Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
Are these movies better than the books? I think so! Do you?
August 23, 2023Gone with the Wind The Godfather Jaws The English Patient Little Women (2019) The Notebook Stardust What, you ask, are these? Movie adaptations that are better–in some cases, much better–than…
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the ask@AAR: Are people more rude than in the past? And if so, why?
August 18, 2023Lately, everywhere I read, I see articles about the increased cruelty/meanness/rudeness of our modern world. Articles titled How America Got Mean, Bad behavior at ‘Barbenheimer’ reflects a worrying trend, If you’ve…
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the ask@AAR: If AAR had a slogan, what would it be?
August 11, 2023This week I have been at my annual big family vacation in the North Carolina mountains. We’ve been coming to the same “family camp” since I was a child–this year…
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite documentary film?
August 4, 2023We are living in a golden age for documentary films. Lately, when I ask people what they’re watching, almost everyone speaks with passion about a documentary. In the past month…
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the ask@AAR: What’s your go to sleep read?
July 28, 2023I struggle to fall asleep. I always have. As the poet Dana Gioia writes, every night brings to me the useless insight, the unbroken dark. I am not anxious or…
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite age gap love story?
July 21, 2023We have 113 books tagged as age gap romances. 61 one of them are DIKs. They are, in general, not my jam. (That said, I adore What I Did for…
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite workplace romance?
July 14, 2023Yeah, yeah, yeah–I am aware that there are, for many, problematic consent issues around workplace romances. And yet…. I do sort of love a boss/employee, coworkers in love, romance. Rachel…
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How to make 4% count.
July 10, 2023This week is the dreaded much anticipated Amazon Prime Day. For two days, Amazon discounts all sorts of stuff and people buy and buy. Well, that’s how I see it….
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite Marriage of Convenience romance?
July 7, 2023One of my very favorite tropes is the marriage of convenience love story. It’s a common one in romance, perhaps more so in historicals–we have 85 books tagged as such…
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the ask@AAR: What are the best romances set in Ireland and Scotland?
June 30, 2023This September, I will be traveling for the first time to Ireland and Scotland. And while I am extremely anxious about having to drive there–it’s the wrong side of the…
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the ask@AAR: What love stories do fertility, abortion, and adoption well?
June 23, 2023Babies and the decision to have or not to have them are part of every human’s life in some way. But in romance, the way having children or not having…
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What are you excited about watching this summer?
June 19, 2023It’s summertime and the watching is… what? It used to be that there was nothing on in the summer. Streaming has changed all that. (Although, as far as I’m concerned,…
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