Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
The Perennial Question of the Bad Boy Hero
April 17, 2023Over the years, we’ve published many a piece about Bad Boys. I wrote one nine years ago about being over bad boys (this proved to be a lie), there’s one…
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the ask@AAR: Are 50 Shades of Grey or Twilight dangerous?
April 14, 2023A friend of mine recently sent me an article entitled Why Bestselling Romance Author Colleen Hoover Is Receiving Backlash. In it, the author writes: I know what some people might…
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Chatting with Maya Rodale about Dangerous Books for Girls v.2
April 10, 2023In 2015, I interviewed Maya Rodale about her fabulous book, Dangerous Books for Girls. (You can read the interview here.) Maya has updated the book and we sat down (via…
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the ask@AAR: Are there traits you hate?
April 7, 2023In a recent discussion about Barbara Cartland, several readers bemoaned her incessantly giving her heroines heart shaped faces and small hands. The latter feature is, I’ve since noticed, quite common…
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the ask@AAR: What is your favorite trope?
March 31, 2023A trope, according to Merriam-Webster, is a common or overused theme or device : CLICHÉ. I’m going to ignore the overused part of this today and focus on common themes in, of…
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On vacation…..
March 27, 2023This week, I am in Iceland with my daughter. Thus, there will be no blogs other than the ask@AAR on Friday. So, enjoy the reviews and I’ll be back this…
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the ask@AAR: why do you read?
March 24, 2023I’ve had a rather heated set of exchanges with my best friend Ann recently about our differing perspectives on why we read. She reads primarily to learn; I, to be…
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the ask@AAR: Which romances do body positivity well? Which don’t?
March 17, 2023Today’s ask is a suggestion from BeckyK. She suggested we ask about body positivity— Do you enjoy books with plus size heroes/heroines? Which books/authors get it right? Which don’t? (This…
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Continuing on the movie theme….
March 13, 2023I am writing this pre-Oscars so I have no idea who won although my money would NOT be on Top Gun: Maverick. I, like most Americans, did not see almost…
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite love story on film?
March 10, 2023The Academy Awards–yawn–are this Sunday. I have seen just one of the films nominated for Best Picture and hardly any of the other films whose sets, actors, songs, and special…
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the ask@AAR: Should older romances (and books in general) be redone?
March 3, 2023I have followed with fascination the uproar around the revised versions of Roald Dahl’s books. NPR has a great summary of what has happened. They write: New editions of legendary…
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What are you reading? Watching?
February 27, 2023February has been, overall, a rainy month here. On top of that, I got COVID–for the second time (the first was in November of 2020)–got put on Paxlovid and then…
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