title: The Ripple Effect author: Maggie North publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: June 17, 2025 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: hospital visit, cut and stitches summary: When Stellar was at her lowest point because of a horrible situation at work, she hooked up with Lyle McHugh, called McHuge. She’s been trying to…
Author: caritagardiner
NetGalley Review of Far and Away
title: Far and Away author: Amy Poeppel publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books publication date: June 10, 2025 pages: 400 peppers: 1 (on this scale) warnings: none summary: When Lucy’s son Jack’s life blows up just before his high school graduation (which doesn’t happen because he gets expelled), she impulsively swaps apartments with the sister of a…
335. Why BYODB
I took the photo above in the weeks before the school closed the old dining hall to renovate it into a bigger, fancier dining hall. One of the things a lot of other people and I loved about our old dining hall was its disco ball. Shortly after I captured this sparkly moment, the school…
NetGalley Review of Worth Fighting For
title: Worth Fighting For author: Jesse Q. Sutanto publisher: Hyperion Avenue publication date: June 3, 2025 pages: 288 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: mysogeny summary: In this modern Mulan retelling, Mulan is a finance bro whose father ends up hospitalized just before making the deal with a man-centric whiskey company run by the Li…
334. Why Walk 2.0
What a mix of emotions looking back at my post from March 11, 2020, linked here, elicited! In that post, I talked about the many benefits I got from walking my dog. We lost Tuukka in January of 2024, and I miss him. I also wrote that post while thinking about my upcoming trip to…
NetGalley Review of Flirty Dancing
title: Flirty Dancing author: Jennifer Moffatt publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: May 27, 2025 pages: 336 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: drinking alcohol to excess, multiple partners, vomit, death parents (earlier) summary: Archer has been striking out at dance auditions in NYC for long enough that he’s thrilled to get a summer gig dancing…
NetGalley Review of Along Came Amor
title: Along Came Amor author: Alexis Daria publisher: Avon publication date: May 27, 2025 pages: 512 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: divorce summary: The day Ava’s divorce is finalized, she’s at a teacher’s conference and decides to go to the hotel’s bar and let the universe lead her way…which it does, to buying a…
333. Why Join the Line
[You can get the photo above by clicking on it or visiting Unsplash.com.] When my girls were little, I helped to organize a fundraiser for one of the local daycare centers. My friend (Hi, JK!) came up with the great idea of hiring a hot-air-balloon company to give short rides. There were a lot of…
NetGalley Review of The Love Haters
title: The Love Haters author: Katerine Center publisher: St. Martin’s Press publication date: May 20, 2025 pages: 320 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: vomit, near drowning, fatal illness, cheating, binge drinking, death by car crash (described years later), disordered eating summary: In order to save her documentary-film-making job, Katie accepts her colleague’s offer to film a…
332. Why You Don’t Need to be Brave
Sometimes during diving practice, the divers ask a manager or coach to take a video of them trying new dives or working on specific skills. It’s helpful for them to see exactly what’s going on, as dives often feel quite different than they appear. The photo above is the screenshot of the tail-end of one…