Welcome!

If adults still got yearbooks, my senior superlative would be: Most Likely to Start a Sentence with “You Should Read.”

What I love more than reading and writing is sharing reading and writing with others. That passion drew me out of a short-lived career in publishing and into the the high school English classroom. Over a decade of teaching, I’ve earned masters degrees in Education and English Literature, and I’ve taught everything from creative writing to concurrent enrollment courses. I bring that experience to my You Should Read newsletter.

Why subscribe?

Each post includes my reading notes for a book I admire. No spoilers or one-star reviews allowed! I’m all about celebrating great stories and sentences.

If you want to learn more about the featured title, check out my full You Should Read post on The Readerly Writer. More than just a book review, my blog offers notes and context, as well as close reading and creative writing possibilities. If you want to learn how to be an attentive reader and how to a use a mentor text to improve your own writing, check out my resources on The Readerly Writer.

Subscribe to get full access to You Should Read and publication archives.

Whether you read five books a year or fifty—

Whether you’re writing a novel or daydreaming about it—

Whether you’re a teacher or a student—

You’re welcome here!

Kate