Do images also get redirected when using a rename token?
Dec. 22nd, 2025 10:10 amDo image links also get redirected automatically ? Or do you need to update your old posts referencing those images, since the username is in the URL too??
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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Say hello to the top five Cover Snark posts of 2025! These are the most viewed Snark posts from last December to now! It’s such a joy to put these together and I hope you all get as much joy from reading them.
Let’s count them down!
5. Does Jane Austen Know About This? (September 8)
Classic Jane Austen novels received some modern cover designs that left us all a little perplexed. There’s also a man with a hazardous belly button and a pair of smug bears (the animal kind).
Best reader comment is from Kate Rose:
Wow…nothing about the Northanger Abbey cover says romance with gothic vibes, unless she’s actually trying to strangle him with her hand on his neck. I must not be the target audience – the cover is off-putting and that it’s supposed to be Jane Austin just makes it worse.
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4. What Have They Done to Jude Deveraux (February 24)
This is another case of a well-known author getting cover redesigns that are real head-scratchers. There’s a font that hurts our eyeballs. We also learn a little bit more about rugby and pose the question: Would Dunkin Donuts ever sponsor a rugby team?
Best reader comment is from Empress of Blandings:
Re rugby: there is also a loosehead prop, which sounds messier.
Someone needs to write a romance set in the world of cricket, as I feel there’s potential in several of the fielding positions such as long on, or fly slip. Perhaps less so for square leg or silly mid-on. But you have to respect a game that has built-in tea breaks.
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3. How Do Legs Work? (Diagrams Included) (August 11)
We really tried to make sense of some leg placement. Sarah even drew a diagram and turned it into a gif. Now that’s dedication! I was also confused about the title, Pall Mall Peer, as Pall Malls to me are cigarettes.
Best reader comment is from Randall M:
Amanda:
Your question about Pall Mall got me wondering. According to Wikipaedia (which we all know is never wrong), Pall Mall is a fashionable street in London, particularely known in the 19th century for fashion, the War Office, and some Royal Family housing. It also notes, “The cigarette manufacturer Rothmans has its head office at No. 65 Pall Mall”. The name “Rothmans” is a link, clicking on which takes you to the “Rothmans International” page, which has on its “Products and Brands” listing, Pall Mall. That takes you to the “Pall Mall (cigarette)” page, which tells us it was a “premiere cigarette”, named for the street.
And now you know why I’m not allowed to answer questions any more.
Ed. note: We are clearly an educational website.
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2. A 20th Anniversary Cover Snark Retrospective (January 29)
To celebrate the site’s 20th anniversary, Candy and Sarah swam deep into the waters of some vintage Cover Snark, unearthing things that probably aren’t fit for human eyeballs…or any eyeballs for that matter.
Best reader comment is from Jill Q.:
Candy! The scream I scrumpt when I saw you were making a guest appearance! I don’t know if I’ve been reading Smart Bs for the whole 20 years, but I definitely go back all the way to the Candy days and when I was not Jill Q. but Jill some other initial
It’s so great of you to stop by and I hope life is treating you well.
Meanwhile, yes in all important cover snark commentary, that last lady in the Victoria Alexander looks like she’s thinking “man, I really got to let one rip. Let me position my butt just so in this strategic gap in the holly bushes for maximum effect.”
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1. An Us Anus (June 9)
Confusing choices abound! I have no statistics to back this up, but I feel like fonts, leading, and kerning were some of our biggest Snark offenders.
Best reader comment is from the Jazzlet:
The Lonely Mortician isn’t very professional, while the bottle is labelled CH2O, or formaldehyde, it clearly contains blood. The properties of these liquids are very different, and that cover is a lesson in why you should keep liquids in the original containers unless you have another correctly labelled bottle.
And that’s our top five! What do you think? Did you have any Cover Snark favorites this year?


This week's bread: a loaf of Bacheldre Rustic Country Bread Flour, quite nice, but not as nice as Dove's Farm Seedhouse.
Friday night supper: ersatz Thai fried rice with chorizo di navarra.
Saturday breakfast rolls: the ones based on James Beard's mother's raisin bread, 50/50% Marriages Golden Wholegrain (end of bag) and Strong Brown Flour, quite nice.
Today's lunch: lamb chops which I cooked thusly, except that as I had no small bottles of white wine I used red, turned out very well; served with Greek spinach rice and padron peppers.
We’re trying something new! And a little unhinged.
Over the course of the year, Sarah and I would suggest silly categories based on trends we’ve seen this year, gripes in the comments, or just general nonsense that came into our brains. Thus the unhinged bingo card was born.
The 2025 Unhinged Romance Bingo begins today and will conclude on March 20, 2026.
Please save the image to use on your own or click on it for a larger version! If you’d like to share on social media, please use the hashtag #SBTBingo so we can see how your card is coming along! Participants who complete at least one bingo are eligible to win a box of books, though there won’t be any stickers for this one.
Here are some explainers for categories that feel less than obvious:
These squares are meant to be subjective and up to some interpretation. Sarah and I aren’t going to be sticklers and verify each of your selections. The middle space is a free space, meaning any book will qualify there. Also, please use one book per space. No double dipping!
To submit your card, please fill out this form. Maximum of five entries per person!
Standard disclaimers apply: Void where prohibited. Must be over 18 and ready to read some excellent books. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law.
The entry form will close the evening of March 20 at 10pm eastern.
If you need further clarification on any of the categories or want to crowdsource reading recommendations, feel free to ask or brainstorm in the comments section!
Last night I wrapped up Solo Dance by Kotomi Li, translated from Japanese by Arthur Morris. This short book is about a young gay Taiwanese woman who struggles with both internal and external homophobia, and eventually moves to Japan looking for understanding.
Queer stories from other countries are always interesting to me and it’s a good reminder that progress has not been even all over the world. Much of the book is pretty depressing, because the protagonist struggled with fitting in even before she realized she was gay, and she has some real struggles. She is battling severe depression for much of the book and at several points, suicidality.
The book is touching in that the protagonist’s struggles feel real and she’s someone who is so close to having positive experience that could change her life for the better, but her luck keeps dropping on the other side each time.
I don’t want to spoil too much about the end, but while I was grateful for the overall tone of the it, it is contrived and not very believable. But I did enjoy the protagonist’s travels leading up to that point. It’s not at all subtle, and it packs a lot more plot into the final handful of chapters than the rest of the book, but it was still sweet to see the protagonist’s perspective shift a little through her engagements with other people.
I’m not sure if it’s the translation or the original prose, but the language is stilted and very emotionally distant. The reader is kept at arm’s length from the protagonist virtually the whole novel, and while we’re often told she’s feeling these intense feelings, I never felt it. It was like reading a clinical report of her feelings, which was disappointing.
This is Li’s first novel, and it reads that way. There’s a lot of heart in it, and I appreciate it for that, but it lacks a lot in technical skill. I would be interested to see more of Li’s future work, when she’s had more time to polish her ability, but I don’t regret taking the time with this one.
Last night I wrapped up Solo Dance by Kotomi Li, translated from Japanese by Arthur Morris. This short book is about a young gay Taiwanese woman who struggles with both internal and external homophobia, and eventually moves to Japan looking for understanding.
Queer stories from other countries are always interesting to me and it’s a good reminder that progress has not been even all over the world. Much of the book is pretty depressing, because the protagonist struggled with fitting in even before she realized she was gay, and she has some real struggles. She is battling severe depression for much of the book and at several points, suicidality.
The book is touching in that the protagonist’s struggles feel real and she’s someone who is so close to having positive experience that could change her life for the better, but her luck keeps dropping on the other side each time.
I don’t want to spoil too much about the end, but while I was grateful for the overall tone of the it, it is contrived and not very believable. But I did enjoy the protagonist’s travels leading up to that point. It’s not at all subtle, and it packs a lot more plot into the final handful of chapters than the rest of the book, but it was still sweet to see the protagonist’s perspective shift a little through her engagements with other people.
I’m not sure if it’s the translation or the original prose, but the language is stilted and very emotionally distant. The reader is kept at arm’s length from the protagonist virtually the whole novel, and while we’re often told she’s feeling these intense feelings, I never felt it. It was like reading a clinical report of her feelings, which was disappointing.
This is Li’s first novel, and it reads that way. There’s a lot of heart in it, and I appreciate it for that, but it lacks a lot in technical skill. I would be interested to see more of Li’s future work, when she’s had more time to polish her ability, but I don’t regret taking the time with this one.
And the reporting on the acquisition of the Cerne Giant by the National Trust was very very muted and mostly in the local press. Mention of the sale as part of the Cerne and Melcombe Horsey Estates in 1919 in the Bournemouth Times and Director. The Western Daily Press in June 1921 mentions it as having been presented to the National Trust by Mr Pitt-Rivers; and the Weymouth Telegram's account of a meeting of the Dorset Field Club mentioned that the 'valuable relic of antiquity... had been placed in the custody of the National Trust'. There was also a mention in the report of a lecture on 'Wessex Wanderings' in the Southern Times and Dorset County Herald in 1921. No mention of the Giant's gigantic manhood, though references to his club.
Other rather different antique relics (heritage is being a theme this week....): The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are getting a glow up (gosh, writer is in love with his style, isn't he?)