books about immigrants – Equal Opportunity Reader

[LAST WEEK IN BOOKS] Love, Immigration, and Leave Prince Harry Alone

So last week I posted a review of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare and it’s attracted a whole new spate of fellow readers. Welcome! It’s also attracted a lot of people with nothing better to do than post nasty comments about people so famous they’ll never meet either of us, and to those folks I say;Continue reading “[LAST WEEK IN BOOKS] Love, Immigration, and Leave Prince Harry Alone”

[REVIEW] A Woman Is No Man, by Etaf Rum

A photo of the paperback classic edition of A Woman Is No Man. The cover is black and red and depicts the a silhouetted hand dropping a book into another hand.

(Buy this book here.) This book is all about lovelessness, and I wasn’t really ready for it. When Isra is 17, a man from New York comes to Palestine to marry her. She has hopes, dreams, and an overwhelming desire to be loved, but when she returns to the US with her husband her innerContinue reading “[REVIEW] A Woman Is No Man, by Etaf Rum”

[REVIEW] The Duke Who Didn’t, by Courtney Milan

A tablet displays the cover of The Duke Who Didn't, depicting a Chinese couple embracing. They are half-dressed in Victorian clothing. The tablet is on a wooden table with a slice of cheesecake and a latte in the background

(Buy it from Bookshop) I usually cleanse my mental palate with romance after reading horror. A British-Chinese duke in Victorian England is a pretty big switch from depressed teenage ghost hunters–but the cover of this really caught my eye and Courtney Milan’s name was familiar due to her role in calling out anti-Asian racism inContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Duke Who Didn’t, by Courtney Milan”

[REVIEW] Pashmina, by Nidhi Chanani

A black tablet displays the cover of Pashmina, which depicts an Indian-American teenage girl wrapped in a red and gold pashmina shawl that floats above her and forms a background for the title of the book. The tablet rests on a blue and gold pashmina, with a tiny black statue of Ganesh peeking over the right side of it.

(Buy it on Bookshop.) Something that I’m always learning is that discussions of trauma don’t always have to be epic. There is a time to dive deep into injustice, of course. But sometimes, it’s right to acknowledge something happened, commit to examining its effect on your life and community, and fold that understanding into theContinue reading “[REVIEW] Pashmina, by Nidhi Chanani”

[REVIEW] Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo

(Buy it HERE.) 🛫⠀Yano Rios is on a flight from NYC to Santo Domingo when a mechanical error causes the plane to crash. There are no survivors, and his teenaged daughter Camino is devastated when the anticipation of her father’s yearly visit turns into unspeakable grief and sudden financial insecurity for her and her aunt.Continue reading “[REVIEW] Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo”

[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] Fairest, Meredith Talusan

(Buy it HERE.) Although I did my official Pride Month wrap-up a few days ago, I didn’t mention one of the LGBTQIA+ themed books I read, simply because I’ve had such a hard time deciding what to say about it. Is there a word for a book that everyone else seems to like, but youContinue reading “[REVIEW] Fairest, Meredith Talusan”

[REVIEW] A Black Guy Was Sitting Next To Me On The Subway, Yerong

(Buy it HERE(e-book only)) Yerong is a South Korean kindergarten teacher– sweet, intelligent, creative and reasonably aware of social issues. One day she meets Ghanaian scientist Manni and her eyes are opened to the realities of being an immigrant and a black person in a society that values conformity and often puts white Europeans onContinue reading “[REVIEW] A Black Guy Was Sitting Next To Me On The Subway, Yerong”

[REVIEW] On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong

(Buy it HERE.) “Who will be lost in the story we tell ourselves? Who will be lost in ourselves?” This is a messy book. There’s a lot going on between its covers–PTSD, emerging sexuality, poverty, war, immigration, mental illness, class, race, abuse, art, gender performance. There’s a lot going on, but it all seems toContinue reading “[REVIEW] On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong”