This week, we are doing something a little different, talking about the New York Times's Best 100 Books of the 21st Century, a list that Sarah was asked to contribute a ballot for. We talk about how Sarah made her list, what she put on it, and why...and why we think there are no romance novels on the final top 100 list.

Don't fret, though -- on the Discord, FM listeners have started collecting nominations for the 100 Best Modern Romance Novels (since the publication of The Flame and the Flower)! Join the group to submit your own nominations and vote on the final list throughout August.

We're coming up on the end of Season 6 (what?! how!?), which means a deep dive of one of Sarah's books, even though she doesn't have a new one this year! We're talking Wicked & the Wallflower, the first of her Bareknuckle Bastards series. Get it at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

The Books

We talk about lots of books today, but most of them aren't romance novels. The nine romances on Sarah's list for the New York Times are:

Kate Clayborn's Georgie, All Along

Kresley Cole's Dark Needs at Night's Edge

Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me

Uzma Jalaluddin's Hana Khan Carries On

Beverly Jenkins's Forbidden

Lisa Kleypas's Again the Magic

Angelina M. Lopez's After Hours on Milagro Street

Sherry Thomas's Ravishing the Heiress

Milla Vane's A Heart of Blood and Ashes

Show Notes

In between the recording of this episode, about two hours after Biden dropped out of the race, and the time we released it on Wednesday: Kamala Harris has locked up the delegates for the nomination and raised 100 million dollars from small donors, a majority of whom are first time donors.

Click here to express your interest in joining us for Fated States phonebanking. If you’re an author who would like to donate books to phonebankers, please fill out this form.

We’re mad at Aaron Sorkin for writing a boneheaded oped in the New York Times, which was truly the dumbest thing, and then retracting it later.

The New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century list is interesting, not only for the list itself but for how it was made. If you don’t want to go to the New York Times site, You can see the entire list on Goodreads or Instagram. You can see Sarah’s ballot and those of other authors and literary luminaries, as well, and they also compiled a reader’s list. You can also listen to the New York Times Books Podcast for discussion of the process and the final product!

Sarah Jessica Parker is a big reader who loves libraries.

We still don’t actually know who Elena Ferrante is, so it's not officially not Scott Turrow's sister.

Sponsors

• Danica Nava, author of The Truth According to Ember, available in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you buy your books,
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATED50 for free gummies with a limited time $50 off coupon, or use code FATEDMATES for 30% Off, and
• Stephanie Rose, author of Second Time’s the Charm, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/7/23/s0646-the-perils-amp-promise-of-the-new-york-times-best-100-books-list
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.