Books by White Men – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder

On Tyranny, a small tan academic paperback folio, lies face up on a shelf clogged with other books. Someone has written "Gird Your Loins" on the cover with a sharpie.

(Buy this book here.) This book has been everywhere since last year’s election in the US–indie shops, TikTok diatribes, little free libraries and coffee shop share shelves with snarky messages inked on the cover. Something about the idea of a little book of twenty short lessons on how to stem the tide of tyranny, basedContinue reading “[REVIEW] On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder”

[REVIEW]Several People Are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke

The black and white Kindle cover of Several People are Typing leans against a laptop screen displaying an empty Slack chat. The cover depicts a series of Slack chat bubbles with odd emojis of wolves, weather, and death symbols interspersed throughout.

(Buy this book here.) Read time: 2 minutes Gerald is trapped in his work Slack chat. Literally. While his body sits dormant in his New York apartment, his consciousness has been fully uploaded to the worst thing about every remote job in America. If he doesn’t find a way out, he’ll be in danger ofContinue reading “[REVIEW]Several People Are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke”

[REVIEW]Finding American: Stories of Immigration From All 50 States, by Colin Boyd Shafer

A hardback copy of Finding American sits on the knees of the author. The cover phot is a young, ethnically ambiguous woman standing in the middle of an empty American road.

[Buy this book.] I’m sitting here trying to remember the first time I thought of someone I knew as an immigrant and I can’t. Maybe it was my great-aunt Una, who came to New York from Panama just after WWII, from what I’ve been told. Maybe my godmother, a French Canadian who eventually repatriated andContinue reading “[REVIEW]Finding American: Stories of Immigration From All 50 States, by Colin Boyd Shafer”

[REVIEW] Somebody’s Dilemma, by Joshua Valentine

The blue trade paperback of Somebody's Dilemma lays on a blonde wooden table top, next to a shirt with stylized drag eyes printed on it. Drag and scene stickers are laid on the shirt.

(Buy this book directly from the author here.) It’s 2347, and Earth is a polluted, barren wasteland. Exploratory research robots roam, collecting information and sending repetitive transmissions while they prepare to resurrect the human race more than 200 years after its extinction, using carefully banked embryos. Jacey-One is the first of the new humans, raisedContinue reading “[REVIEW] Somebody’s Dilemma, by Joshua Valentine”

[REVIEW] Man, F*ck This House, by Brian Asman

A Black woman's hand holds the Kindle cover of Man, Fuck This House, depicting a line drawing of a house on a black background, up in front of a rundown shed somewhere in the suburbs.

(Buy this book here.) Let me pause for a second while you all finish giggling the way I did when I first saw this title. Okay, done? Giggles out of your system? Then here are the basics: this is a very self-aware indie horror novella that plays with a lot of classic tropes, mainly theContinue reading “[REVIEW] Man, F*ck This House, by Brian Asman”

[REVIEW] The Mountain In The Sea, by Ray Nayler

The Kindle cover of The Mountain In the Sea, depicting a giant octopus floating in the ocean, is propped up on a cafe countertop, an empty mug behind it.

(Buy this book here.) Ha Nguyen is many things; a brilliant researcher who studies octopi, the best-selling author of a book on cephalopod thought, an orphan, and the latest addition to a small team assembled on a near-future Vietnamese island to study strange activity in the local tentacled sea life. The local octopodes, protected asContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Mountain In The Sea, by Ray Nayler”

[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]A Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns, by Tristan Jimerson and Archie Bongiovanni

A Quick and Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns lies on a wooden kitchen table in front of a white bowl heaped with delicious egg noodles and veg.

(Buy this book here) This book is exactly what the title says it is. Archie and their cis friend Tristan put together a quick and simple graphic novel explaining what they/them pronouns are, how they’re used, and why we should use them. They take a really empathetic, gracious approach to this, with sections aimed atContinue reading “[Review]A Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns, by Tristan Jimerson and Archie Bongiovanni”

[REVIEW] Spare, by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex

The Kindle cover of Prince Harry's Spare, depicting his face in closeup, lies on a wooden table in between a glass of white wine and a burger.

(Buy this book from my shop.) I’m not much of a royal watcher, despite having lived in Britain for some years in my late twenties and early thirties. The only members of the family I’ve ever paid any attention to are the late Princess Diana and her youngest son, and I really only started payingContinue reading “[REVIEW] Spare, by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex”

[REVIEW] Black Vans, by Alex Smith and James Dillenbeck

There are two comic books laying on a multicolored confetti rug--Black Vans issue 1&2. The covers depict Bo, a chubby Black superhero''s helper in techie combat gear, in various action poses.

(Buy this directly from the artist’s NSFW website here.) I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what I should tell you first about this cool, colorful indie comic. Maybe it’s that these are INDIE-indie books. I literally bought them out of a backpack in a nightclub. It was the writer’s backpack, but still…Continue reading “[REVIEW] Black Vans, by Alex Smith and James Dillenbeck”