Bookish Quote of the Day!!

 

The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates ~ Week One Discussion Thread + Community Rules & Spoiler Guidelines

Week 1 Discussion: Author’s Note, Prologue, & Part One ("The Blood-Wedding")

Welcome to Week One of our read-along! We are diving headfirst into Joyce Carol Oates’ haunting 1905 Princeton, New Jersey.

Because Part One introduces an enormous ensemble of historical figures, aristocratic families, and townspeople, use the character tracker below to keep everyone straight as you read and draft your review notes!

Part One Character Tracker

1. The Narrator & Framing Device

• M.W. van Dyck II: The pompous, ultra-conservative, and highly biased amateur historian writing this account decades after the events of 1905–1906.

2. The Primary Families & Households

• The Slade Family (Crosswicks / Princeton Elite)
  • Reverand Winslow Slade: Esteemed former clergyman, former Princeton Seminary president, and community patriarch.
  • Annabel Slade: Winslow’s 18-year-old grand-daughter; the bride whose abduction at the altar sets off the primary horror arc.
  • Josiah Slade: Annabel’s older brother.
• The Burr Family
• Horace Burr: Adelaide Burr's husband.
• Adelaide Burr: A bedridden wife who suffers a horrific, curse-induced fate.
• Wilhelmina "Mina" Burr: She is an artistic, independent "bluestocking" and a best friend to Annabel Slade.
• Lt. Dabney Bayard: The gallant young groom left abandoned at the altar when Annabel vanishes.

3. Real Historical Figures

• Woodrow Wilson: President of Princeton University; depicted as obsessive, self-righteous, plagued by terrible indigestion, and locked in political battles.
• Ellen Axson Wilson: Woodrow Wilson’s devoted wife.
• Grover Cleveland: Former U.S. President residing in retired comfort in Princeton.
• Frances Folsom Cleveland: Grover Cleveland’s glamorous, younger wife.
• Upton Sinclair: The fiery, idealistic muckraking author living nearby in a primitive cabin with his wife, Meta, and their child outside Princeton while writing a novel; his radical socialist views and raw exposé of American industry stand in sharp, uncomfortable contrast to the town's aristocratic elite.

4. Other Characters of Note

• Axson Mayte: An enigmatic, shape-shifting demonic entity who serves as the "demon bridegroom". He assumes various deceptive guises throughout the novel to manipulate the townspeople.
• Yaeger Ruggles: A young seminary student with African American lineage, he serves as a pivotal character who visits Woodrow Wilson. Ruggles begs Wilson to use his massive cultural influence to denounce the lynching and the KKK. Instead of helping, Wilson panics, attempts to stall him, and recoils when he realizes his distant cousin has "Black blood".

Week 1 Discussion Questions

1. The Author's Note & Prologue (Framing the Narrative)

• How does the Author’s Note set up the metafictional nature of the book? How does knowing right away that M.W. van Dyck II is compiling "historical records" color how you interpret his tone and obsession with status?
• In the Prologue, Oates introduces the idea of a "Curse" hanging over Princeton. Do you think M. W. van Dyck II is documenting a literal supernatural force, or is he inadvertently describing an outbreak of collective hysteria and moral decay?

2. Part One: "The Blood-Wedding" & Elite Society

• Social Hypocrisy: Part One paints a vivid picture of 1905 Princeton's high society. How does the community's immediate reaction to the horrific lynching near town contrast with their hyper-fixation on social decorum and wedding prep?
• Woodrow Wilson's Portrayal: How does Oates handle the portrayal of Woodrow Wilson in these opening chapters? What specific personality traits or physical ailments stand out, and how do they reflect the larger themes of power and repression?
• Upton Sinclair's Portrayal: Upton Sinclair appears as an idealistic, young socialist. How does his radical worldview contrast with the conservative, aristocratic atmosphere of Princeton?
• The Abduction: Axson Mayte's arrival disrupts the entire social order. What were your initial impressions of Axson Mayte's interaction with Annabel prior to the wedding scene? What are your views of Axson Mayte after the abduction? What subtle Gothic or vampiric tropes did you spot around his character?

Drop Your Thoughts Below!

Feel free to answer any of the questions above, share your favorite line or footnote from Part One, or link your preliminary blog post/review draft in the comments!

Community Rules & Spoiler Guidelines

To keep our discussion engaging, respectful, and easy to navigate across different reading paces, please follow these group guidelines:

• Respect Diverse Perspectives: Book bloggers bring varied analytical styles and opinions. Critique the text, arguments, and narrative choices vigorously, but keep all interactions courteous and constructive.
• Use Spoiler Tags Outside Weekly Threads: Keep all plot discussions strictly within the designated week’s thread or channel. If you reference events beyond the current week's reading target in general chat, use spoiler tags (e.g., ||spoiler text|| or standard forum markup) and clearly label the page/chapter range.
• Tag Review Drafts & Posts: Feel free to share links to your blog posts, review drafts, or social media coverage! When posting links, mark whether the content contains spoilers so members reading at a slower pace can browse safely.
• Pacing & Asynchronous Courtesy: We encourage deep, long-form responses. If you reply to a post from earlier in the week, quote or tag the specific section so members can follow the conversation thread easily.
• Self-Promotion & Crossposting: Use the designated #Blog-Share thread to post your final reviews, group roundups, and cross-promotions. Keep main discussion threads focused on live text analysis.

UPDATE: Marianne, from Let's Read, has posted her Week One thoughts regarding Part One of The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. Please click on the link provided to read and comment on Marianne's post.

British Author, Jeffrey Archer, Passed Away

 

I'm a bit late to the party with this very sad news! I learned this morning that Jeffrey Archer passed away on Monday.

The BBC published an article titled, 'Author and former politician Jeffrey Archer dies aged 86' by Henry More and Emma Saunders that highlights Jeffrey Archer's life and career as both a politician and novelist. The following is a quote from the aforementioned BBC article:

Bestselling author and former politician Jeffrey Archer has died at the age of 86.

Archer sold more than 300 million books in his five-decade writing career, including the Clifton Chronicles and Kane and Abel, and often set the novels in his home town of Wellington, Somerset.

In a statement, Archer's publisher HarperCollins said the author died "suddenly and peacefully at home" on Monday between writing sessions.

I've read and reviewed four novels by Jeffrey Archer, Only Time Will Tell, Paths of Glory, Kane & Abel, and The Prodigal Daughter. Each novel was an enjoyable read. Click on the above links to read my review of each novel by Jeffrey Archer.

The 2026 Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Goes to Canadian, Anne Carson

 

Congratulations to Canadian, poet and essayist, Anne Carson!!

Once again, we have another year where I've never even heard of the Nobel in Literature winner before!! I don't think I'll be running out to read her works as I'm not a huge fan of poetry, nor essays.

I read online that Anne Carson was selected as the winner “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.

American Library Association Online Event ~ Banned Books Week ~ Spotlight on Tony Weaver, Jr.

 

This afternoon, from 3pm to 4pm Pacific DST, I attended the Spotlight on Tony Weaver, Jr., which was host by the American Library Association during Banned Books Week.

The description for this event is as follows:

This program will shine a light on banned author, immensely popular educator, and Banned Books Week Honorary Chair Tony Weaver, Jr!

Tony Weaver, Jr., is the author of Weirdo (with illustrators Jes and Cin Wibowo), a middle-grade memoir about being Black and nerdy among classmates who won’t accept him. The graphic novel takes on heady topics like bullying, racism, and self-harm as 11-year-old Tony ultimately finds help and self-acceptance. Despite appearing on multiple “best of” lists and receiving multiple starred reviews from publications like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, Weirdo was removed from a Minnesota school after an administrator objected to images and LGBTQIA+ representation in the graphic novel. Weaver has used his robust social media platform and in-person events to educate audiences about advocacy issues such as censorship and racism and to promote the importance of diverse reading materials and representation.

Youth honorary chairs Marshall Romero and Azeemah Sadiq will moderate the discussion.

I enjoyed attending this online event and learned a lot about Tony Weaver Jr.  One of the things Mr. Weaver mentioned was that the best books create a new perspective and I agree!

Tony Weaver Jr. is also the founder of Nerds For Literacy, which has a mission statement as follows: "to provide students access to literacy and mental health tools to help them reach the next level of their academic and emotional journeys."

Tony Weaver Jr. will be a participating speaker at the Las Vegas Book Festival occurring on October  17th from 11am to 12pm. So if you live in Las Vegas or happen to be visiting Las Vegas during this time frame, then you may want to attend the Las Vegas Book Festival.

Diary of a Femen by Michel Dufranne

 

My first read for the month of October 2026 is Diary of a Femen by Michel Dufranne. This is a graphic novel about the international, radical, feminist activist group, Femen. Femen was founded in 2008 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Femen is known for organizing high-profile, topless protests and their mission is to fight patriarchy, dictatorship, religious institutions, homophobia, and sex tourism.

Honestly, I'd never heard of Femen until a few days ago. This year, I've become more interested in almost anything related to Ukraine after I became a volunteer English language tutor via ENGin. I am currently tutoring two Ukrainian women living in Ukraine. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience. So, when I stumbled across Diary of a Femen by Michel Dufranne, I decided to read the ebook edition.

Overall, I liked reading Diary of a Femen by Michel Dufranne. The artwork is decent. The perspective of this graphic novel is from the point of view of Apolline, a young woman dissatisfied with the social status of women in society and also her personal experience in the workforce. For this reason, Apolline decides to join Femen. We read about Apolline's experience joining and training to become a Femen activist, her first protest, her arrest and jail time, being fired from work, and alienation from family and friends. 

By the end of Diary of a Femen, Apolline is married and has a young child with her husband. We see Apolline in the same situation she was fighting against as a Femen activist. So, did she really help to make a difference for the lives of women? It doesn't appear so.

Below is the summary for Diary of a Femen by Michel Dufranne, which I discovered on Amazon's website:

The FEMEN movement began in Ukraine in 2008. It has since spread throughout the world, as far as Spain, Sweden and Belgium. In France it really began to catch on when Inna Shevchenko arrived in Paris, where she sought asylum after she was deported from Ukraine. She took refuge in the "Lavoir Moderne Parisien" theatre, which has now become the training ground of FEMEN activists in France. This project is a fictional story based on real events and witness testimonies collected by the author, who has been in personal contact with FEMEN France for over 4 years. The aim is to study this social phenomenon and open up debate on the subject without taking sides or pronouncing judgment. The journal follows the story of a young French girl who, after a number of negative experiences connected to her social status as a woman in contemporary society, decides to join the movement. It's not easy, and there will be consequences in her personal and professional life. She soon begins to question herself. A fascinating album that helps us understand the inner workings of the controversial feminist organization.

I am giving Diary of a Femen by Michel Dufranne a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!

Happy Banned Books Week!!

 

How do you celebrate Banned Books Week? Do you read banned or challenged books during Banned Books Week? What other ways have you supported the eradication of censorship?

I've read challenged or banned books during Banned Books Week and I have also read banned or challenged books throughout the year. I've also worn banned/challenged clothing attire in the past as well. I'm trying to remember if I've attended any virtual events pertaining to Banned Books Week??? It feels like I have, but I didn't find anything about it here on my blog.

I'd like to expand my support in eradicating censorship! 

Below is an image for this week's Banned Books artwork.

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

 

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I listened to the unabridged audio version of Atomic Habits by James Clear, which was nicely narrated by the author. Atomic Habits was my last read for the month of September.

I've been meaning to read Atomic Habits for quite awhile, but I had been putting it off for other reads instead. 

Then, about six weeks ago, a Ukrainian woman living in Kyiv, Ukraine that I am an English buddy with, asked me to read Atomic Habits with her. We will be discussing this book via video chat this upcoming week.

I really enjoyed reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. This work of nonfiction about how to change ones habits was very engaging and straightforward. There are four laws to follow to enact changing ones habits. The laws themselves are broken down into easy to follow steps that seem very doable. I also like the fact that there are several pdf downloadable worksheets to help facilitate changing ones own habits. 

Below is the publisher's summary for Atomic Habits by James Clear from the Goodreads website:

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
- Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

I am giving Atomic Habits by James Clear a rating of 5 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

 

I hope you're reading something special this weekend!!

Share with me which book you're reading and if you're

enjoying it so far.