Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
the ask@AAR: Have you seen our new Power Search?
February 4, 2022We have a new Power Search. Have you tried it? It’s–in my opinion–amazing. You can find it under the Reviews tab. For starters, you can now search by…
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the ask@AAR: Should we do the AAR Top 100 in 2023?
January 28, 2022We’ve done the AAR Top 100 poll regularly since 1998. The last one we did, in 2018, garnered so much fury that I swore we were done. And yet… I’m…
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The Best of 2021 – Dabney’s List
January 26, 2022According to Goodreads, I read eighty-two books (for the first time – my rereads would have put that number closer to 165) in 2021. I read across genres and glommed…
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the ask@AAR: Is there anything worse than when grownups ghost?
January 21, 2022I’ll be honest with you–I’m, months later, still pissed at the 32 year old highly decorated military hero in his second year of law school who, after three months of…
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the ask@AAR: What romance does everyone else love that you can’t stand?
January 14, 2022Hey Dabney, what’s your favorite contemporary romance written in the past five or so years? Oh, no question, it’s Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game. I ADORE that book. So you…
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the ask@AAR: What’s the ONE best non romance you read last year?
January 7, 2022While I love me some romance, I’m a catholic reader: I like all kinds of stories. And, in 2021, I read so many great books. Honestly, I can’t remember a…
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the ask@AAR: What’s your reading goal(s) for 2022?
December 31, 2021Happy New Year! Given that I’ve never been able to keep a New Year’s resolution going for a whole year, I’ve given them up. Instead, I’ve become goal oriented. It’s…
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the ask@AAR: What are your hopes for romance in 2022?
December 24, 2021Whoa–2021 is almost in the books. Thus, it’s times to think about what we hope for in romance next year. Everyone’s likes and loves are personal and my list is…
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the ask@AAR: What brought you comfort and joy in 2021?
December 17, 2021This time last year, I hoped that the worst of 2020 wouldn’t follow me into 2021. And while that didn’t happen, I did find much to celebrate in 2021 perhaps because…
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The Hating Game (movie) is… just fine.
December 11, 2021This review contains spoilers for the book and the movie. Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game is justly beloved. As Em wrote in her review, the novel is quirky, funny, romantic,…
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the ask@AAR: Stand alone or series–do you have a preference?
December 10, 2021There are few greater reading pleasures–for me–than diving into a beloved series. In the past 18 months, I’ve listened to all the Harry Potter books, inhaled series by Karin Slaughter,…
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the ask@AAR: And the top selling books at AAR this year are….
December 3, 2021I’m always interested to see what AAR readers buy through the links on our site and in our newsletter. After looking over the data from Amazon for our account, it’s…
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