News – Equal Opportunity Reader

[Last Year In Books] 2025 In Books: What I Read In The Midst of The Weird

Scrabble tiles spell out Happy New Year on a black background dotted with sequins

Read time: 12 minutes Man, 2025 was a weird year. The weirdest thing, perhaps, is that I’ve been saying the exact same thing for the past five years. You know how history speaks of the Renaissance, the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment? Fellow readers, I fear that future generations may refer to our era as TheContinue reading “[Last Year In Books] 2025 In Books: What I Read In The Midst of The Weird”

[Last While In Books] Short Fiction, Actually

Black and white photograph of a tiny light skinned boy with short dark hair standing between the open pages of a thick book.

Read time: 3 minutes Fellow readers! I had a short story published this week over at Strange Horizons. It’s called Palimpsest, and it’s a look at the silences that cause strain in close relationships and the hidden injustice of women not being deeply known by their own families. There’s also some climate change, (poorly understood)Continue reading “[Last While In Books] Short Fiction, Actually”

[Last While In Books] Rest Well, Miss Major

Two books lie inside of freshly opened cardboard box; the memoir of dearly departed trans activist Miss Major, Miss Major Speaks, and the womanist essay collection All the Black Girls Are Activists.

Apparently it’s literary awards season in the bookish world, fellow readers. That certainly snuck up on me, as did autumn and the fact that 2026 is only three months away. This literary news round up will focus mostly on that, but first there’s some sad news to share. And now on to awards season. OneContinue reading “[Last While In Books] Rest Well, Miss Major”

[Last While In Books] I’m Still Here And So Are You

The writer, a Black woman in a tall yellow headwrap, a yellow spaghetti strap dress and a t-shirt with the dictionary definition of "eclectic" printed on it, gazes playfully down at the camera.

Fellow readers! I’m still here, but a lot is changing in Mel The Bookworm land. As a result time, contrary to the way I usually fill my personal schedule, is at a fleeting premium. Reviews and posts have been thin on the ground but one of the changes that’s happened lately means I have aContinue reading “[Last While In Books] I’m Still Here And So Are You”

[Last While In Books] I Guess I Have A Podcast, Now

A podcast recording mic sits in front of a out of focus monitor.

The state of the world isn’t really an excuse for not having blogged for nearly a month, but it’s all I got. Grr. Argh. Politics! (No but seriously it remains awful please let’s all take care of ourselves and others and read good books as often as we can) In any case, I have actuallyContinue reading “[Last While In Books] I Guess I Have A Podcast, Now”

Last While In Books: I’ve Mentioned Most of This Before.

A light skinned Black woman wearing a white eyelet frock, a big Afro, and funky neon yellow eyeliner sits by a window, reading a hardback book

The struggle continues, but so does the printing press, fellow readers. Without further ado, here are some tidbits of interesting diverse bookish news I’ve come across lately. And there it is, fellow readers–a roundup of books to read, thoughts to chase, and writers to pay attention to. As always, thank you for visiting, please rememberContinue reading “Last While In Books: I’ve Mentioned Most of This Before.”

Last While In Books: Bye Colleen, Hello Black folks, Give Bookshop a Chance

Hey, fellow readers. Things are still going the way that they are in the US and elsewhere. The initial stress and shock has died down to a dull roar of anxiety, however, meaning I can a)focus more on real action and b)share some diverse bookish news. Hope you’re all hanging in there as well. (AndContinue reading “Last While In Books: Bye Colleen, Hello Black folks, Give Bookshop a Chance”

Last While In Books: Me, the News, and Sensible People

A man in a V for Vendetta mask sits reading a flaming newspaper.

So despite–or perhaps because of–the giant racist orange elephant in the American political room right now, the bookish world has been surprisingly interesting of late. One thing a strong whiff of fascism will do is get everybody who cares to squad up behind diversity and shout loudly, and that seems to be what’s going on,Continue reading “Last While In Books: Me, the News, and Sensible People”

[Last While In Books] Nobels, BIPOC, and Reviews

A person, seen from the waist down, holding an open book and glasses, lap covered in a brown blanket with a few small pumpkins around them.

Hello, fellow readers. Pay no attention to the time between this post and the last. These aren’t the reviews you’re looking for. There is no hiatus in Ba Sing Se. There is, however, diverse and bookish news to share so without further ado… There are, as always, many more things happening in the world ofContinue reading “[Last While In Books] Nobels, BIPOC, and Reviews”

[SNIPPETS] This Year’s Literary Pulitzers Were Meaningfully Diverse

An image of the front and back of the coin-shaped Pulitzer Prize

For a lot of reasons, I’m finding it very hard to care about certain things this year. Literary prizes, media awards ceremonies, and celebrity gossip have all lost their luster, and I didn’t often enjoy the shine on them to begin with. So I haven’t paid much attention to this year’s Pulitzers or any ofContinue reading “[SNIPPETS] This Year’s Literary Pulitzers Were Meaningfully Diverse”