Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
Best Moms in Romance?
May 10, 2021I was fortunate enough to spend yesterday, Mother’s Day, with my mom–truly the best mom and grandmother I could imagine. Until she retired at 79, she was a children’s librarian….
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A Tribute to Heather Rash
May 8, 2021Heather Rash (listed in the AAR annals as Heather Stanton) died suddenly last week at the age of 45. Heather wrote prolifically at AAR from 2011 to 2017. Her reviews…
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the ask@AAR: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten/gave?
May 7, 2021Sixty years ago today, at nine in the morning, in a US army hospital in Munich, I arrived in this world. Since then, I’ve lived in countless homes in seven…
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The AAR Good Time Book Club: Elizabeth Hoyt’s The Raven Prince
May 3, 2021Hoyt’s The Raven Prince, her debut novel, got a DIK from us when it was released and has a 4.4 rating on Amazon. Here are some question to think about:…
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the ask@AAR: What are your favorite romances featuring interracial relationships?
April 30, 2021[fusion_builder_container type=”flex” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=””…
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the ask@AAR: Have you checked out our new forums?
April 23, 2021Have you checked out the new forums at the Agora? We redesigned them, offered lots of new was to interact, and continue to tweak them. (There are SO many options!)…
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Best biography you’ve ever read?
April 19, 2021My serious book club–as opposed to our Good Time Book Club and my we only read books that make us glad to be alive Book Club is currently reading Barack…
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the ask@AAR: Who’s the author you reread the most?
April 16, 2021We all have books we love and turn to when we need a comfort read. I suspect most AAR readers could name five to ten books they’ve read many times…
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the Way Back on Wednesday: The 2001 All About Romance Reader Awards
April 14, 2021originally published March 1, 2001 (many of the links in this post have been lost to history) To all the winners in our fifth annual readers’ poll, congratulations and continued…
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Read any mesmerizing mysteries lately?
April 12, 2021I’d been in a bit of a reading slump when the upcoming thriller by the always good Clare Macintosh hit my iPad. Hostage is a page turner, the sort of…
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the ask@AAR: What do you think about grading books?
April 9, 2021I so enjoyed Caroline’s thoughtful and in-depth post about how she grades books here at AAR. Like many readers, I came to AAR because of our Power Search system and…
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The Wayback on Wednesday: The Harem
April 7, 2021(originally published in 2002) The Harem by Ellen Micheletti Simply defined, a harem is the area in a household where the women of the family live. But in romantic…
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What Should Surrogacy Require?
There are no rules. Maybe there should be.
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Sometimes a name is just a name
on offense, accommodation, and the value of getting the facts right
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A Novel Is Not a Safe Space
Books are allowed to offend you. You are allowed to close them. Everybody survives.
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