The Journal
Blog
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
the ask@AAR: What can’t you forgive in a lead?
July 25, 2025Last night, Dr. Feelgood, my friend Ann and I watched The Man Who Knew Too Much. I had seen it in college and loved it. Morocco! Que Sera Sera! Jimmy…
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the ask@AAR: What should it cost a library to lend out an ebook?
July 18, 2025Today’s ask is inspired by a recent New York Times article about something many readers probably don’t think much about: how libraries pay for ebooks. Several states, including Connecticut and…
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the ask@AAR: What have you been reading lately?
July 11, 2025I’ve been on a damn good reading run. As usual, I’ve read a bunch of books that will come out later in the year, but, in the interest of conversation,…
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Make Jeff Bezos Pay for Our Web Hosting…..
July 8, 2025Amazon Prime Day runs this year from July 8 through July 11—four full days of deals. If you’re planning to shop, whether for books or anything else, we’d be grateful…
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the ask@AAR: Closed door? Open door? Or somewhere inbetween?
July 4, 2025Romance has always had a complicated relationship with sex. Not with desire—that’s a given—but with how desire is handled on the page. Is it explicit? Is it suggestive? Does it…
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the ask@AAR: What romance belongs on the screen?
June 27, 2025Romance novels are all over the big and small screen. Bridgerton, Virgin River, The Hating Game, One Day, Red, White & Royal Blue—they’ve all drawn huge audiences and proved, again,…
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Casablanca: Play it again
June 25, 2025I recently watched Casablanca with my mother and my daughter—three generations of women. I’d seen it before, decades ago. It’s one of my mother’s favorites and my daughter–who picked it–had…
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the ask@AAR: Wanna know what I think?
June 20, 2025Thank you to everyone who filled out our survey. Sixty readers responded. That number represents a small portion of AAR’s audience, but the feedback was thoughtful, detailed, and deeply engaged….
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the ask@AAR: Do you believe in love at first sight?
June 13, 2025I think I do. It’s not the most common beginning to a love story, but I have seen it happen. And when it does, it deserves to be taken seriously….
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What have been your best reads thus far this year?
June 10, 2025So far, 2025 has delivered the kind of reading year that makes me grateful to be a reader. I’ve fallen for romances, gotten deliciously tangled in mysteries, and savored short…
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the ask@AAR: What did you tell us?
June 6, 2025We asked readers to take a short survey about what they read, what they want, and how they use All About Romance. Sixty people responded. The goal was simple: to…
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the ask@AAR: Is Romance Thriving in Kindle Unlimited—or Just Getting Used?
May 30, 2025Romance powers Kindle Unlimited. The genre fills the platform’s most-read lists and delivers the kind of constant engagement that makes KU financially viable. At a glance, that dominance looks like…
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