Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
My New Year’s goal: Fail
January 1, 2026Here is my goal for 2026: Fail. I’m going to fail to start listening to podcasts because, frankly, I like my own thoughts and the sound of very little. I’m…
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the ask@AAR: What were your bests of 2025?
December 19, 2025It’s that time of year where everyone–NO, Spotify, I am not 72!–makes, shares, and reads endless Best of Lists. Over the next few weeks, you’ll see more of our Best…
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Whether you believe or not, I wish you a Merry Christmas!
December 12, 2025I lost my faith in God by thirteen, though not before giving the heavens every chance to make their case. I’d sit in my tree fort, legs dangling (it was…
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the ask@AAR: What is your favorite fall/winter holiday tradition?
December 5, 2025I have never been great with traditions. In my adult life, I’ve worn very few Halloween costumes, I’d be happy to buy pre-cooked Thanksgiving food from the grocery store, and…
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It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I am so damn grateful.
November 28, 2025Yesterday, I sat down for a marvelous Thanksgiving meal–the chef, one of my nephews, is a serious foodie (Did you know you could make a very good stuffing with broccoli?)–with…
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the ask@AAR: What do we think about the romances Goodreads loves?
November 21, 2025It’s that time of year again. You know, where Goodreads nominates a bunch of books for the Goodreads Choice Awards and many of us are shocked–and not in a good…
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the ask@AAR: What Are Your Favorite Pulitzer Prize–Winning Novels?
November 14, 2025I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead right now and, to my surprise, loving it. That’s not usually my experience with Pulitzer winners; more often than not, I either loathe them…
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the ask@AAR: Are You Seeing the Changes in Book Publishing?
November 7, 2025Book publishing has again shifted and for this, we can thank two behemoths that begin with A: Amazon and AI. AI is now part of every aspect of publishing. It…
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the ask@AAR: What books help you make sense of our current world?
October 31, 2025I’ve just finished reading for the I don’t know how many-th time Joanna Bourne’s Spymasters series. And, somewhat startlingly, they seemed to speak very clearly to our current era. Not…
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the ask@AAR: What are your favorite 2025 TV shows?
October 24, 2025I had a damn good time watching TV this year. Not everything wowed me–Reacher was a slog, I don’t understand the now old buzz about The Blacklist, Wisting was too…
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Publishers and Reviewers: The Romance Is Fading Fast
October 21, 2025It used to be that publishers courted reviewers and review sites like ours. Back in the day, my mailbox (and those at AAR who came before me) overflowed with paperbacks…
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the ask@AAR: What love scenes make you swoon?
October 17, 2025Back in 2017, we ran a set of columns asking our reviewers what love scenes in romance novels made them swoon. Reading over them now–you can find Part One here…
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