loss of their relationships.
What they won’t talk about is how they’re stuck in a van with Nate’s annoying parents and younger sister. Nor how they actually haven’t talked to each other in years.
Nor…how they might be falling for one another. A hilarious road trip meets social media hijinks rom-com.
This Is Not a Personal Statement by Tracy Badua
Perla, 16, has done everything right in high school in order to graduate early, with honors, and get into her dream college, Delmont University. But when she’s rejected by the school, she doesn’t know what to do. Everything she’s worked for has been upended.
So she decides to do what anyone else would do: forge an acceptance letter and show up anyway. If she can lay low but see how things work, maybe she can actually get an acceptance when she reapplies for next year.
In the meantime, she’ll be crashing classes.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
YA Book News
- Two of the big YA book awards given by librarians have announced their finalists. Get to know the five candidates for best debut YA novel (the Morris Awards) and the five candidates for best YA nonfiction (the Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award).
- There’s an adaptation of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me in the works, and here are some of the details.
- There’s a new YA adaptation on Netflix. Get to know the story of My Life With The Walter Boys and the 15-year-old who wrote it.
- Dhonielle Clayton is adding to her literary career with a new book packaging company, Electric Postcard Entertainment. The focus is on diverse genre reads and is in addition to her YA packaging business, Cake Literary.
- Here are the 5 books that The Guardian called the best YA of the year.
- Pop even more books on your TBR—lol—with this roundup of all the YA science fiction and fantasy hitting shelves in December.
- Over on Crime Reads, a look at dark academia in YA.
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you on Thursday with your favorite reads of 2023.
Until then, happy reading!
–Kelly Jensen, currently reading Rouge by Mona Awad.