Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/the-rec-league-cozy-historical-mysteries/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151192

The Rec League - heart shaped chocolate resting on the edge of a very old book This Rec League is from Rebecca from our podcast Patreon Discord:

So I’m really enjoying the Below Stairs mysteries and wondered if anyone has any recs for other historical cosy mystery series. What I like about them is they generally resolve well and have that cosy mystery feel, but they also acknowledge some of the social justice issues of the time. I don’t really like high society stuff, so I like that they’re about working class.

Susan: Hither Page by Cat Sebastian has a very tired spy poking around a small village trying to solve a murder with a former army doctor, and it’s full of people trying their best

Fewer cozy vibes, but Murder on the Last Frontier by Cathy Pegau has a suffragette journalist in a frontier town in Alaska trying to solve the murder of a sex worker.

A | BN | K | AB

…I’m coming to realise that I read a lot of historical mysteries, and a lot of cozy mysteries, but not a lot in the intersection, hang on.

Sarah: I LOVED the Hither, Page books.

The Crown Colony series by Ovidia Yu, starting with The Frangipani Tree Mystery. They’re set in the late 30s in Singapore, when it’s still a British colony.

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge ( A | BN | K ) is about Agatha Christie and her housekeeper, Phyllida Bright.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare might work – it’s more noir and takes place on the Queen Mary in the 30s.

What mysteries would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/the-rec-league-cozy-historical-mysteries/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151192

thistleingrey

I've decided not to read The Future of the Responsible Company: What We've Learned from Patagonia's 50 Years (2023), which is available plentifully at the big-city library system but would cost me nontrivial transit fees and time to consult. Were a copy available at one of the systems closer by, I'd skim it. Sort of hilariously, I have a mini-paper to write on Patagonia's company culture, which must be related to why the big-city system owns about a dozen copies of what really sounds like a self-pub puff piece, but I can write it without a pilgrimage.

Spolsky is on hold again (though not for three years, I hope) while I evict my small bias about the monograph's approach.

Meanwhile, I've begun Laura Spinney's Proto, as in Proto-Indo-European. Spinney is a journalist, not a specialist in a relevant domain, which is consistent with how the book reads. (If I could identify more than one minor error at a 20-year-plus remove from my small learning of relevance, I bet an active practitioner would find more.) I'm not worried about reading with a sure sense of bias here---it's this: Spinney has inherited the shameful blindness to Afro-Asiatic concerns that her chief sources had---because her take isn't potentially controversial.

Nearly traversed: Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which someone once recced to a roomful of people that included me. Still WIP, besides Spolsky: Everett's James, which I'm enjoying but needed to let rest a bit; Allingham's Case of the Late Pig.

shadowkat

I think it's Wednesday? Checks. Yes, Wednesday. That's the difficulty with short weeks, I get confused. And everything work wise has confused me today. I was confused when I got up. So was my Smart Watch - who asked me if I wanted to turn off the alarm since I was awake at 5:30, and I was like no, I'm going to attempt to go back to sleep thank you very much, I just had to go to the bathroom.

Some odd links that I stumbled upon:

1. Being Poor by John Scalzi - which is interesting, considering he's a multi-millionaire who has a collection of insane guitars, but whatever. He seems to get most of it right, and most likely experienced poverty at some point in his lifetime? Apparently, I'm right - he did experience poverty (most professional writers have - it's not a money-making profession and those who make it eventually, often suffered years and years of "starving artist syndrome"). Here, he explains why he wrote it and how it was received. Make of it what you will.

2. Meanwhile people asking for money to do weird things?

Romance Novelist wants funds to sell jigsaw puzzles of her book covers

This individual wants money to sell a board game based on Jane Austen Novels entitled Endearment (I don't know, it reminded me more of Bridgerton).

At least they are creative?

3. the Who Farewell Tour in Toronto

4. Yes, it's official. Paramount Skydance Merger Has Finally Closed

It's hard to say what if anything this means for future projects? But Paramount had to do a deal with the devil in the blue suit and orange puffy hair to seal the deal, so....

Note Paramount is the owner of the Star Trek franchise, actually now, Skydance Media is the owner of the Star Trek franchise. Skydance didn't own any film or television outlets prior - it produced films and television shows such as Foundation, Mission Impossible...and does Animation and video games.

Not to be confused with the UK company Sky Group Media, Skydance Media is an American Media Company. The names are similar so it is understandably confusing.

"Skydance Media, LLC (formerly known as Skydance Productions from 2006 to 2016) was an American media production and finance company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company specialized in films, animation, television, video games, and sports.

In 2009, the company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films with Paramount Pictures. This agreement was renewed twice, extending to 2021. On July 7, 2024, Skydance announced its intent to merge with Paramount Global in an $8 billion transaction, under an agreement in which Skydance would acquire Paramount's controlling shareholder National Amusements, and then perform an all-stock merger with the company. On July 24, 2025, the merger was approved by the FCC, and the merger was closed on August 7, 2025, forming Paramount Skydance Corporation."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skydance_Media

5. IRS is asking taxpayer's to take a Tax Preparation Survey

"WASHINGTON – The IRS invites the public to participate in an anonymous feedback survey on tax preparation and filing options, which will run through Sept. 5, 2025.

The survey is being conducted as part of the Department of Treasury and the IRS’s efforts to fulfill a reporting requirement to Congress under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. The law directs Treasury to deliver a report to Congress by Oct. 2, 2025, on several key issues related to free tax filing options for the public.

Treasury and the IRS encourage taxpayers to share their perspectives and help inform this important congressional report.

To participate, visit the Free Online Tax Preparation Feedback Survey or the IRS.gov landing page. Participation is anonymous."

***

Off to bed.

starwatcher posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday, September 03, to midnight on Thursday, September 04. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33570 Daily Check-in

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 26

How are you doing?

I am OK.
19 (73.1%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
7 (26.9%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
8 (30.8%)

One other person.
13 (50.0%)

More than one other person.
5 (19.2%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3137/

Another group of mathematicians is working to put an upper bound on the number, although everyone keeps begging them to stop.

https://xkcd.com/3137/

sovay

A double-header at this afternoon's medical appointment: the tech not only expressed surprise at my calendar age, but assumed from my voice that I was either foreign-born or had spent significant time out of the country, specifically she thought in the UK. Given the current climate, I should be clear that she was curious, not hostile; one of her children had been a staffer in the Obama administration and two others had been some kind of federal employee and she had considerable feelings on subjects from vaccines to tanks. But after I had gone through the standard litany clarifying the rather pathetic fact that I have lived my entire life in New England and the Boston area for most of it, she still thought I sounded British. "You should go over there. You'd blend right in." She herself had an old-school Boston accent. "People from anywhere, they can tell where I'm from." I am not good at other people's ages, but I don't believe that I look younger than my early forties, especially after the last few ravaging years, and I expect to be heard as American by anyone who actually has one or more of the plethora of accents on offer in the UK. Weirdest instance of trying to place my voice remains the time I was told by a very drunk Australian that I sounded like a Norwegian. Someday the question of my vocal origins will come around again because it has been doing so since my childhood and I will answer "Lisson Grove" just to see what happens.

Current Music: Jack, "Cinematic"

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2025/09/03/strangers-in-the-house/

trobadora

It's that time of year again!

Yuletide is still my favourite multifannish exchange, and this year's schedule is out - nominations start on the 15th. And they're running an experiment with giving us more nominations and requests this year! Very cool, and I hope it works out well!

What's new this year:

The deadline is 12 hours earlier than it was the last few years. (First time in a while that the deadline will be when I'm actually awake, but I'll try not to cut it too close. *g*)

Reveals are also 12 hours earlier than they've been the last few years. (First time in a while that I'll be awake when the collection opens!)

We get 5 fandom nominations instead of 4. (Woohoo!)

We get 8 requests instead of 6! (And again, woohoo! It's so hard to choose between rare fandoms.)

Who else is doing Yuletide? Have you thought about what you're going to nominate/request/offer this year?

watervole

The Morris Federation are doing a recruiting push, backed up by a lot of short videos. Here's the one for Anonymous Morris

We're a team with wide variation in age, etc. See my family photo!. (I'm the oldest one. The rest are my son, daughter-in-law, grandson (very young) and my grand-daughter by my daughter. Theo and Oswin, you can deduce, are cousins.

Dreamwidth's photo hosting is clunky beyond belief... I do wish they'd put a bit of effort into making it work better.

There's a very nice photo that is visible while I'm editing my entry, and vanishes as soon as it is posted. It's uploaded to Dreamwidth, and I've used the embed code - but clearly it isn't working.

Any suggestions?

purplecat

One of my post-docs, and I was previously on the supervisory team for her PhD, has been partly occupying her time generating publications from her thesis. This is one such. She's addressing the question of what people actually want when they ask that an autonomous system provide explanations. In particular, though she doesn't really get into that in the paper, most explainability research has focused specifically on neural networks that are classifying things into groups, not on robotic systems that are taking decisions about what to do next.

Eliciting Explainability Requirements for Safety-Critical Systems: A Nuclear Case Study talks through her approach, and tries to categorise her results into groups. There is also some formalisation of the requirements into logic, though via the use of structured English to make it more comprehensible. Lastly she reports on some lessons learned.

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/links-kickstarters-sailor-moon-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151152

Workspace with computer, journal, books, coffee, and glasses. Welcome back to Links!

Apologies if there are any errors. There is a cat in my lap who does not approve of me reaching over her head to type. No matter how many pet breaks or forehead kisses I give her.

A friend and I watched The Thursday Murder Club Netflix adaptation this weekend. I thought it was okay if you hadn’t read the book. Otherwise, I’m a little eh on some of the changes they made.

Your thoughts? (Be wary of spoilers in the comments!)

To use spoiler tags, it’s [spoiler*]text here[/spoiler*], but remove the asterisks.

If you haven’t watched it yet, there’s still time before our discussion thread goes up this Saturday.

…

Do you love puzzles and Mariana Zapata romances? There’s a Kickstarter with only a few days left for special edition hardcovers and puzzles of memorable scenes.

…

Sarah sent me this link because it’s very much in my house of wheels. It’s an article in Vogue about how Sailor Moon influenced 90s fashion. Hell yeah.

…

Another Kickstarter! This is a board game for Austenites. I’m thinking about backing it. I’ve backed a previous project from this game designer (Botany) and loved it. I believe I also have another game of theirs, but have yet to test it out.

…

Enjoy this dreamy mashup of Kesha and ABBA.

Watch on YouTube

…

Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/links-kickstarters-sailor-moon-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151152

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: quixotic

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/kdds-ya-romance-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151139

The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is over 800 pages, so a digital copy might be beneficial, though many readers felt a couple hundred pages could have been chopped. I’ve seen reviews call this one an “epic feminist fantasy” novel.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Bone Season, a trailblazing, epic high fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons–and the women who must lead the fight to save it.

A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Accidentally Amy

Accidentally Amy by Lynn Painter is $1.99! This had a trade release in January of this year. Painter’s books have been spoken highly of on the site, but this appears to be the lowest rated release. Did you read it?

A stolen latte results in a meet-cute for the ages in this brand-new edition, with bonus content, of New York Times bestselling author Lynn Painter’s rom-com Accidentally Amy.

Isabella Shay is usually a very honest person. But when she’s running late for her first day at her dream job and the barista yells for “Amy” three times with no answer, she does the unthinkable.

Izzy takes that PSL.

It’s the exact drink she ordered and paid for, only way further ahead in the queue—and she’ll take whatever bad karma is coming for her; she’s desperate and very late. But when she turns around and runs directly into the most attractive man she’s ever seen, spilling the drink all over his made-for-GQ shirt and tie, she ends up having the ultimate meet-cute. Karma who? Sparks fly and things feel beyond promising, until he says to “See you tomorrow, Amy.”

Izzy reasons she can just straighten things out the next day, no biggie. Only when she gets to her new office and meets the VP of her department, it is none other than Blake Phillips—the hottie from Starbucks. And the man might’ve been charming to “Amy,” but he is an arrogant grump to Izzy, an arrogant grump who does not find her explanation funny at all. But day by day, an attraction simmers between them and they’ll have to find a way to work together without ripping each other’s heads—or clothes—off.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Dungeons and Drama

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce is $1.99! This is a YA romance with fake dating between two cute gaming nerds. I also think this cover is really joyful and adorable.

When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!

Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she’s grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can’t waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan’s Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn’t require as much acting as she would’ve thought…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Just a Heartbeat Away

Just a Heartbeat Away by Cara Bastone is $1.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! Aarya mentioned this one in a previous Whatcha Reading and mentioned it’s an age gap romance with a slow burn. Bastone’s books have been highly recommended in the comments.

Some people change your life

Others change your heart

Newly widowed dad Sebastian Dorner was unraveling at the edges—until his son’s teacher, Via DeRosa, threw him a lifeline. Now, two years later, they reconnect at Matty’s new school, and an inconvenient but unmistakable jolt of attraction crackles between them. But why does the first person to spark with Sebastian in years have to be a millennial? Is twentysomething Via really too young for him or does fortysomething Sebastian just feel too damn old?

A former foster kid, Via’s finally forged the stable life she’s always dreamed of—new job, steady income, no drama. The last thing she needs are rumors about her and a single dad at school. But why does she keep being drawn into his capable, worn-flannel orbit? And why does being around Sebastian, Matty and even their dog, Crabby, seem to spark so much want?

They’re trying to ignore the tension threatening their friendship. But sometimes what’ll heal you is just a touch—and a heartbeat—away…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/kdds-ya-romance-more/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151139

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: awake

regshoe

Humbug: A Study in Education by E. M. Delafield (1921). I thought I should take the interesting chance of a Delafield novel I knew nothing about, and chose this one for the intriguing-sounding title. It is what the subtitle says, broadly interpreted—a study of how the upbringing of a young girl in Victwardian England constrains and stifles her character and happiness. It is not as miserable as Consequences or as nasty as The War-Workers, but it's also less effective than either of them. I really liked the family relationships in the early chapters, in which the main character Lily is favoured by their parents over her disabled sister Yvonne and both girls suffer horribly as a result in different ways—it reminded me of The Mill on the Floss as a precise and well-observed study of how awful the internal experience of being a child can be—but I thought the book went astray later on, became less interesting and less focussed, and eventually tried for a triumphant happy ending I felt it hadn't really earned. It strikes me that my favourite books in the 'upbringing of a girl in Victwardian England and how badly it's done' genre—Alas, Poor Lady and The Crowded Street—continue with the main character failing to fulfil the goals of her upbringing by remaining single, and in this one she does make a conventionally-acceptable, unhappy marriage and the book then tries to pull apart the failures it's criticising from within that structure, and perhaps that's part of why it didn't work for me.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles (1959). The edition I read has 'AN AMERICAN CLASSIC' in big letters across the top of the front cover, and what I think is that if Americans so badly want to write CLASSICS then they can jolly well learn to format and punctuate dialogue correctly. Anyway: If you took schooldays-era Raffles and Bunny, only they're the same age, and also they're American, and also it's the Second World War, you would not exactly have something like this book, but you might have something not entirely unlike it. I did not enjoy the book on the whole; a lot of the appeal of boarding-school stories for me is in the cloistered setting, the school as its own closed-off little world, and this book does not have that because the school setting can't be closed-off when the war keeps intruding everywhere, and this is a large part of the point of the book. However (wobbly grammar aside) it is a very good portrayal of a very specific kind of messed-up relationship, and indeed just a little bit gay even though the author apparently didn't mean it that way (?), and also very good at what it's trying to do vis-a-vis the war intruding on everything else in the world. Actually my favourite character was 'Leper' Lepellier, who is not involved in the central homoerotic relationship, but I think he deserves a nice boyfriend and also some more cool snails to make up for everything he has to go through.

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee (1959). Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham was in my last reading post, and it kept reminding me of this (because ale/cider, main character called Rosie, and for some reason the only thing I knew about this book is that it's set in Gloucestershire and Somerset hence reminded me of that), so I decided to read it. Most of it I merely didn't get on with very well—the style favours rich impressionism over descriptive or narrative substance more than I like, and there's neither the perceptive social observation (Flora Thompson <3) nor the likeable narratorial personality that I think make for a good memoir. Also most of the way through the book I was getting a sense that the author was kind of dodgy about women. (If I say as a synecdoche that he uses the word 'voluptuous' too much to sum up what I don't like about Lee's writing, does that make sense?) Anyway, in the penultimate chapter it turns out that he is not slightly dodgy but horrifyingly awful, and I think that's enough books by straight men for me this year at least. If you want to read a beloved classic memoir, please read Flora Thompson instead.

cosmolinguist

Tomorrow is the day the report I wrote will be published.

Writing the report has also involved basically being the project manager for all the moving parts: communications and social media and PR and linking people up and answering random questions and already doing a couple of media interviews and having to film myself for social media which sucks and I'm bad at it...

I think I had my first it's too early for a drink isn't it thought at like 10:30 this morning.

osprey_archer

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Over the years,

littlerhymes has been educating me about Australian children’s literature. Most recently she sent me Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy, a slim and lovely book full of gorgeous descriptions of the barren yet beautiful storm-wracked shore where seabirds nest. Our hero, Storm Boy, lives here with his father, and befriends a baby pelican whom he names Mr. Percival. ( Spoilers )

After a gap of years since my last Ngaio Marsh, I returned to my favorite Golden Age mystery author! (Sorry, Sayers and Christie. Sayers in particular I think is probably actually a better writer than Marsh, but the heart wants what it wants.) This time, I read A Wreath for Rivera, in which a convoluted-seeming mystery winds round to a satisfyingly simple solution. The family dynamics are excellently portrayed as usual in Marsh, and although I love her mysteries I do just a little bit wish she’d written a non-mystery or two, just to see how it would have turned out.

I also finished Daphne du Maurier’s Golden Lads: Sir Francis Bacon, Anthony Bacon and Their Friends, which is one of those books that is interesting while you’re reading it but also eminently put-downable, hence the fact that it’s taken me a few months. Despite the title, it’s really a biography of Anthony Bacon, Tudor Spy, with just a bit of Sir Francis Bacon (presumably Sir Francis’s name is more marketable). Major downside of being a Tudor spymaster: you pay for the whole operation out of pocket and are rewarded, at best, with gratitude.

Continuing the spy theme, I read Ben Macintyre’s Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, a rollicking adventure featuring spies who are having the time of their lives. They pull off a major intelligence coup which is made into a major motion picture about fifteen years later, in which spymaster Ewen Montagu himself got to play a cameo role! Spying: extremely effective, glamorous, and also glorious. The antithesis of Le Carre.

What I’m Reading Now

In Elizabeth Gaskell’s Gothic Tales, I just finished the tragic story “Lois the Witch,” about a girl accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. Really effectively miserable and claustrophobic. If anyone ever tries to pack you off to your sole remaining surviving family in Puritan New England, I strongly suggest that you find a job as an under-housemaid instead.

What I Plan to Read Next

Dick Francis’s Whip Hand awaits!

minoanmiss posting in

agonyaunt

[be warned, the same column contains another iteration of The Harry Potter Debate]

( Read more... )

troisoiseaux

Currently on a non-fiction kick:
- 74% through Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, a 1973 collection of articles originally written for Rolling Stone, chronicling the 1972 Democratic primary and presidential election in real time.
- 35% through Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya, a memoir about the author's lifelong love of reading and mental health struggles and the way those two things have intersected.

I also just started Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, a 1889 travelogue-style novel about three friends (and a dog) taking a boating trip along the Thames. I'm only two chapters in, but enjoying this a lot— shades of P.G. Wodehouse. (Although, technically, the influence must have been the other way around...?)

In other media consumption, I finally caved to a friend's recommendation to watch Hazbin Hotel, an adult animation show that can be not wholly inaccurately described as "an edgy Hot Topic version of The Good Place", and spin-off Helluva Boss, about the workplace/romantic shenanigans of a trio of imp assassins. As someone who likes musical theater and dark humor, I am pretty much the target audience here, but for reasons I cannot entirely put my finger on, I was like "this is entertaining but I can take or leave it" about Hazbin Hotel but enjoyed Helluva Boss so much that when I finished it, I immediately went back to the beginning for a rewatch.

smartbitches_feed

Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/reflecting-on-guilty-pleasures/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151109

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section with exclusive content and events.

Everything you’re used to seeing at the Hot Pink Palace that is Smart Bitches Trashy Books will remain free as always, because we remain committed to fostering community among brilliant readers who love romance.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/09/reflecting-on-guilty-pleasures/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=151109

Arkessian

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up

The Rec League: Cozy Historical Mysteries

current reading

Wednesday is confused as to what day it actually is?

Daily Check-in

Cursed Number

I was never there, I only read the book, I only saw the film

Visiting comedy acts at Second Citty

YULETIDE!!!!

Publicity

Eliciting Explainability Requirements for Safety-Critical Systems: A Nuclear Case Study

Links: Kickstarters, Sailor Moon, & More

Postcards from the bureaucracy

KDDs, YA Romance, & More

The Priory of the Orange Tree

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Accidentally Amy

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Dungeons and Drama

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Just a Heartbeat Away

You can find ordering info for this book here.

Fall is falling, the TBR/W pile is growing

Recent reading

lolsob

Wednesday Reading Meme

Ask a Manager: Two from the same column (horrible call overheard and employability vs nudity)

Reading (etc.) Wednesday

Reflecting on “Guilty Pleasures”

Profile

Page Summary

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags