title: Ready or Not author: Cara Bastone publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback publication date: February 13, 2024 pages: 400 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: nausea and puke, unplanned pregnancy, ultra sound, drunkenness summary: Eve’s one-night stand pregnancy reveals who’s in her corner and helps her figure out what she wants in work and in love/friendship….
“Why”…Wednesdays
NetGalley Review of The Prospects
title: The Prospects author: KT Hoffman publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback publication date: April 9, 2024 pages: 384 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: some mentions of transphobia summary: Gene is a baseball player who’s mad that Luis has been traded to his team, but at the same time, Luis is hot and interesting. tropes: enemies-to-lovers what…
256. Why Be the Sag Wagon
The photo above, a hyperbolic depiction of the sag wagon even on its original website, gets well at the possible burden of cleaning up after other people get to experience the exciting part of an event. In more than thirty years as the significant other of a cyclist, I’ve many times gotten the call to…
255. Why Broken
If you’ve been around the blog or known me for more than a few minutes, you know that I don’t usually read or like memoirs or essays. The former (that’s the first one, for those of you who get them confused) often feel too whiney and woe-is-me-my-life-has-been-so-hard, and the latter (that’s the second part of…
254. Why Use Opposites
The image above might not look super interesting, but it’s a link to an email subscription I recommend highly because I always find it fascinating. One of my former students (Hi, AR!) shared it with me, and I’m grateful to him every day for the suggestion. Way back in late-July and early-August, the A.Word.A Day…
253. Why Diving
[I wrote this post in the end of February, having come off a long diving season, and thinking that Future Carita might be dreading the time commitment of the season ahead and might want to be reminded about all the things she loves about diving. Dear Future Carita, I’ve got you. You’re awesome and you…
252. Why Hive Recommendations
By clicking on the photo above, you can buy the cool poster I found when I did an image search for “hive mind.” I’m not sure how the art connects to my idea, but it’s pretty, isn’t it? In this post, I’m using hive as a verb rather than as a noun. I hope my…
251. Why Go Slowly
When I found the image above, the shirts sold on the link were out of stock, but I hope that by the time you read this, you’d be able to buy one if you want to. (Click on the photo if you want to try.) On the other hand, I hope that sloths aren’t seen…
NetGalley Review of Love Naturally
title: Love, Naturally author: Sophie Sullivan publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: January 16, 2024 pages: 320 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: none summary: Trying to convince her boyfriend that she can do the activities he likes, Presley buys a surprise vacation for two to an island nature retreat. When he doesn’t want to go…
NetGalley Review of Right on Cue
title: Right on Cue author: Falon Ballard publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons publication date: February 27, 2024 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: binge drinking, dead parent summary: Screenwriter Emmy’s production team can’t find a good female lead for her new rom com, so they rope her into playing the part, which would have been fine if the…