Octavia Butler – Equal Opportunity Reader

[REVIEW] Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, by Ibi Zoboi

The author's hand hold's the colorful, modern art collage of Star Child featuring front and side profiles of Octavia Butler's face on a background reminiscent of stars, up in front of a blurry green and yellow background, probably garden plants.

(Buy this book here.) When I was in elementary school I went through a phase of trying to read all of the middle-grade biographies available in my school’s library. There was a mass-market series of them in a shelf right next to the librarian’s office. They were old and cheap, mass-produced, bound in nubbly plasticizedContinue reading “[REVIEW] Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, by Ibi Zoboi”

[LAST WEEK IN BOOKS] Love, Immigration, and Leave Prince Harry Alone

So last week I posted a review of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare and it’s attracted a whole new spate of fellow readers. Welcome! It’s also attracted a lot of people with nothing better to do than post nasty comments about people so famous they’ll never meet either of us, and to those folks I say;Continue reading “[LAST WEEK IN BOOKS] Love, Immigration, and Leave Prince Harry Alone”

[Hear Me Out] The Handmaid’s Tale Is Not The Book We Need To Read Right Now

A series of tweets reading: "Parable of the Sower" was a book that could read the room and explain how to navigate it, too. forget "Handmaid's Tale," that's for people who plan to give up. I'm not willing to be a handmaid, as if that's an option for Black women anyway. I'm willing to learn how to shoot and make acorn bread, though."

(To skip straight to the books, click here.) So on Friday, despite widespread public disapproval following a leak back in May, the US Supreme Court overturned 1973’s landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling, rescinding the constitutional right to an abortion. Naturally, there’s been immense public outcry from many of us with uteruses, both virtually and inContinue reading “[Hear Me Out] The Handmaid’s Tale Is Not The Book We Need To Read Right Now”

[REVIEW] Fledgling, by Octavia Butler

(Buy this book here.) *Content warning* Not every written word ages well. Every author has something in their catalog that gives readers of the future the ick. Sometimes it’s the whole catalog. If they’re lucky, it’s just one book or part of a book. Octavia Butler got lucky. Fledgling has been called Butler’s vampire novel,Continue reading “[REVIEW] Fledgling, by Octavia Butler”

[REVIEW] Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, original text by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings

A Black woman's hand holds a tablet displaying the orange cover of Parable of the Sower in front of a speeding train window, passing by a grassy field. The book cover depicts a Black teenaged girl with long dreadlocks, half her face hidden, standing in front of stylized flames and mountains.

(Buy it on Bookshop here.) I just moved back to America, and man, it is weird. Watching the news from America in preparation for my return sometimes felt like watching a large angry monster run towards a cliff with someone you love strapped to their back, screaming. I haven’t lived in my country for 15Continue reading “[REVIEW] Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, original text by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings”

[Booklist] 1984 Is Trash: Dystopias From The Global Majority

An Asian woman with sunglasses and a ponytail stands with her back to the camera. She is wearing a stylish leather jacket with two cameo faces worked into the leather of the back, and more along the shoulders and gusset.

Why yes, I did wake up and choose violence today. Why do you ask? Let me first say that for the time, place and the politics of its day, 1984 was brilliant. It contained very pertinent criticism of post-WWII European governments, strong warnings about government surveillance and police states, and it revolutionized social science fictionContinue reading “[Booklist] 1984 Is Trash: Dystopias From The Global Majority”

[REVIEW] Survivor, by Octavia Butler

A tablet displaying the cover of Survivor(a woman trapped in a green tree with a furry blue man growing from the top of it, on a red background) held in front of metal stakes chained together standing in the grass

(UPDATE, May 11 2021: I just found out that the Afro-Speculative bookshop Sistah SciFi has this title available as an ebook! Find it HERE and enjoy!) (This novel is out of print. Find other works by Octavia E Butler HERE.) This novel was originally published in 1978. It’s been out of print since 1979–unlike allContinue reading “[REVIEW] Survivor, by Octavia Butler”

Last Week in Books: Five Fingers of Diverse Book News

This one’s gonna be a quickie, fellow readers. I have hair to wash, wine to drink, and a ridiculously early alarm set for tomorrow(Sunday) morning due to this silly impulse I have to socialize with, y’know, people. (Ew.) I’ma hit you with 5 really quick bookish links and then I’m going to run back offContinue reading “Last Week in Books: Five Fingers of Diverse Book News”

[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”

[BOOKLIST] Not Every Interracial Romance Has A White Person In It: A Mini Booklist of Black Woman/Asian Man Love Stories

One of the things I like about writing this blog is that I often get requests via Facebook and Instagram to prove that books about certain people exist and have an audience. To be honest, I enjoy the challenge. Fantasy novels about young Black boys? Have some Okorafor, Reynolds and Mbalia. Summer beach reads aboutContinue reading “[BOOKLIST] Not Every Interracial Romance Has A White Person In It: A Mini Booklist of Black Woman/Asian Man Love Stories”