History – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, by Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martinez

The bright red cover of Wake in paperback depicts a group of Black women rendered in blue underneath the heavily inked book title.

(Buy this book here.) What I expected from this award-nominated graphic novel about women who led revolts during and after the Transatlantic Slave Trade: Justice. Vindication. Strong, clever African women standing up to oppressors, liberating themselves and others, making their marks on history. Blood. Thunder. Justice. What I got: a new understanding of just howContinue reading “[REVIEW] Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, by Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martinez”

[REVIEW] Crazy As Hell: The Best Little Guide To Black History, by Hoke S Glover III and V. Efua Prince

The paperback cover of Crazy As Hell, black with bright orange block text, is held by a Black women's hand(my hand) in front of a heaped indie store's bookshelf.

(Buy this book) Black Americans are simultaneously unlikely and affirming, resilient and fragile, cautious and crazy. It’s that last dichotomy that this little book of historical vignettes of Blackness in America delves into. Instead of taking refuge in respectability and uprightness, the authors highlight how much of Black history and its makers are absolutely batshitContinue reading “[REVIEW] Crazy As Hell: The Best Little Guide To Black History, by Hoke S Glover III and V. Efua Prince”

[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] Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn

(Click here to buy this book.) Me, last year when Bookstagram blew up with 5-star reviews on a YA book about a Black girl who is somehow involved in Arthurian legends: That is a really stupid idea. No way I’m reading it. Me, now, after reading that book: crackhead scratch WHERE’S THE NEXT BOOK? GIVEContinue reading “[REVIEW] Legendborn, by Tracy Deonn”

[REVIEW] A Mercy, Toni Morrison

(Buy it HERE.) ⭐⭐⭐*whew* This ain’t it, y’all. Toni Morrison was a genius and everything she wrote is brilliant in some way. But now that I’ve said that, I honestly feel that when you place A Mercy next to the rest of Morrison’s oeuvre it’s like parking a hooptie in a lot full of Ferraris.Continue reading “[REVIEW] A Mercy, Toni Morrison”