books about social justice – Equal Opportunity Reader

[Hear Me Out] The Handmaid’s Tale Is Not The Book We Need To Read Right Now

A series of tweets reading: "Parable of the Sower" was a book that could read the room and explain how to navigate it, too. forget "Handmaid's Tale," that's for people who plan to give up. I'm not willing to be a handmaid, as if that's an option for Black women anyway. I'm willing to learn how to shoot and make acorn bread, though."

(To skip straight to the books, click here.) So on Friday, despite widespread public disapproval following a leak back in May, the US Supreme Court overturned 1973’s landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, rescinding the constitutional right to an abortion. Naturally, there’s been immense public outcry from many of us with uteruses, both virtually and inContinue reading “[Hear Me Out] The Handmaid’s Tale Is Not The Book We Need To Read Right Now”

[REVIEW] Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest To Buy Black In America’s Racially Divided Economy, by Maggie Anderson

(Buy it on Bookshop here. Or not.) To cut right to the chase, this book really pissed me off. On its face, it’s a real life account of an affluent, educated Black family in Chicago who decided to spend all of 2009 buying from only Black businesses in order to demonstrate the ethnic disparities inContinue reading “[REVIEW] Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest To Buy Black In America’s Racially Divided Economy, by Maggie Anderson”

[REVIEW] Raybearer, by Jordan Ifueko

A Black woman's hand holds the brightly lit black and white Kindle cover of Raybearer in front of a round mirror

(This book seems to be out of stock at Bookshop, beautiful people. To check if it’s been added since this was posted , please click HERE.) There’s a moment in this book where our heroine Tarisai is awoken in the dead of night to go rescue someone. The scene isn’t really unusual in a fantasyContinue reading “[REVIEW] Raybearer, by Jordan Ifueko”

[BOOKLIST] Ten For The Times: A Social Justice Booklist To Keep Us Moving Forward

A protest held by many people of different races and genders, behind a waist-high temporary mental fence. Several of the people are holding handmade signs with protest slogans like BLM, Justice for George Floyd, and White Silence Is Violence

Where do I even begin with today, fellow readers? I woke up suddenly at 5 am Korean time on April 20th, only to find that the Derek Chauvin verdict would be read in an hour. I fixed myself a cup of tea and sat, thinking, waiting. I wasn’t expecting much–the USA has done a remarkableContinue reading “[BOOKLIST] Ten For The Times: A Social Justice Booklist To Keep Us Moving Forward”

[REVIEW] Survivor, by Octavia Butler

A tablet displaying the cover of Survivor(a woman trapped in a green tree with a furry blue man growing from the top of it, on a red background) held in front of metal stakes chained together standing in the grass

(UPDATE, May 11 2021: I just found out that the Afro-Speculative bookshop Sistah SciFi has this title available as an ebook! Find it HERE and enjoy!) (This novel is out of print. Find other works by Octavia E Butler HERE.) This novel was originally published in 1978. It’s been out of print since 1979–unlike allContinue reading “[REVIEW] Survivor, by Octavia Butler”

[REVIEW] Freedom Is A Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement, Angela Y Davis

(Find it HERE.) Back in March, my favorite radical independent publisher Haymarket Books made several titles available for free as a contribution to keeping the world mentally occupied and socially engaged during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns. I downloaded them all and immediately started reading this collection of speeches and interviews from Angela Y. Davis, famouslyContinue reading “[REVIEW] Freedom Is A Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement, Angela Y Davis”

[REVIEW] Emergency Skin, N.K. Jemisin

By now we’ve all heard the incredible news that the Grande Dame Nouvelle of Black speculative fiction, and spec-fic in general, N.K. Jemisin herself, is one of the 2020 recipients of the MacArthur Genius Grant. (If you hadn’t heard–well, now you have!) I’m a huge Jemisin fan, considering her the heir apparent to the throneContinue reading “[REVIEW] Emergency Skin, N.K. Jemisin”

[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] 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]Heartbeat Braves, Pamela Sanderson

⭐⭐⭐/5⠀💑⠀A while ago I re-read the classic, yet embarrassingly dated and racially insensitive Indian Romance Career Achievement award-nominated novel Brave Heart. Ever since then I’ve been keeping an eye out for something to read by an indigenous author as penance because there are alarmingly few Native American authors in my overall reading rotation. ⠀💏⠀I firstContinue reading “[REVIEW]Heartbeat Braves, Pamela Sanderson”