literary fiction – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] Tender Is The Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Susan Moses

(Buy this book here.) (This book is one long content warning. If you’re sensitive to violence or gore, don’t read it or this review.) This book is disgusting. Let’s just start there. No, really. This Argentinian dystopian horror takes place in a very near future where it’s become impossible to eat animal meat due toContinue reading “[REVIEW] Tender Is The Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Susan Moses”

[REVIEW] Anne-Marie The Beauty, by Yasmina Reza, translated by Alison L Strayer

A very plain photo of a book laying on a piece of cardboard. The book has the words Anne-Marie The Beauty printed on it in green and purple brushstrokes.

(Buy this at Bookshop.) (I am aware that something awful happened this week, as it does every day of every week in America, and that everyone is talking about it. I do not have the emotional bandwidth to discuss it outside of a few safe small places offline, and so I am choosing to loseContinue reading “[REVIEW] Anne-Marie The Beauty, by Yasmina Reza, translated by Alison L Strayer”

[REVIEW] White Ivy, by Susie Yang

A Black woman's hand holds the ebook of White Ivy up in front of a little island cottage in New England. The cover depicts an Asian woman with her arms wrapped around herself on a black background. The top half of her face is not in the picture.

(Buy it on Bookshop here.) I moved to Boston recently, and as a result I’ve been slurping up books set there. Most of them are not diverse, to put it mildly. White Ivy, a book about a Chinese-American immigrant in the city, was a refreshing surprise. There are a lot of reviews of this byContinue reading “[REVIEW] White Ivy, by Susie Yang”

[REVIEW] Frangipani, by Celestine Vaite

A Black woman's hand holding an ereader displaying the colorful cover of Frangipani in front of a grassy plant and a wooden table painted blue.

(Buy it at Bookshop.) Materena is a lot of things–a professional cleaner, a proud Tahitian, a devoted customer at the local Chinese store, the relative that is nice to everyone in the family, and Pito’s wife. She’s also the mother of three children–tough guy Tamatoa, sensitive mama’s boy Moana, and strong-willed daughter Leilani. It’s LeilaniContinue reading “[REVIEW] Frangipani, by Celestine Vaite”

[REVIEW] The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw

(Buy it from Bookshop) sigh I don’t think this collection of short stories was meant for me, y’all. I wanted it to be. Nine stories about Black women and their connections to themselves and the church seemed right up my alley, and I was genuinely excited to get into this and see myself and myContinue reading “[REVIEW] The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw”

[Review] A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara

Black and white book with photo of man's tightened face on cover held up in front of apartments buildings on a snowy street

(Find it HERE.) Jude, Willem, JB and Malcolm meet during their freshman year of university, and luckily the friendship lasts a lifetime–through failures, successes, relationships, jobs, deaths and heartbreak. They’re a motley crew–all different races, classes and sexualities–but the main character is Jude, the shyest and most secretive of the crew, tortured by an unspeakableContinue reading “[Review] A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara”

[REVIEW] Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

Blue paperback book lying on shiny polished wood dining table in front of a white coffee cup and saucer. The cup is full of latte with a fleur-de-lis pattern in the foam.

(Find it HERE.) Some books show you the lives of other people. Some books show you yourself. Some books do both. Song of Solomon has always been the last for me, although it’s always been hard to put my finger on exactly why. ⠀ This is a deceptively dense novel, packed with story and detail,Continue reading “[REVIEW] Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison”

[REVIEW] Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu

(Buy it HERE.) “The question is: Who gets to be an American? What does an American look like?“~Willis Wu, Interior Chinatown⠀🥋⠀Imagine if Spike Lee was Taiwanese-American and wrote novels in strange, semi-screenplay format. That’s the best way I can think of to describe this book and the way it shifts through unreliable realities while alternatingContinue reading “[REVIEW] Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu”

[BOOKLIST] If You’re Brown, Stick Around: Books About Colorism

If you’re Black, get back! If you’re brown, stick around. If you’re white, you’re alright! ~ Big Bill Broonzy Even though I make a conscious effort to read across genres, cultures, and time periods I still sometimes find myself stuck in thematic patterns. For months I’ll find myself somehow reading books that feature sharks orContinue reading “[BOOKLIST] If You’re Brown, Stick Around: Books About Colorism”

[REVIEW] Sula, Toni Morrison

(Buy it HERE.) (In lieu of the usual review, I present to you the explanation of this book that I gave to a non-American friend who has never read Toni Morrison before.)⠀📖⠀“This book? Yeah, it’s good, but I’m not sure you’d like it. It’s by this writer who won a Pulitzer prize & was famousContinue reading “[REVIEW] Sula, Toni Morrison”