Books by Americans – Page 4 – Equal Opportunity Reader

Last Year In Books: Words I Adored In 2023

A collage of the 5 books I adored this year

(Purchase these and other books I read this year here.) 2024 is only fourteen days away. In a total departure from the near-panic of previous years, I think I’m totally ready for it. I do hear that there’s this thing called Christmas sometime in between now and the new year that I’m not at allContinue reading “Last Year In Books: Words I Adored In 2023”

[HEAR ME OUT] I Don’t Think I Like the Film Adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon

The film crossover book cover of Killers of the Flower Moon, featuring photographs of Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, and Lily Gladstone

(Buy the book here. It’s better than the movie.) If you haven’t read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, you should. It’s an excellent work of non-fiction that illustrates one of many examples of how America’s present wealth and power were created by systematically disenfranchising and murdering Black and Indigenous people who assumedContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] I Don’t Think I Like the Film Adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon”

[REVIEW] Wild Spaces, by S. L. Coney

A Black woman's hand holds the cover of Wild Spaces up in front of trees and fallen leaves. The cover depicts a boy and his dog in silhouette, walking in twilight surrounded by tentacles.

(Buy this book here.) This debut horror novella was a very nice surprise. In the double magics of pre-internet childhood and coastal South Carolina, an eleven-year old boy, his biologist father and his pretty, secretive mother have their peaceful beachfront cottage life disturbed when the boy’s grandfather shows up one day. Nothing’s quite right aboutContinue reading “[REVIEW] Wild Spaces, by S. L. Coney”

[REVIEW]The Rose That Grew From Concrete, by Tupac Shakur

(Buy this book here.) So, the poems in this book are absolutely terrible and we need to talk about that. Put away your pitchforks and torches. I said what I said. This book of posthumously published poetry by one of hip-hop’s most lauded voices is…pretty bad. The rhymes are trite, the metaphors banal (when they’reContinue reading “[REVIEW]The Rose That Grew From Concrete, by Tupac Shakur”

[REVIEW] Chlorine, by Jade Song

The Kindle cover of Chlorine by Jade Song, which depicts a mermaid tail flashing out of view into the water. It's held up by a Black woman's hand in front of a grimy collegiate swimming pool.

(To buy this book, click here.) Ren Yu– daughter of Chinese immigrants, indifferent high school student, favorite pupil of her lecherous coach, unrequited love of teammate Cathy’s budding lesbian life — knows deep down that she’s really always been a mermaid. The Pennsylvania suburbs are a bit far from the beach, but Ren feeds herContinue reading “[REVIEW] Chlorine, by Jade Song”

[REVIEW]Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, by Dashka Slater

The Kindle cover of accountable, depicting a shadowy, chaotic crowd behind the book's title, propped up next to a glass of beer and a delicious sandwich.

(If you must buy this book, buy it here.) This book reminds me that I am not the target audience for books about racism, at least not ones like this. In 2017, a bored Korean-American kid started editing pictures of Black girls in his school in alarming ways. He juxtaposed them with gorillas, photoshopped noosesContinue reading “[REVIEW]Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, by Dashka Slater”

[REVIEW] The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty

The Kindle cover of The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, depicting a sea monster eating a ship in black and white.

(Buy this book here.) This book is absolutely delightful and this review will do it no justice. You have been warned. Amina Al-Sirafi is a middle-aged single mother with bad knees who lives in a modest country house and minds her own business. She was also one of the most fearsome pirates who ever sailedContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty”

[REVIEW]Remedies for Disappearing, by Alexa Patrick

The beautiful paperback cover of Remedies for Disappearing, featuring a collage in varying shades of blue, a dark-skinned serene Black woman in the foreground, is held up by a Black woman's(my) hand in front of a late summer garden. A family of small wooden bunnies in tuxedos is in the background.

(Buy this wonderful book here.) FINALLY AND AT LAST! It’s been (rightly) noted that I can be rather hard on Black woman writers. (Apologies to Tiffany D Jackson, Tracey Deonn, Jasmine Mans, and others…) I think it’s because I’m aching for us to truly center ourselves and our experiences as our frame of reference, ratherContinue reading “[REVIEW]Remedies for Disappearing, by Alexa Patrick”

[REVIEW] The Cutting Season, by Attica Locke

The Kindle cover of The Cutting Season, depicting a plantation big house, is held up in of the panoramic green view of Boston's Peters Hill by a Black woman's(my) hand.

(Buy this book at the Equal Opportunity Bookshop) I know I keep saying that thrillers and mysteries are really #notmygenre, but books like this and Razorblade Tears are really trying to change my mind. (Notice that both of these books are blackity-Black. Representation matters!) Caren Gray is the general manager of the historic Louisiana plantationContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Cutting Season, by Attica Locke”

[BOOK REVIEW] The Call-Out, by Cat Fitzpatrick

The Kindle cover of The Call-Out, depicting two illustrated women having a fancy uptown lunch, is propped up on a table. Dining room shelves and the edge of a bowlof soup are in the blurry fore- and back- ground

(Buy this book here) This is a polite comedy of manners set in modern-day queer New York, about 6 women(5 of whom are trans), written entirely in rhyming verse, formatted like an old school LiveJournal blog. That’s a lot of concept for a 168-page book, and to its credit, it mostly works. Once you getContinue reading “[BOOK REVIEW] The Call-Out, by Cat Fitzpatrick”