title: Not You Again author: Erin La Rosa publisher: Canary Street Press publication date: November 11, 2026 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: death of parents, unfaithful wife summary: As Carly is waiting alone for her father’s service, she overhears the funeral director and his wife in an argument. The day gets worse…
Author: caritagardiner
357. Why Embrace the Devil
The photo above will, if you click it, bring you to a five-star recipe for deviled eggs. I bet that since Halloween is coming up, when you saw “Why Embrace the Devil,” your first thought wasn’t about eggs, was it? In fact, when I came up with the title for this post, I wasn’t thinking…
NetGalley Review of We Fell Apart
title: We Fell Apart author: E. Lockhart publisher: Delacorte Press publication date: November 4, 2025 pages: 320 peppers: 1 (on this scale) warnings: death, drugs being used against people’s wills, drinking alcohol, vomiting, parental abandonment summary: Shortly after her mother has followed her most recent boyfriend to Mexico, Matilda gets an email from the famous…
356. Why Activate Hope
Clicking on the photo above will take you to author Rebecca Solnit’s website. I haven’t read her books, so unlike lots of my author mentions, I’m not sharing a book review. Instead, I’m writing today’s post in response to a short quotation of hers that I heard on a podcast. Here it is: “Hope is…
NetGalley Review of Some Kind of Famous
title: Some Kind of Famous author: Ava Wilder publisher: Dell publication date: October 28, 2025 pages: 432 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: drugs/alcohol addiction abortion creepy men taking advantage of teenaged girls summary: Merritt Valentine has moved to a small Colorado town to (1) spend time with her twin sister, (2) escape her past…
355. Why Preclude Regret
I took the photo above last Spring. Lilacs emit my favorite scent. As we enter the dark months of Winter ahead, I’d like to focus on what comes after: flowers, sunshine, joy. Sometimes, when we have to spend long hours inside, we start to feel trapped. In cages, we seek ways to free ourselves, and…
NetGalley Review of The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah
title: The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah author: Jean Meltzer publisher: MIRA publication date: October 21, 2025 pages: 368 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: chronic illness disability migrains divorce grief infertility abortion loss wrongful termination fetal abnormalities summary: Evelyn is working her tail off to produce a live-on-TV version of A Christmas Carol; unfortunately, everything is…
354. Why Find a New El Paso
A couple of summers ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina. I took the photo above of him in Mostar. If you see this post within two days of when it goes live, please wish him a happy birthday. If not, no worries. The post is about him,…
NetGalley Review of The Confidentiality Clause
title: The Confidentiality Clause author: Annah Conwell publisher: independently published publication date: August 6, 2025 pages: 289 (but I listened to the audio) peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: none summary: When her best friend asks Ariel to check in on her workaholic twin brother Brock, Ariel finds that his drive to succeed in his…
353. Why Use Google Docs
I was in eighth grade before my family got a computer. It was better than the typewriter it replaced, but it had its flaws. I remember saving documents on floppy disks and ending up with “corrupt” files. Years later, I could save my essays directly onto the computer’s hard drive, a process that usually went…