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What to Read When You're Avoiding School Work

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Author: caritagardiner

247. Why Now is Not the Time to Panic

Posted on September 20, 2023September 20, 2023 by caritagardiner

I thoroughly enjoy and then immediately forget many of the books I read. I don’t mean to condemn the authors of those books because I know that writing a book someone can love reading is a huge accomplishment. Sometimes, however, I read books that are so thought-provoking that they stay with me. Kevin Wilson’s novel…

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246. Why Percentages Aren’t What You Think

Posted on September 14, 2023September 14, 2023 by caritagardiner

As you know, I’m a big fan of people who donate blood (partly because my life was saved by four of them). You can read JV’s wonderful guest post about the benefits of giving blood on this 2021 post. Still, the image above made me laugh. To start this essay, most of which is about…

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NetGalley Review of Say You’ll Be Mine

Posted on September 12, 2023September 13, 2023 by caritagardiner

title: Say You’ll Be Mine author: Naina Kumar publisher: Dell publication date: January 16, 2024 pages: 336 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: none summary: Karthik’s mother has brought him to meet eight potential brides, two every weekend for a month. She has plans to keep up this pace for a year, so when he’s intrigued by…

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245. Why Cone without Shame

Posted on September 6, 2023September 5, 2023 by caritagardiner

Late every summer, Tuukka gets a hotspot that he worries with his teeth and tongue until it bleeds. We take him to the vet, who cleans the wound and prescribes necessary medications. Then, we take Tuukka home and put him into what we lovingly call his “cone of shame.” Watching him fumble around the house…

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NetGalley Review of Didn’t See That Coming

Posted on September 1, 2023August 31, 2023 by caritagardiner

title: Didn’t See That Coming author: Jesse Q. Sutanto publisher: Delacorte Press publication date: November 28, 2023 pages: 320 peppers: 1 (on this scale) warnings: bullying, mention of vomit summary: In this YA novel, Kiki has been using a hyper-masculine pseudonym to avoid the kind of comments she used to get with a feminine-sounding username on her…

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244. Why Air is a Romance

Posted on August 30, 2023August 29, 2023 by caritagardiner

If you haven’t seen Air yet, I recommend you go watch it. I streamed it on Amazon Prime and enjoyed it thoroughly. At first, I thought I liked the following attributes the most: The soundtrack captured the 1980s perfectly. The montages of 1984 images brought me back to ninth grade. Matt Damon is amazing as the…

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NetGalley Review of The Takeover

Posted on August 28, 2023August 22, 2023 by caritagardiner

title: The Takeover author: Cara Tanamachi publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: January 30, 2024 pages: 304 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: broken bones, evil corporations, veiled references to billionaires summary: Nami’s amazing tech company Toggle is in financial trouble, and her high school nemesis Jae appears as the buying agent for an Amazon.com doppelgänger,…

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NetGalley Review of Maybe Once, Maybe Twice

Posted on August 25, 2023August 25, 2023 by caritagardiner

title: Maybe Once, Maybe Twice author: Allison Rose Greenberg publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: October 3, 2023 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: on-page sexual assault death of a parent vomit summary: The book jumps timelines between important moments in Maggie’s life from age fourteen, when she meets and falls in love with Asher,…

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NetGalley Review of Late Bloomer

Posted on August 24, 2023August 22, 2023 by caritagardiner

title: Late Bloomer author: Mazey Eddings publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: April 16, 2024 pages: 400 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: talk of drug use, mean parents, death of a grandparent (before the book) summary: When Opal, who can’t stop herself from helping others even when it’s to her detriment, wins big on a scratch-off…

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243. Why You Shouldn’t Buy Your Kid an Apple Watch

Posted on August 23, 2023August 24, 2023 by caritagardiner

Maybe you already have an Apple Watch. Maybe your whole family already loves and wears them. If so, well, I probably can’t convince you to remove the thing from your wrist, put it on the floor, and stomp on it until you hear crunching glass. If you don’t already have one, yay, you. Here’s why…

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WHAT I DO

I teach English to high schoolers at a boarding school in Connecticut. I read AP English Literature and Composition exams and serve as a teacher mentor for the University of Pennsylvania Teaching Fellows program. I’ve earned a Bachelor of Arts (Amherst College), an Education Master in Learning and Teaching (Harvard University Graduate School of Education), a Master of Arts in English (Bread Loaf School of English), and most recently a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a certificate in the online teaching of writing (Southern New Hampshire University).

As a writer, I hope to capture the complexity and joy of life in the New England boarding school world. On this site, I share what I know about trying to write fiction while teaching English, coaching, and doing the other tasks associated with helping to raise over six hundred other people’s children.

WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU

Teach                    Tutor

Revise                   Edit

Entertain             Enlighten

Read my recent “Why” Wednesday Blog Posts

  • 247. Why Now is Not the Time to Panic
  • 246. Why Percentages Aren’t What You Think
  • NetGalley Review of Say You’ll Be Mine
  • 245. Why Cone without Shame
  • NetGalley Review of Didn’t See That Coming
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