Online Rainbow Book Club

Tonight marked a bittersweet moment on my reading calendar: the final 2026 gathering of the Online Rainbow Book Club, hosted online via the Contra Costa County Library.

The Online Rainbow Book Club meetings fall on the last Thursday of the month from 6pm to 7pm for nine months out of each calendar year. This online group has easily become one of my favorite monthly routines. There is something truly special about gathering virtually with fellow readers to share space, explore diverse perspectives, and dig into incredible LGBTQIA+ literature and nonfiction works.

How It Works

If you haven't joined a library book club before, CCCPL’s format makes it wonderfully engaging and collaborative:

• Community-Chosen Reads: Rather than an assigned top-down reading list, attendees vote on a curated selection of titles to decide what we'll read together.
• Accessible & Online: Meeting virtually on the last Thursday of most months makes it effortless to tune in, settle in with a hot beverage + snacks, and join the conversation from home.
• Thoughtful Discussions: The atmosphere is warm, welcoming, and deeply insightful, bringing together readers who genuinely care about LGBTQIA+ stories and themes.

Tonight’s Selection: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)

For our 2026 finale tonight, we dove into The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine, which is the winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction.

It was an excellent novel to close out the year on! Hearing everyone's takeaways sparked a lively, multifaceted discussion. Everyone brought such unique observations to our meet-up tonight, making the conversation as dynamic as the novel itself.

Looking Ahead to 2027

While the Online Rainbow Book Club takes a hiatus for the rest of the year, I am already looking forward to picking back up in January 2027! I can't wait to see which books make the ballot for next year's reading list and to reconnect with this small community of readers.

Until next year, happy reading!

Person Throws Box Infested With Cockroaches at Librarian!!

 What is this world coming to? It's difficult to fathom what librarians must go through to do their jobs.

Do audiobooks really count as reading? (Science has an answer!)

 

Greetings Book Lovers,

Be honest: Have you ever told someone you "read" 30 books this year, only to quickly add, “Well, actually... I listened to them”?

If you’ve ever felt a tiny pang of guilt while marking an audiobook as finished on Goodreads, you’re not alone. A recent survey showed that 2 in 5 adults believe listening to an audiobook doesn't count as "real" reading.

So, is listening actually a "lesser" way to consume a story?

Pediatric neurologist Dr. Arif Khan recently broke down the neuroscience behind reading versus listening, and the results are reassuring for all of us who spend our time immersed in a good narrator's voice.

Here is what science actually says about your audiobook habit:

1. Your Brain Processes Meaning the Exact Same Way

When researchers put people in brain scanners and compared what happened when they read a story versus when they listened to it, the resulting brain maps were nearly identical.

Once words pass through your eyes or your ears, your brain builds meaning in the same mental locations. Neurologically speaking, listening isn't a shortcut—it’s just a different entrance to the exact same room.

2. Fiction is Made for Listening

Where audiobooks shine brightest is story-driven content. When researchers tested comprehension between reading print, listening to audio, or doing both for narrative fiction, they found zero difference in retention.

Because stories follow a natural progression, your brain easily keeps up by ear. So for novels, memoirs, and lighter non-fiction? Audio tracks side-by-side with print.

3. Dense Textbooks Still Prefer Print

There is one area where print pulls ahead: dense, complex informational material (like academic textbooks).

When studying heavy material, our eyes naturally dart back to re-read confusing sentences. Audiobooks keep moving forward, which can make it easier for your mind to wander during technical explanations. If you're trying to learn a complex topic for work or school, paper and a highlighter are still your best friends.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Listening

If you want to maximize your audiobook time, Dr. Khan suggests these four easy tips:

• Pair the format to the genre: Save audio for fiction and memoirs; grab print copies for dense textbooks or reference guides.
• Capitalize on "found" time: Driving, doing dishes, or hitting the gym are perfect audiobook moments because they turn time you couldn't hold a paperback into bonus reading time.
• Try the 5-second check: Finished a great audio chapter? Pause for a second and summarize the main point in your head. It locks the memory in before you move on.
• Protect your attention: Focused listening will always beat skim-reading a paper book while checking your phone!

The Bottom Line: Next time someone puts an asterisk next to your reading list, you can officially set the record straight: Your brain did the exact same work. Happy listening!

What’s on your headphones this week? Are you currently listening to a great fiction story? Reply and let me know your favorite narrator recommendations!

I'm currently listening to The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates, which is well narrated by Grover Gardner.

Top Eleven Tuesday - Halloween Freebie - Horror Books I've Read This Year

  

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Top Ten Tuesday was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Below are eleven horror books I've read and reviewed this year. I hope these books get you in the Halloween mood! Click on links below to read my review for each book.

1. Quitters, Inc. by Stephen King

2. The Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King

3. Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke

4. Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

5. When I Arrived At The Castle by E. M. Carroll

6. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

7. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

8. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

9. What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher

10. Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

11. The Nudge by Joseph Fink

Which horror books have you read recently? It's always fun to promote horror reads as Halloween approaches.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten

I've had the hardback edition of An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten sitting in my 'to be read' pile for several years now. I am finally happy to report that I read this slim collection of short stories by Swedish author, Helene Turston.

If you’re looking for a quick, deliciously dark read with an unforgettable protagonist, look no further than Helene Tursten’s An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good.

It was absolute perfection in print—compact, elegantly designed, and housing one of the most delightfully sinister leads I've read in a long time.

Meet Maud: Eighty-Eight and Unapologetic

At 88 years old, Maud lives alone in a spacious, rent-free apartment in Gothenburg, Sweden. She travels the world, avoids her neighbors, and cherishes her solitude. But Maud has a low tolerance for people who disrupt her peaceful life—and an exceptionally clever talent for making her problems... disappear.

What makes this collection so enjoyable isn't just the dark humor; it’s Maud herself. She isn't a frail, innocent grandmotherly figure, nor is she a cartoonish villain. She’s calculated, incredibly sharp, and fiercely protective of her peace. Whether dealing with an intrusive neighbor, an unwelcome former flame, or a greedy celebrity, Maud handles obstacles with a quiet efficiency that leaves you equal parts shocked and cheering her on.

The Delights of Short Story Antics

Because this is a collection of interconnected short stories, the pacing moves along at a brisk clip. Watching Maud scheme and execute her various shenanigans without ever raising the suspicions of the local police is pure entertainment. Tursten writes with a dry Swedish wit that keeps the tone light despite the body count, making it the ultimate comfort read for fans of cozy mysteries with a twist.

The hardcover itself feels like a little secret treasure to hold in your hands, making the reading experience even more satisfying.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good is a bite-sized, dark-comedy gem. If you love mischievous antiheroes, sharp writing, and stories where older women completely defy expectations, add Maud’s misadventures to your reading list immediately. Just make sure you stay on her good side!

I am giving An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!

P. S. I had help from Google Gemini in writing this review.

Here's How You Can Apply For a Little Library/Pizza Hut Themed Little Free Library!

 

October is both National Book Month and National Pizza Month. 

According to the Little Free Library website:

The iconic Pizza Hut red roof is popping up somewhere new this fall: your neighborhood. For decades, Pizza Hut’s unmistakable red roofs have been a symbol of pizza nights and good times, and through BOOK IT!, Pizza Hut has spent more than 40 years inspiring a love of reading while rewarding readers with pizza along the way.

Now, Pizza Hut is bringing two beloved pieces of its history together with the launch of “Little Hut Libraries,” limited-edition neighborhood book exchanges designed to look like miniature Pizza Hut restaurants and help make books more accessible in communities. Created in collaboration with the Little Free Library non-profit, in celebration of the convergence of National Book Month and National Pizza Month this October, the Little Hut Libraries will bring free books—and a little Pizza Hut nostalgia—directly into neighborhoods across the country.

Click on the above link to read the full story on the Little Free Library website. 

You have until October 31, 2026 to apply for one of these 'Little Hut Libraries'. To learn more and apply for a 'Little Hut Library', please click HERE. 

Will you be applying for one of these 'Little Free Huts'? If my husband and I didn't live in a condominium complex, I'd apply for one in a heartbeat!

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

 

Bookish Quote of the Day!!

 

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

Admittedly, I am behind on my reading for The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates this week. I hope to be caught with Part Three very soon. I wanted to stick to the posting schedule I'd created at the beginning of this read-along. So, with this in mind, I enlisted the aid of Google Gemini to help me flush out the major themes and discussion questions for Part Three of The Accursed. Read the following!

When reading Joyce Carol Oates’s The Accursed, one quickly realizes that the "curse" terrorizing Princeton, New Jersey, in 1905 is far more than a supernatural phantom. It is a physical manifestation of the moral rot, racial violence, and sexual repression buried beneath the polished exterior of Gilded Age America. In Part 3, Oates escalates her gothic pastiche to brilliant, unsettling new heights as the narrative shifts focus from suburban anxieties to the horrifying logic of the demonic "Bog Kingdom."

The Unreliable Historian and the Framing of Horror

A central triumph of the novel—which I really began to appreciate after reading Marianne’s Week 3 post over at Let’s Read—is the framing of our narrator, the late-twentieth-century historian M. W. van Dyck II. Marianne astutely pointed out that van Dyck may well be an unreliable narrator, and once you start looking for the cracks in his scholarly facade in Section 3, they are everywhere.

Van Dyck insists he is compiling an objective, painstaking record in 1984, but his mask as an impartial archivist slips constantly:

• Class and Racial Blind Spots: Writing as an elderly product of the Princeton establishment, van Dyck shares the same socio-political prejudices as the 1905 elite. He routinely sanitizes or rationalizes the community's moral failures while maintaining an air of high-minded decorum.
• Convenient Omissions: He openly admits to withholding, burning, or redacting letters and diary entries whenever the details become too scandalous or damaging to prominent families.
• Impossible Omniscience: Despite claiming to be a mere collector of historical documents, van Dyck casually penetrates the private inner thoughts, feverish hallucinations, and subconscious fears of figures like Woodrow Wilson and Upton Sinclair—turning "history" into a highly subjectively fabricated narrative.
• Personal Stake: Van Dyck isn't a neutral bystander; his own ancestry connects directly to the Slade family line and the events of the curse, giving him every reason to shape how history remembers these events.

As van Dyck channels private visions and glosses over uncomfortable truths, Oates—and van Dyck himself—reminds us that official historical record-keeping is often just as complicit in cover-ups as the perpetrators themselves.

The Horror of Social Hierarchy

Part 3 stands out as the narrative center of gravity for the novel’s social critique. Through Annabel Slade’s captivity under the demon Count Axom Mate, Oates transports readers to the Bog Kingdom—a twisted, funhouse-mirror reflection of Princeton elite society. In this subterranean underworld, populated by grotesque reptilian birds, mollusks, and forgotten corpses, class oppression is laid bare.

Oates doesn't pull her punches: the nightmare of the Bog Kingdom is not an invasion of external evil, but a direct reflection of Princeton's upper class. The way Count Axom Mate discards his former wives and mistreats the "unproductive" laboring class mirrors the cold ruthlessness of turn-of-the-century industrial capitalism and racial hierarchy.

Historical Figures as Flawed Mortals

One of Oates’s sharpest achievements in Section 3 is her continued subversion of historic titan figures. Woodrow Wilson (then President of Princeton University) continues his descent into self-righteous paranoia and petty bureaucratic feuds. Rather than portraying him as a noble statesman, Oates presents Wilson as a deeply conflicted hypocrite whose pious outward demeanor masks secret infatuations and moral cowardice.

Contrasting Wilson's elite ivory tower are figures like Upton Sinclair and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Sinclair’s frantic socialist idealism highlights the severe labor and economic exploitation of the era, while Clemens’s outrage against lynching and white supremacy underscores the true evil haunting the town—not red-eyed devils, but systemic racism and white silence.

The Verdict on Section 3

Part 3 is dense, atmospheric, and intentionally hallucinatory. Oates uses structural subversion—interweaving letters, academic histories, unreliable narration, demonic visions, and pastiche—to challenge the very nature of storytelling. It is not a quick or comfortable read, but as an indictment of American historical amnesia, Section 3 is masterclass gothic literature.

   Discussion Questions for Our Read-Along

1. The Unreliable Narrator: Building on Mary Ann's observation about M. W. van Dyck II, where in Section 3 do you feel his bias as an elderly Princeton traditionalist is most obvious? Do you think he is intentionally hiding the truth or simply blinded by his own background?
2. The Mirror of the Bog Kingdom: How does the surreal ecology and social structure of Count Axom Mate’s Bog Kingdom reflect the real-world socio-economic conditions of 1905 America?
3. Historical vs. Fictional Monsters: Oates contrasts supernatural demons with real-world horrors like racial violence, lynching, and labor exploitation. Which forces in Section 3 feel more terrifying or destructive to you?
4. The Deconstruction of Woodrow Wilson: How does Oates’s portrayal of Woodrow Wilson challenge the traditional historical narrative of his legacy? Is he portrayed as a victim of the curse or an active contributor to it?
5. The Role of Repression: Many characters in Section 3 suffer from psychological hallucinations or physical illnesses. How does secret guilt or sexual repression act as a gateway for the curse?

Marianne, from Let's Read, has posted her Week Three thoughts regarding Part Three of The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. Please click on the link provided to read and comment on Marianne's post. Marianne has once again provided food for thought in her post this week.

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.

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine

Author: Rabih Alameddine 

Narrator: GM Hakim 

Format: Audiobook (Unabridged) 

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5 Stars) 

Audiobook Length: 8 hours and 38 minutes

Award: 2025 National Book Award for Fiction

Publisher’s Summary

From National Book Award finalist and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother.

When Raja—a 60-something gay former philosophy teacher in Beirut—is offered an unexpected residency in Virginia, it sets off a series of reflections and recollections. Dancing across six decades, the novel explores the bond between Raja and his firebrand mother, Zalfa, amidst the backdrop of Lebanon's turbulent history, from the Lebanese Civil War to recent crises. It is an expansive, funny, and deeply moving novel about national trauma, community, familial devotion, and forgiveness.

Opening My Mind (and Headphones) to a Slow Burn

When I first hit play on the unabridged audiobook for The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother), I have to admit I was on the fence. The initial chapters move with a deliberate, quiet pace, and for a short while, I wasn't entirely sure if the narrative was going to capture my attention.

However, as I continued listening during my quiet reading hours, the story began to unfold like a rich, intricate tapestry. My early hesitation faded completely, replaced by a deep appreciation for Rabih Alameddine’s immersive storytelling. By the time I reached the final chapter, I was thoroughly swept up in its world, earning this National Book Award–winning novel a solid four stars in my book log.

Complex Family Dynamics & Queerness in Lebanon

Set primarily against the vivid, layered backdrop of Lebanon, this novel excels in its exploration of human relationships and cultural nuance. At its heart is the tender, complicated, and fiercely emotional dynamic between Raja—a gay former philosophy teacher—and his mother, Zalfa.

Alameddine navigates the intersections of family, deep devotion, and LGBTQ+ identity with incredible sensitivity. The novel doesn't shy away from complex realities or historical trauma; instead, it leans into the messiness of love, memory, and belonging. It treats its characters with a profound level of empathy, allowing their flaws and triumphs to feel intimately human.

The Audio Experience

What truly elevated this listen for me was GM Hakim’s brilliant narration. Bringing a book with such rich cultural texture, shifting tones, and emotional subtlety to life requires a skilled performance, and Hakim delivered flawlessly. Across its 8-hour and 38-minute runtime, the pacing, emotional cadence, and voice work brought Raja and his mother off the page, making the audiobook a deeply rewarding way to experience the text.

Final Thoughts & Recommendations

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) isn't a fast-paced thriller to rush through; it’s a contemplative, expansive novel that invites you to settle in and let the characters breathe. If you enjoy multi-generational family sagas, nuanced international literature, and stories that thoughtfully center LGBTQ+ lives, I highly recommend picking this one up (or grabbing the audiobook!).

I asked Google Gemini to help me change up my book review a bit. I feel like my book reviews are kind of stagnant. Tell me how you like this book review! 

Lastly, it should be noted that The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine was the last book selected this year for the Online Rainbow Book Club I've participated in this year. We will be discussing this novel next week.

Until my next post, happy reading.