What We’ve Been Thinking About

Essays & Musings

Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.

The Good Time Book Club at AAR: Read Manhunting with us!

April 12, 2020

The votes are in and we’re reading Jennifer Crusie’s Manhunting! Here’s the summary from Amazon: Kate Svenson may be a dynamite businesswoman—but after three failed engagements, she’s decided she’s hopeless…

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the ask@AAR: Wanna read a book together?

April 10, 2020

We’ve talked about having an AAR book club for what feels like forever and, you know what, it’s time. I made a few executive decisions so we could get started….

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The Wayback on Wednesday: Elizabeth Hoyt pens an epilogue.

April 8, 2020

published on January 1, 2008 Earlier this year we presented to you, our readers, in celebration of our tenth anniversary online, parody epilogues. Unlike the PPP Contest, these epilogues are…

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the ask@AAR: What books would you add to our Top 100 Romances list? Take away?

April 3, 2020

It’s been almost two years since we published our last Top 100 Romances list. This list, which AAR has done every five years or so, is a reader generated list–the…

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The Wayback on Wednesday: Loving Problematic Books

April 1, 2020

originally published on June 13, 2013 Grading books is not always straightforward. For me, there is no rubric, no checklist of Do’s and Don’ts. I have a few deal-breakers, but…

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We’re all in this together–and we’ve got a page to prove it!

March 31, 2020

Update: Just checking in to see how everyone is doing. Most of us are now living under shelter in place orders for at least the next month. For me, that’s…

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the ask@AAR: What’s the greatest kiss of all time?

March 27, 2020

Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind. (from The Princess Bride)

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The Wayback on Wednesday: (from 1998) Faerie versus Fairy

March 25, 2020

by Mary Jo Putney & Karen Harbaugh (a 1998 Write Byte) LLB: I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Irish Magic II. It reminded me of a question I’ve had…

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What are you reading? Watching? Listening to?

March 24, 2020

I’ve spent the past two weeks holed up in a rather dingy airbnb with my spouse. (I was exposed to the virus almost three weeks ago and decided to take…

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Sizing up the Series: The Bridgertons (plus a giveaway)

March 22, 2020

On April 21, Julia Quinn will publish First Comes a Scandal, the fourth book in her Rokesby series–which is also known as the Bridgerton Prequels. There are eight books in…

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the ask@AAR: What’s your secret guilty pleasure romance?

March 20, 2020

I hate the term “guilty pleasure.” (“A guilty pleasure is something that we enjoy, but we know we’re either not supposed to like, or that liking it says something negative…

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Service dog sidekicks…or are they the heroes? (Plus a giveaway!)

March 16, 2020

As a veterinarian I’ve had the privilege of tending many exceptional medical alert and seeing-eye dogs over the years. These dogs change lives by enabling their person to thrive.

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