NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading.
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Since we feature other things outside of reviews like HaBOs, Rec Leagues, and general opinion pieces, we wanted to look at what y’all really engaged with the most. I kept out sale posts and our regular new releases and Whatcha Reading columns.
Here’s the top five!
5. Your Top Three Re-Reads — And Why!
This was a discussion post that felt like the other side of the coin to our post about why we DNF books. Instead, we wanted to know what books you routinely reread and what keeps you coming back to them.
4. Track Your 2024 Reading With Our Community-Built Spreadsheet!
This may be the first time (in fair, I did not check previous posts) the reading spreadsheet has cracked the top five. I definitely foresee a 2025 post for the new year, if any of you are eagerly waiting for it! If you used the spreadsheet, how did your tracking go?
3. Tribal Alliance Against Frauds Says Colby Wilkens is Not Indigenous
We had recently run a guest review of Wilkens’ book, which did not get graded very favorably. This had the romance community talking for about a week and Wilkens eventually put out a statement. Her next book has been pulled from publication.
2. RWA has Filed for Bankruptcy, And You’ll Never Guess “Why”
Just when we thought the RWA horror show had ended! Bloomberg reported on it and RWA claimed that a “DEI issue” is what led to their bankruptcy. Many of the comments echoed Sarah’s “WTAF” response.
1. AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy
What a fascinating deep dive! I definitely had my tinfoil hat on when Sarah revealed all these connections to me. It certainly is indicative of the growing usage of AI and how consumers will need to be even more vigilant about it.
I’m surprised there were no HaBOs in the top five this year! I personally liked seeing all the newsy stuff and would love to know if you want more of that in the new year.
Did you have a favorite post this year that really stood out to you? Or are there any features you just love reading?
This was interesting. My personal fave was the top three re-reads, I got so many recs from that! I have a question on one of the comments which has been niggling at me. One person commented that Charles (?) Had “fixed” Georgette Heyer. I can’t find info regarding this. I haven’t read K J Charles, are they the “fix”?
I somehow miss the AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive article, but that was totally wild! Concur that I would prefer to only read books written by humans. Although I guess hallucination would be a feature rather than a bug in AI-written fiction?
@Andrea omg that was almost certainly me, at any rate that is definitely how I feel about it. Absolutely the author you need is KJ Charles. I am so excited that anyone would remember any part of my nearly endless KJ Charles rhapsodies.
For ages and ages Georgette Heyer had the only romances that I would reread, I was and am a huge fan. But there are definitely problems with her politics. For example, The Grand Sophie is so close to being a perfect book if you can just get past that wallop of anti-semitism. Although the inbreeding doesn’t really work for me either, or the status quo apologism. So when I say fix I mean basically if Georgette Heyer hadn’t been a racist heteronormative Tory. Also KJ Charles has tighter plots. And on page sex! But all the things that I love about Heyer are still there. “Heyer but gayer” is the tagline people used to get me to try her – the first uncanny valley covers of The Magpie Lord series were so off putting to me it was an extremely hard sell despite them being everything I never knew always wanted. That particular series also has magic, which (one woman’s opinion) always makes everything better and is sadly lacking in Heyer’s work, but most of what Charles has published does not.
If you like Venetia you want Band Sinister, if you preferred The Foundling you want The Duke at Hazard.
There is a series that’s very steeped in pulp adventure novels, and another that’s a gorgeous riff on Victorian sensation novels… idk if it’s been updated but for a while there was a fabulous flow chart out there for where to start!
@kkw Thanks for clearing that up for me! Just a side note, Never wanted nothing to do with her fans, thought they had terrible taste. Also, did NOT like Americans. I am off to dive into K J Charles backlist.
I use the spreadsheet every year. And I add a column to total up how much borrowing books from my library saved me. This year I think I will crack 365; I’m at 357 today (25th) and I’ve saved $3461.54