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CARITA GARDINER

What to Read When You're Avoiding School Work

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“Why”…Wednesdays

NetGally Review of How to Find a Guy in Five Weddings

Posted on May 4, 2026December 24, 2025 by caritagardiner

title: How to Find a Guy in Five Weddings author: Cynthia Timoti publisher: Branble publication date: May 12, 2026 pages: 320 peppers: 2.5 (on this scale) warnings: grandparental death (past) and illness/hospitalization (present) cheating fiancé controlling parents summary: Kim, who’s had no luck at all with online dating, needs to find a significant other to…

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383. Why AI

Posted on April 29, 2026April 28, 2026 by caritagardiner

Almost every morning for more than a decade, I’ve posted at least one image on Instagram with the tag #hotchkiss365. You can read my early “Why Wednesday” post about that decision by clicking this link. This morning, as I composed the hashtag for my caption, I got the same response I always do, which is…

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382. Why Breakfast (GUEST POST)

Posted on April 22, 2026April 21, 2026 by caritagardiner

Carita here: If you’ve been reading the blog for a few weeks, you got to read an earlier guest post by another one of my students. If you haven’t read that one, here’s the link that shows her essay and explains the assignment. Today, you’ll get to read an essay by Caroline Irwin ’29. I’m…

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NetGalley Review of Last Kiss of Summer

Posted on April 21, 2026January 13, 2026 by caritagardiner

title: Last Kiss of Summer author: Jessica M. Felleman publisher: GP Putman’s Sons Books for Young Readers publication date: April 28, 2026 pages: 320 peppers: 2-3 (on this scale) warnings: illness/medical scenes/blood/surgery death alcohol summary: When Sera and Luke were infants, they were part of a three-way heart transplant, with Sera getting a donor heart…

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381. Why Betting is Entertainment

Posted on April 15, 2026April 12, 2026 by caritagardiner

I’ve probably used the photo above with another post at some point AND it has nothing to do with today’s topic, but it looks so pretty that it makes me happy. I hope you have the same reaction to this stunning sugar magnolia we have on campus. If you’re reading this post in the United…

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NetGalley Review of Mad Mabel

Posted on April 14, 2026April 21, 2026 by caritagardiner

title: Mad Mabel author: Sally Hepworth publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: January 27, 2026 pages: 352 peppers: 1 (on this scale) warnings: death, murder summary: After the death of her elderly neighbor and another neighbor’s figuring out her former name and identity, Mad Mabel, who now goes by Elsie, decides to tell her story…

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NetGalley Review of While You Were Seething

Posted on April 9, 2026October 27, 2025 by caritagardiner

title: While You Were Seething author: Charlotte Stein publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: January 27, 2026 pages: 320 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: alcohol, violence (in past) summary: When she was in a college writing program, Daisy Emmett’s classroom nemesis was Caleb Miller. Now, years later, he is a notoriously misanthropic romance writer…

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380. Why Jumbled (GUEST POST)

Posted on April 8, 2026April 7, 2026 by caritagardiner

A few notes before the actual post: I took the image above from Dyslexia.com. If you’d like to visit the site to learn more, click on the photo above. Earlier this year, all ninth graders at my school participated in a month-long writing workshop. The culminating project was to create a short essay with certain…

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NetGalley Review of Don’t Tell Me How This Ends

Posted on April 7, 2026October 10, 2025 by caritagardiner

Title: Don’t Tell Me How This Ends Author: Adrienne Thurman Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback publication date: April 14, 2026 pages: 320 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: birth, parental abandonment, heartache, alcohol, early onset dimentia summary: Kaia Harper knows that men always leave, so she’s perfectly happy getting what she needs from one-night stands on…

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NetGalley Review of Stranger Things Have Happened

Posted on April 6, 2026December 16, 2025 by caritagardiner

title: Stranger Things Have Happened author: Kasie West publisher: Saturday Books publication date: April 14, 2026 pages: 352 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: lying injury illness parental abandonment (past) and manipulation (present) hospital scenes summary: While Sutton is staying in her hometown to help her mother recover from a car accident, she’s also trying…

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WHAT I DO

I serve as a class dean and teach English to high schoolers at a boarding school in Connecticut. 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 deaning, 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

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Contact Me

  • cgardine@hotchkiss.org

Read my recent “Why” Wednesday Blog Posts

  • NetGalley Review of Fossil Feud
  • NetGalley Review of If Books Could Kill
  • 394. Why Pass on the Right
  • NetGalley Review of Destination Funeral
  • 393. Why It Tickles
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