What’s Your Reading Journey?
If you’re an AAR old timer (I’ll let you define what that means), you may be wondering if I fell off the face of the earth. Short answer: Yes, yes I did. Short version for those who don’t avidly follow my life: I was a managing editor and then publisher of AAR for years (1998-2016-ish). In 2014 my marriage of 25 years ended, in 2015 I met the love of my life, in 2018 he died. Now it’s 2020, and even with a world that has had no bottom since 2018, I am still on the planet. The seismic shifts in my world have drastically affected my reading, though. […]
Where I live, in North Carolina, it’s been HOT. Normally this time of year, we’d be headed to the mountains for a week of cooler vacation but–thank you COVID–not this year. In an effort to vacation, a bit, at home over the next week, I plan to work less and read more. I am (still) currently listening to The Stand–King’s ability to, with a few lines, create memorable characters continues to amaze me 
Has your bookishly curious mind ever wondered how I prepare and write my book reviews? Even if your answer is “nope,” I invite you to humor me.
In Mary Balogh’s 1997 Trad. Regency The Last Waltz, Gerard Percy is living and working in Canada when he learned that he has unexpectedly inherited an earldom. He returns to host a Christmas party at his new estate, to which he invites his Canadian friends, brother and sister Andrew and Jeanette Campbell. 
I’ve known for a while that of all the reviewers at AAR, my opinions of books most closely align with fellow reviewer (and my editor) Caz Owens. In fact, her reviews are one of the ways I found our site in the first place! These days, we’re often reading and reviewing many of the same books, and sometimes duking it out for a book we both want. 
As fall begins, I start thinking about end-of-year “Best of” lists. There are so many books released each year that I’m always worried that I’m missing out books I should have tried. AAR’s Power Search is my longtime favorite for checking out what’s been going on in a given year, and I often turn to it for guidance on what I should try to cram in before December.