Hear Me Out – Equal Opportunity Reader

[Hear Me Out] Wicked Is Kinda Bad, Actually

Glinda and Elphaba from Wicked, also known as the good witch and the wicked witch from Oz, face off with each other in a Munchkinland village.

So I finally saw Wicked: For Good, the second installment of the film adaptation of the stage adaptation of the novel by Gregory Maguire, which is itself a gritty reboot of both Frank L. Baum’s Wizard of Oz novels and the 1939 MGM film. I have a complicated relationship with all things Oz. I hatedContinue reading “[Hear Me Out] Wicked Is Kinda Bad, Actually”

[HEAR ME OUT] The Film Adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk Travels Well Until the Last Two Minutes

[Buy the book this film is based on here] Read time: 7 minutes Last night, I saw the screen adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk. While I read the book years ago, it’s one of those novels that I remember the plot and themes of, but not many of the deeper details. I knewContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] The Film Adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk Travels Well Until the Last Two Minutes”

[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”

[Last Year In Books] What I Read in 2022, and How I’m Reading in 2023

A full bookshelf, mostly titles in foreign languages and by Black authors.

Finally, I’m getting around to making a post about my last year in reading, and what I hope to read in 2023. 2022 was a bear of a year for me, fellow readers. It was also a banner year, in many ways. I’ve alluded to my personal struggles on Instagram and also in this readingContinue reading “[Last Year In Books] What I Read in 2022, and How I’m Reading in 2023”

[HEAR ME OUT] The New Interview With The Vampire Is Better Than The Original

Um, wow. I finally got a little time to watch the first three episodes of the new television adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic monster novel Interview With the Vampire and so far, it’s excellent. I’m a crabby, critical person and I give the episodes I’ve seen so far 10 out of 10, no question. ThisContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] The New Interview With The Vampire Is Better Than The Original”

[HEAR ME OUT] Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Is a Holiday Miracle

A tablet displaying the cover of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is held up by a Black woman's hand--my hand-- in front of a glittery Christmas tree in closeup.

Merry Christmas!!! So this is not the Christmas post I had originally intended. I had this whole thoughtful post/review about Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol planned out for today. I was going to tell you about how I re-read it every year at Christmastime, and how I have large chunks of it basically memorized asContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Is a Holiday Miracle”

[Hear Me Out] What Do I Mean When I Talk About Reading Diverse Books As A Diverse Reader?

4 smiling people--Asian man, Latina or Indigenous woman, Black woman and Black, mixed or Arab man--stand in a row, wearing colorful shirts that spell out the word TEAM

I get asked a lot of questions about this blog/book portal. No, wait–I don’t get asked a lot of questions. What I actually do is field a lot of random assumptions about what Equal Opportunity Reader is, who I am, what I think, and what my political stances may or may not be. I don’tContinue reading “[Hear Me Out] What Do I Mean When I Talk About Reading Diverse Books As A Diverse Reader?”

[HEAR ME OUT] I Am What Is And What Could Be: A Quick Thought On Why I Write What I Write and Read What I Read

Octavia Butler herself, signing a hardcover copy of a book

The following post is an edited version of a rant on the Equal Opportunity Facebook. Follow it for lots of bookish news updates and rants. “Fourteen years ago, during my first year of college, I sat in a creative writing class and listened as my teacher, an elderly man, told another student not to useContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] I Am What Is And What Could Be: A Quick Thought On Why I Write What I Write and Read What I Read”

[HEAR ME OUT] Eric Jerome Dickey, in Memoriam

It was a shock to wake up this morning and discover that best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey has passed away at the relatively young age of 59. I read a lot of Dickey in my 20s, and the news really rocked me–he was a Black cultural institution of sorts, and his work had a hugeContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] Eric Jerome Dickey, in Memoriam”

[HEAR ME OUT] These Blues Ain’t New: Why I’m Not Busy Posting Big Black Booklists or Anti-Racist Manifestos

Look. We’re all on the internet right now, so let’s not pretend I need to explain the current atmosphere to you. George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on May 25th and sparked a brushfire that soon roared into a full on inferno, sparking protests and demonstrations across not only the USA but theContinue reading “[HEAR ME OUT] These Blues Ain’t New: Why I’m Not Busy Posting Big Black Booklists or Anti-Racist Manifestos”