Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
the ask@AAR: What’s the best proposal story?
November 22, 2024Yesterday, my husband, three of our kids, and their significant others got up at 4am, piled into two rental cars, and drove 90 minutes to the top of Haleakala (on…
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the ask@AAR: What was the best….?
November 15, 2024It’s that time of year: Our Best of 2024 lists will start to run soon! We don’t make lists by genre but that doesn’t mean you can’t! What is your…
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the ask@AAR: Do you need a hug?
November 8, 2024Whatever your politics and wherever you live, this week’s American election is something you’ve been inundated with stories and opinions about. On election day, I heard from friends in India,…
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the ask@AAR: What, if any, social media do you use?
November 1, 2024I’m old enough to have signed up for Facebook as soon as it was available to the general public. It was 2006 and my 15 year old son and I…
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You guys really like historical romance!
October 31, 2024As we approach the end of the year, I start running reports–how we’re doing financially, what pages readers visit the most, etc…. One I run each year that becomes less…
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the ask@AAR: What’s the best romance, thus far, of the year?
October 25, 2024It’s astonishing to me there are just two months left in 2024. That adage about parenting–the days are long but the years are short–gets truer for me every year. Time…
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the ask@AAR: What are the traits a romance hero has to have?
October 18, 2024I’ve just finished rereading one of my favorite books by Meredith Duran–Written on Your Skin–for an upcoming review. I adore Phin Granville as a hero–he’s complex, strong, brilliant, and willing…
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the ask@AAR: Do you read prize-winning fiction?
October 11, 2024I’m feeling like a heathen–I have no idea who Han Kang is, the author who was just awarded the Pulitzer Prize in literature. Yesterday, writing about the prize, A. O….
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the ask@AAR: What’s out for heroes these days? What’s in?
October 4, 2024A few months ago, Slate wondered if billionaire heroes were finally out in romance. Regular romance heroes could have told them, duh, yes. Other than Annika Martin’s Billionaires of Manhattan…
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the ask@AAR: Do you own a piece of art that you love?
September 27, 2024When I was first out of college in the utterly shit job market that was 1983, I, oddly, vowed to never put anything but original art on my walls. I…
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the ask@AAR: Are people finally done trashing romance?
September 20, 2024Romance novels are EVERYWHERE right now. Each week, a new romance book store opens; the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, even The Guardian all review romance. Bookstores that previously didn’t carry…
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the ask@AAR: How do you take care of yourself?
September 13, 2024Google the phrase “self-care” and you’ll see endless entries. Self care is all about looking after yourself. It means taking the time to tend to your physical, spiritual, mental, and…
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