Essays & Musings
What We’ve Been Thinking About
Thoughts on books, reading, culture, and the literary life.
the ask@AAR: Can you write a historical romance?
January 24, 2025Writing a historical romance is like throwing a Regency ball: you need the right setting, the right characters, and a scandal simmering just beneath the surface. But before you embark…
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the ask@AAR: What will romance look like this year?
January 17, 2025One of the perks of my job is access to upcoming releases before they’re released. Every day, I look at Edelweiss and NetGalley and check out what’s coming out in…
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the ask@AAR: Will you support AAR in 2025?
January 10, 2025It’s that time of the year when I look back at the previous year and assess how AAR is doing. The good news is we did slightly–very–better financially in 2024…
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The Best of 2024 – Dabney’s List
January 5, 20252024…. this was a year of reading to escape. I did a lot of rereading–it helps to put me to sleep at night–but still managed to read almost 70 books…
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the ask@AAR: What were your favorite TV shows of the year?
January 3, 2025This year I discovered TV Time, a well-designed app that makes it easy to keep track of the shows you’ve watched and want to watch. Thus, I can tell you…
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the ask@AAR: What were your favorite films of the year?
December 27, 2024Pre-Covid, I loved going to the movies. Post, not so much. In fact, not only am I not munching on popcorn and watching the credits roll on the big screen,…
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Merry Christmas!
December 25, 2024Merry Christmas to all. I wish you hope and joy, in darkness and in light. Here’s to grace, peace, and love. 2024 was a tumultuous and often tough year…
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the ask@AAR: What’s the perfect length for a novel?
December 20, 2024Increasingly, the short novel seems to me to be the ideal literary form for our tired, distracted but still story-hungry age. The above is from a recent column by Margaret…
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the ask@AAR: Are you ready to agree to disagree?
December 13, 2024Currently, I am working a joint review with another reviewer on a book I loved and she did not. Neither is going to change the other’s mind about this work….
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the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite film adaptation?
December 6, 2024It is the era of the recycled tale. So much so I often wonder whether or not any original stories are being filmed. Cape Fear, a story originally written by…
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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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