I've made sure to make note of all the books that have been recommended so far (although my TBR is literally in the hundreds so I haven't gotten to them all yet), but I wanted to make this post to consolidate all future recommendations.

If you've requested a book before and want to add it again just to be doubly sure, go for it! If you were hesitant about making a whole post yourself, the comments section of this post is for you.

All I ask is that the detective (amateur or professional, we don't separate them here) be queer in some way - and that means any identity under that 2SLGBTQIAP+ umbrella! If you could also leave a non-spoiler reason why you are recommending it for this quest, that would be delightful!

It's the time of the week to show of your big beautiful brains! Whether it's a quick piece of trivia, a tidbit you learned about yourself, or a deep dive on a niche topic - we wanna hear it!

My rabbit hole this week started with a metaphor I couldn't understand, which led me to a 1917 Russian literary theory, Art as Technique by Skhlovsky linked here on the importance of defamiliarization in literature which then led me to modern cognitive neuroscience research to check against the claims (in crazy news, they mostly backed his theory up) and landed in a 2,000 word essay I titled What If It's Genius and I'm Just Stupid? A Eulogy for the Reviews I Never Wrote. (If you have ever wondered why I started posting this weekly series I feel like this explains a lot of it I love hearing about people's rabbit holes and where it ends up haha)

My tidbit: I learned that I love tandem reading so much, I'm starting to have a hard time just eyeball reading books or just reading audiobooks.

How about you? What did you learn this week?

Hello PBees!

This past 2026 Spring Readalong, I acquired my first sparkly badge 🙌 I was very surprised to realize that the book I was dreading to read and making me wonder whether I should aim for sparkles or not, was actually my favorite book of the Readalong! It made me appreciate even more how the Readalongs can get you out of your comfort zone in a good way!

So today I want to ask you: What do you think your top for the 2026 Summer would be?

Mine is:

1. 🦁 The Lion Women of Teheran
2. 🐇 The Empress of Salt and Fortune
3. 🌊 A River Enchanted
4. ☀️ The Stranger

You can participate even if you don't plan on aiming for the sparkles! In fact, don't push yourself too much for it, the goal is to enjoy reading first of all! You can also participate if you've already acquired your sparkly badge (you drop that 👑), and mention what you thought it would be vs what it actually was!

If you are into it, I will also offer a debrief at the end of the Readalong to see how you thought it would go vs how it actually went!

PS: Doesn't Sparkle Chaser sound like a My Little Pony name? I couldn't confirm whether it was one 🤔