The Roncy QBC #11 was on June 23, 2026

Which was 9 days ago, and even though I’ve just written and published the post about The Roncy QBC #10 that was 16 days ago, for some reason, I don’t remember what happened 9 days ago. AT. ALL. In my defence, it’s 40°C outside, I live with a roommate (i.e. I am under the obligation to wear clothes indoors), and we don’t have a swimming pool. My intellectual abilities are limited right now, so I’ll improvise.

When I arrived at SAVA Crêpes and Coffee, I met a new face and asked them outright if they were there for the book club. Remember when it was impossible for me to ask that question to a complete stranger? Remember The Roncy QBC #8 debacle? And now, I just go ahead and pop the question upfront without shaking or throwing up? You know what that is?

Margie

The new face was Margie! So I asked them if it was how we were supposed to pronounce “Marge Simpson” this whole time (iuno, I grew up watching The Simpsons in French!) No, it’s not: their Margie has an i. As Kirkegaard used to say:

"There’s no i in team, but there is an i in Margie!”

And if anyone knows anything about vowels, it's Søren Kierkegaard.

I didn’t tell her that. But I told them something equally awkward:

“Ooooh Margie! Like margin, but with an e instead of n”

And that was the test. They passed. Flying colors. There was no weirdophobia on their part. None of that split-second look of panic neurotypicals tend to get when you don't follow their script. You'll miss it if you blink. Margie processed this like a regular conversation and automatically became deserving of my homemade first-timer’s welcome dance. I think they liked it.

They said they had meant to attend the Roncy QBC for weeks. I mean, if they had come to QBC #1, they wouldn’t have gotten a first-timer’s welcome dance. There was no welcome dance, until... I’ll let you look it up in the archives. I’ve worked enough. So anyway, I’m glad they came when they came.

“Can I get you anything?” they asked me.
“No, but thank you!” I said, definitely hungry as hell.

Meet Margie, the first-timer who finally made it!

Margie is a US immigrant and a neighbor, who came to read SYSTEM COLLAPSE, the 7th book in Martha Wells's MURDERBOT series. They're a huge sci-fi fan, and there's not enough darkness in the cosmos to hide the light in their eyes when they talk about it.

I recognized the name MURDERBOT from the TV show on my watchlist.

Here’s a quote that stood out to them during the session:

“I know I get pissed off when humans don’t acknowledge my work, but why is too much acknowledgement upsetting? Sentience sucks.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”, I said.

And did you know this new word Margie learned? This is the definition I found in Cambridge dictionary:

phatic (adj.): Phatic language has a social purpose, rather than being intended to give information (e.g., the phatic meaning of "How are you?")

None of us knew that word and we were all quite surprised by its meaning. For an autistic person, this is so good to know, but also quite upsetting.

Carianne

This time, I recognized Carianne! Easy: they have a favorite spot, and there’s an intense mass of quiet, silent, mega queer energy drawing my gaze to the back of the room. They’re also covered in tattoos that I never actually looked at, because looking at someone’s tattoos is, to me, the equivalent of eye contact. I prefer not to. Not so soon anyway. Not if they can see me.

But I hope Carianne will keep coming, so that I can finally read the different stories on their skin. Or I should just take as many pictures of them as I can, and check out the tats on my own time.

The book they brought this time is…

CLEAT CUTE by Meryl Wilsner! It’s not the first girls love book at The Roncy QBC (Alba had brought THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR the first time they came). Because my English is poor, when I read “Cleat Cute”, I immediately thought about my third favorite organ in third favorite organ in the human body. I actually thought: “clit cut”. But thankfully, it has nothing to do with that.

Someone on Goodreads describes CLEAT CUTE as “a sapphic rivals to lovers rom com for fans of Ted Lasso and A League of Their Own“. Y’all: I love TED LASSO and A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN! And of course, My favorite trope is rivals/enemies to lovers! I just don’t read GL with the same passion as I read BL. (Writing GL is more fun to me than reading it.)

A couple of days ago, Carianne sent me their favorite quote from this book via FB, and when you read it, you’ll understand why it’s never too late to add it to the national archives of the Roncy QBC:

““Lesbian is important to me,” Phoebe said, “The world likes to act like it’s a porn category, not an identity. It took me a while to realize it wasn’t. I want other girls like me to know it’s a beautiful word.””

Yup, that’s why.

Carianne is our designated Chief Queering Officer.

The Chief Queering Officer (CQO) is responsible for ensuring that The Roncesvalles Quiet Book Club remains, in spirit and practice, gently and unapologetically queer. Core responsibilities include:

Queering the expectations of what a “quiet book club” is supposed to look like, sound like, or behave like
Introducing or amplifying queer texts, references, and subtexts, both intentional and accidental
Ensuring that heteronormativity does not enter the space uninvited and sit down too comfortably
Sitting weird
Being one’s truest self

Colleen

Colleen has been a grandmother for over 2 months now, and it took me a minute to finish the present I wanted to gift the baby. You see, earlier this year, I was recruited by a French baby brand that launched a publishing house dedicated to newborns. My job was to write a poem that would be published in a second volume, and read in maternity wards and neonatal intensive care units to newborns. Neuroscience has shown that newborn brains respond positively to the reading of poetry.

I therefore decided to make a collage greeting card in which Colleen’s granddaughter’s loved ones could slip poems for her.

While making this collage, what do I come across? The second copy of the sign-up sheet I had been desperately looking for in the QBC box during QBC #10! It was in the collage box! I have no idea how it ended up there…

Anyway, I finally finished my collage (not my best work, but as Léna Situations says: “C’est pas parfait, mais c’est fait”) and gave it to Colleen this morning. Luckily, she did not open it in front of me. She would’ve been like:

“Oh… OK! That’s… Thank you!”

You know my friend Colleen… We moved into the neighborhood at the same time.

Colleen came to read SWANN by Carol Shields, reportedly one of the biggest names in Canadian literature. I had never heard of her.

“I’m not familiar with Canadian literature yet.”, I said.

I’m glad that this quiet book club allows me to discover so many authors from here...

Speaking of discoveries, here are Colleen’s new vocabulary entry and its definition by Merriam-Webster:

apotheosis (n.): a. the perfect form or example of something : QUINTESSENCE b. the highest or best part of something : PEAK c. elevation to divine status : DEIFICATION

“Apothéose” is actually pretty common in French, in the expression “finir/se terminer en apothéose” (“to end with a bang”). But what we don’t have in French is the transitive verb “to apotheosize”.

The following quote stood out to Colleen:

“Like many an introvert, Jimroy distrusts the interior world of the psyche, but has enormous faith in the mechanics of the exterior world of governments and machinery and architecture and science.“

Do we now?

Sabreena

Gemma came with a friend this time, and that friend is Sabreena, from another neighborhood, or maybe country (I heard she was from New Zealand!). Gemma and Sabreena sat at the same table, a table where Gemma doesn’t usually sit when she comes alone. The fire on Sabreena’s book cover caught my eye. The book is THE FUTURE…

“By Catherine… Lerouge?” I asked trying to decypher the handwriting on my signup sheet.

“Leroux. It’s translated from French actua—”

“I like the fire on the cover…”

“Yeah, it’s a dystopia—”

“Is it a dystopia about climate change or a FAHRENHEIT 451 kind of dystopia?”, I interrupted again.

“Yeah, it’s more about climate change”

I’m sorry, Sabreena. I realized that I was interrupting you all the time, and I was sorry then, but I can’t remember if I apologized then, but anyway, sorry oh!

I danced the first-timer’s dance for Sabreena as well.

Sabreena forgot to write the date and the book title on her quote and vocabulary card (QVC), but I know it’s hers because I recognized the new vocabulary entry she shared during her turn:

malefactor (n.): 1. one who commits an offense against the law 2. one who does ill toward another

“It’s from ‘male’, ‘bad’, and ‘factor’, ‘doer’. The opposite would be ‘benefactor’. Just like ‘malevolent’ would be ‘male’, ‘bad’ and ‘volent’, ‘wanting’, and ‘benevolent’, the opposite.”

By saying so, I thought it was obvious to everyone, but although they were all understanding, they hadn’t realized it until I said something. It really jumps out at you when French (and I imagine Italian, Spanish, etc.) is your first language. Funny how Anglophones’ vocabulary entries are rather transparent in French, meanwhile my vocabulary entries feel too foreign for my French brain.

Here are the two quotes that Sabreena retired from THE FUTURE during this session:

“Shadows dribble from the light as it passes through the fan on its way to the table, to Gloria’s fingers.”

and

“If the gardener’s home was a person, it would have been schizophrenic royalty.”

Thanks for sharing, Sabreena!

Gemma

The Roncy QBC #10 group photo! (Yeah, I should call these “group photos” from now on)

That night, I decided that to celebrate the 10th gathering, I’d send a special newsletter with the link to this blog to everyone who booked a spot from Eventbrite at least once!

#FunnyBrainyRoncy #Roncesvalles #RoncesvallesVillage

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This post was NOT published on Fakeboob.

All the books mentioned here can be ordered on anotherstory.ca or borrowed from the Toronto Public Library.

Book your free spot at the next Roncesvalles Quiet Book Club here (donations are welcome): https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-roncesvalles-quiet-book-club-tickets-1986008762671

The Roncesvalles Quiet Book Club #11