Book Reviews – Page 11 – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Tomi Adeyemi

(Buy it HERE.) Let me begin this review by putting on my flame retardant suit and face mask. sighOkay, I get that people love this book, and the series it forms the center of. I even get why they love it. I want to love it, too. It’s fantasy, it’s epic, it’s romantic (sorta), it’sContinue reading “[REVIEW] Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Tomi Adeyemi”

[REVIEW] The Dirty Girls Social Club, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

(Buy it HERE.) You know what the weirdest thing about being an adult is? It’s that nobody ever really tells the whole truth. We’re told not to lie for our entire childhoods, then we grow up and realize almost no-one is ever entirely honest about what’s really going on with them.👡⠀Take, for example, the protagonistsContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Dirty Girls Social Club, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez”

[REVIEW] The Black Traveler’s Guide To Incheon, by The Blerd Explorer

(Buy it on Amazon or Apple) The city of Incheon sits right in the shadow of Western Seoul, South Korea. It holds two international airports, several beaches, and one of the world’s more interesting Chinatowns, but most people skim past it and head straight to Seoul’s more popular attractions.🌏⠀That’s where this handy travel guide byContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Black Traveler’s Guide To Incheon, by The Blerd Explorer”

[REVIEW] See No Stranger, Valarie Kaur

(Buy it HERE.) Breathe and push.⠀⠀This book is so many things, and I loved them all. ⠀⠀It’s a manifesto–a revolutionary encouragement to love not only with community and caring, but with law, protests, and the pent up rage that comes from receiving injustice. It’s warm, empowering, & sharply attuned to our current times and theirContinue reading “[REVIEW] See No Stranger, Valarie Kaur”

[REVIEW] Pride, Ibi Zoboi

(Buy it HERE.) Can I be honest with y’all? It took me a long time to understand what the big deal about Pride and Prejudice was. High school classes, grudging re-reads, and wet Colin Firth on PBS were not enough to make me care about 5 sisters in 1813 England. It wasn’t until I wasContinue reading “[REVIEW] Pride, Ibi Zoboi”

[REVIEW] Represent! #1: It’s A Bird! written by Christian Cooper

A tablet with the cover of the comic Represent! It's A Bird displayed

🐦⠀Chris Cooper should be famous for being Marvel Comics’ first openly gay writer and editor, for introducing some of the first canon gay characters in major comic books, and for his editing work on Blade, The Punisher, and Star Trek comics.⠀🐥⠀Instead, on May 25th, 2020, the same day that George Floyd was killed, Cooper becameContinue reading “[REVIEW] Represent! #1: It’s A Bird! written by Christian Cooper”

[REVIEW] The Testaments, Margaret Atwood

(Buy it HERE.) I think I may have been predisposed to dislike this, simply because it comes on the heels of the popularity of the television adaptation of its predecessor, The Handmaid’s Tale. I enjoyed the book, but I find the later seasons of the show deeply irritating–they may as well re-title it “American HorrorContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Testaments, Margaret Atwood”

[REVIEW] For Our Country, Fatemeh Farahani(published as Shahein Farahani)

A tablet sits on a countertop in front of a window. There is a tall purple drink on one side and a plate of green and white rice cakes on the other.

(Download it for free HERE.) Woman’s the soul, and man the body of our countryWith soul and body linked, new life will have returnedto our country… In the landscape of weird that has made up 2020 so far, “Bailey’s is teaming up with The Women’s Prize For Fiction to work for progress in feminist publishing,”Continue reading “[REVIEW] For Our Country, Fatemeh Farahani(published as Shahein Farahani)”

[REVIEW] The A.I. Who Loved Me, Alyssa Cole

A Kindle e-reader sitting in front of an iced coffee and a donut on a wooden table. The book displayed on the reader is The A.I. Who Loved Me. There is a Black woman, an Asian man, a house cat and a basket of laundry on the cover.

(Buy it HERE). I have to admit–I wasn’t sure what to think about this romance novella at first. The premise seemed like it could easily go very wrong. Trinity, a Black data analyst is home on admistrative leave recovering from PTSD from a mysterious work accident when she falls for Li Wei, a Chinese…robot? Correction–he’sContinue reading “[REVIEW] The A.I. Who Loved Me, Alyssa Cole”

[REVIEW] A Good African Story: How A Small Company Built A Global Coffee Brand, Andrew Rugasira

(Buy it HERE.) As an American who travels a lot, I’ve learned not to be surprised by finding random brands from my homeland, but I am still startled by what I sometimes find. (Randy’s Donuts in Korea? Hubba Bubba in Indonesia? Ok then…) I live in an Asian country obsessed with foreign brands despite itself,Continue reading “[REVIEW] A Good African Story: How A Small Company Built A Global Coffee Brand, Andrew Rugasira”