(opens in new tab) 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…
“Why”…Wednesdays
245. Why Cone without Shame
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…
NetGalley Review of Didn’t See That Coming
(opens in new tab) 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…
244. Why Air is a Romance
(opens in new tab) 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…
NetGalley Review of The Takeover
(opens in new tab) 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…
NetGalley Review of Maybe Once, Maybe Twice
(opens in new tab) 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…
NetGalley Review of Late Bloomer
(opens in new tab) 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…
243. Why You Shouldn’t Buy Your Kid an Apple Watch
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…
NetGalley Review of When Grumpy Met Sunshine
(opens in new tab) title: When Grumpy Met Sunshine author: Charlotte Stein publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: February 26, 2024 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: fatphobia, dead parents, some meanness summary: When Mabel gets the job of ghostwriting a former soccer star’s memoir, she ends up having to fake-date him to explain why…
242. Why Name Delights
Usually, I make the photos on the top of each post smaller than this one, but not today. This essay will go live twenty-six years after the photo above, taken (obviously) at our wedding on August 16, 1997. We took dance lessons in preparation for the big day and had a great time whirling around…