I'm trying to expand my essay reading this year, which is what attracted me to Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me by Aisha Harris. Plus, it was about popular culture, which I have an interest in and appreciation for. Not as deep an interest and appreciation as Aisha Harris's, though.

These are personal essays, on subjects personal to Harris, such as her name, that then reach out to connect to the larger world. Now this is significant, because Harris is a young black woman, while I am a not-so-young white woman. We don't share what you'd call a racial culture, but we don't share a generational culture, either. With some of the essays, I felt as if I was doing the reading for a college course, because the information was so new to me. I had to look some stuff up.

That's not a complaint, by the way. I found it exciting. I now know that IP refers to "intellectual property." One of my son's was surprised to learn I didn't know that. Thank you, Aisha, for catching me up on that. Seriously.

The first essay in the collection, relating to Harris's name, Aisha, is a model for the personal essay form she uses. In discussing her own name, she gets into the impact on Black parents of music and the mini-series Roots. Popular culture shaping people. In her case, it didn't shape her name quite the way she thought it did.

After reading about her TV interests when she was a girl, I felt bad, because I couldn't remember if my sons had had a similar experience with TV shows. I did monitor the TV a bit here. So I got into that with the same son who was surprised I didn't know what IP meant, and, sure enough, he could recall a Friday night lineup with programs I have little recollection of. Which may get into a generational thing--though I watched TV with my kids, the things they enjoyed were probably pretty meaningless to me, so I don't retain them. I think I only remember Boy Meets World because there was a girl in it named Topanga. Which could lead us back to names.

Hmm. Is it meaningful that I was concerned about whether or not my sons had a chance to experience the popular culture of their generation, but I didn't give a thought to what experiences I, myself, had with popular culture growing up?

I should have, because I think the big takeaway from this interesting and readable collection is that popular culture didn't just shape Aisha Harris. It shapes all of us.

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I loved reading this! Aisha Harris has such a distinctive voice, and her essays were thoughtful as she explored the nuances of pop culture's influence on and relationship to how we view ourselves and the world around us. As a fellow millennial, her references were right up my alley, and she made me think about some of the texts in a different way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the amazing publisher for the ARC of this title! I am so grateful to be auto-approved for this title!
I look forward to reading and reviewing. More to come!

This memoir is brimming with cultural criticism, and filled with glimpses into the author’s life up until this point. I thoroughly enjoyed this debut from Aisha Harris, and the stories she shares with the audience throughout. She traces her life through moments of pop culture (how Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” played a part in her understanding of her first name, the role Black actors play as the “Black best friend” in tv/film, how media portrayals of parents not loving parenting can help reinforce your own decision on the matter, etc) and Harris does it all with sharp humor and wit. Whether you’re familiar with Harris’ work or not, this book will make you a fan. Can’t wait to see/read/listen to what comes next for her!

Big thanks to HarperOne and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love first person essays with a lot of pop culture sprinkled in, and this book was great! I've been a long time listener of the author on Pop Culture Happy Hour, so I was eager to read this. She's a great writer, able to synthesize a lot of different pop cultural properties together to a theme, and she has really sharp insights into race, gender, motherhood, and more. A deep love for pop culture comes across. Her essay about the story behind her name is a true standout, a great example of the kinds of background stories we build for ourselves.

I appreciate the breadth of experience and willingness to dig deep on pop culture that Aisha Harris brings to her first book. These essays contain biographical information tied to pop culture consumption as she grew up in the 90s in America as a young Black girl. Harris and I are almost the same age-I think we may have graduated high school in the same year- so a lot of her references to 90s entertainment resonated with me. Even when I had not seen pieces of culture she references (Better Call Saul, etc) she deftly fills in the gaps in my knowledge with quick asides about plot and characterization. Her sheer breadth of references means everyone who has paid attention even a little bit over the past 30 years will have something to latch onto. Also, I didn't know the Santa-Claus-should-be-a-penguin article was her!. I remember the absolutely outrageous reaction some people had to her lighthearted suggestion but never connected the fact that this person I have listened to on Pop Culture Happy Hour for years was the author.

I have to admit that I just couldn't get into this one. However, I think if I listen to the audiobook I would love it. I generally love Aisha Harris ( podcast, host etc) but her essays in this book were a little too wandering for me, I felt they lost steam about halfway through.

Whew. I really like listening to Aisha Harris on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, and I was excited to read her book. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read it.

I found the book's description a bit misleading. To me, it sounded if this book would be a very personal, fun take on Aisha's views of pop culture and how it shaped her as a Millenial, straight, Black woman. There are a few chapters like that but then it veers into some very serious opinion writing that while interesting, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Lots of big words and themes I wasn't expecting.

I was especially thrown off by her chapter on not wanting children. She seems to have made her decision not to have kids at least in part because of how parents are portrayed in popular culture (stressed, annoyed, unable to truly "live"). As a mom of two, in fact a stay at home mom by choice, I was really disturbed by her logic. There are many reasons why parents are so stressed these days and it's not because they have bratty kids...lack of good childcare, job markets that take us far from family and community, mental load not being shared between partners and so on. That chapter really left a bad taste in my mouth. That's fine if she doesn't want kids, and I agree that having children is difficult and disruptive, but tying it into pop culture was very questionable and lazy to me. Just like going to a doctor is not like going to Gray's Anatomy.

Aisha Harris might be one of the smartest minds of our generation. I wasn’t familiar with her work before reading this book, but the way she breaks down systemic issues like racism, sexism, and toxic fandom — all through the lens of pop culture — is so unique and insightful. This is a deceptively dense read if you allow yourself to really engage with it, and I don’t necessarily think it’s for the casual pop culture enthusiast. Each of the book’s nine essays contain so many ideas that warrant further examination and thought. The essay “Kenny G Gets It” has stuck with me the most so far: it’s discussion of fandom, our expectations of celebrities, and the way the internet has shapes the way we view identity was such a refreshing, honest but never accusatory take on a topic I think about frequently but typically hate reading about. I’m confident Harris could write a master’s level thesis on any one of the ideas she presented in this book and still leave me thoroughly engaged and entertained.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Pop culture = life.

I absolutely enjoyed Aisha Harris’s series of essays on the relevance of pop culture in modern living. I feel I have learned so much about myself and for myself (though I have always known that you’re not supposed to flush tampons, so sorry Aisha) that pop culture is my third parent.

In these essays, Harris uses pop culture as a lens to explore important social topics like racism, parenthood, feminism, and generational trauma. I thought they were all well written and insightful (and funny!) but would’ve loved a closing essay to wrap everything up - her final essay has maybe two paragraphs as a conclusion but would prefer an additional essay to tie everything together.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a listener of Pop Culture Happy Hour for years, I was excited to see Aisha Harris releasing a book and picked it up right away! She is roughly the same age as me and I have enjoyed reexamining the nostalgia of my youth over the years, with (eep) almost twenty years of insight. We don't share all of the references (this is often true since I was mostly just raised on a diet of straight Disney movies but more so as a White girl growing up with little exposure to Black media/pop culture), but there were many references that would have been hard to miss (Spice Girls, Clueless).

The book was at its best when it leans into being a memoir -- the opening story regarding Aisha's name and the different stories she had told herself about it was funny, insightful, and a great way to touch on the pervasiveness of pop culture in all our lives. Other times, Wannabe leans more heavily into feeling like several short essays written for an academic paper -- Harris analyzes whether Black culture should be able to criticize itself or should unapologetically back whatever represetation exists in an early chapter. She is wonderful at drawing out the nuances of the debate and also showing how she herself fits into the question as a critic, but there were times when I wanted to hear more about the pop culture at hand.

Millenials looking to revisit the 90s and early aughts while also following Harris will find this to be a compelling and engrossing read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early review copy, all opinons are my own.

A true blast from the past, Aisha Harris blends '90s trivia with a memoir-style narrative of the media of her childhood. Funny and factual, this is a perfect read for fans of Maeve Higgins, Chuck Klosterman, and millenials everywhere.

This is a very thoughtful essay collection from one of the contributors of Pop Culture Happy Hour. I loved her nuance take on how pop culture shaped her and how she saw her reflected (or not reflected). Harris is very thoughtful in her writing and I cannot wait to see what comes next from her. I think there are many who will relate to and find this as enjoyable as I did. I recommend this for fans of Jia Tolentino.

I requested this ARC about the influence of pop culture on our lives because I do agree completely with the premise that we are all under the visible and invisible social influences around us. Also I somehow thought this would tie in to social media.

This book was not what I expected at all. Instead of a nonfiction narrative based on research that shifted in tone from conversational to scathing, the chapters of this book read like a memoir.

Reading the author’s reflections on her life and experiences as a minority were interesting and gave me new perspectives. I’m rating it 4 stars, because it’s not the fault of the book that it didn’t meet my expectations, but I do think the blurb is not clear. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for making this book available for review.

Aisha Harris' new book, "Wannabe", is a smart and funny collection of essays about the way pop culture has influenced her life from a young age. I really enjoyed the way she spoke specifically about the intersection of her being black and how that has influenced her view on pop culture.

Personally, I didn't know of Harris or her role with NPR before reading the book. While her voice, personality, and humor come through so easily in the book, I think I'd enjoy hearing her via podcast more than her essays. She is a talented writer, but some of her essays just felt a little too long whereas maybe as an audiobook or podcast I wouldn't have thought the same thing.

I really enjoyed her perspective and her take on things and I'm looking forward to tuning in to her podcast now!

For the pop culture-obsessed millennial. Sign me up.

Aisha Harris is someone I’m familiar with thanks to NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and we are the same age, so I was really excited when I saw that she had written a book.

Parts I Loved: how, despite recent strides in incorporating diversity, television and movies still routinely incorporate the Black Friend trope; her opinion on how intellectual properties (or, IPs) will never die and that originality when it comes to visual storytelling is a bit (a lot) lacking; how we’re maybe too nostalgic for the magic of our childhoods.

To that last point, Wannabe also continues this pattern re: millennials being critical of the pop culture of our youth. Some of her essays are reminiscent of those in the book We Are the Babysitters Club from a few years ago: as a now-grown adult, it’s okay and even encouraged to point out problematic content from what we used to consume, but still look back on it fondly.

I thought her personal memoir parts were spread out a little uneven, as they were very prominent in the beginning but then just sprinkled out throughout the rest.

This was a really fun books of essays. I enjoyed Aisha Harris’s writing style and wit, and the essays all made me both laugh and think. If you’re interested in millennial pop culture at all, I definitely recommend picking up a copy of this when it’s released.

Thank you to HarperOne and NetGalley for the review copy.

Pub Date: June 13, 2023

I love Aisha. I first heard her on a podcast several years ago and she is so smart and witty. This book is full of that charm and humor!