Equal Opportunity Reader

05/28/2026

- The way that this whole story flew into place with just a little cultural context...incredible. Also annoying.

Looking forward to the next book.

05/28/2026

Classic children's writer Mildred Pitts Walter has passed away at the age of 104.

I had an old used copy of Lillie of Watts that I adored as a kid. Here's to her wonderfully long life and career.

"Her passion for children’s literature was born when she became a teacher at a predominately African American school in Los Angeles. Disheartened that the only book in the school library featuring an African American child was Ezra Jack Keats, “The Snowy Day”, she wrote the publisher out of sheer frustration, requesting that more books feature characters who looked like the students in her classroom. The publisher wrote back, “Write them”. And that she did.

Her first book, “Lillie of Watts”, was published in 1969. Eventually, she went on to write more than 20 others, including “Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World” (1986) for which she won The Coretta Scott King Award. In 1996, she was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, and she received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honors for “Second Daughter: The Story of a Slave Girl."

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators provides the resources, professional networking, and community-building opportunities that support writers, illustrators, and translators throughout their careers.

05/27/2026

- The things that I Who Have Never Known Men has put me through should be *studied*. I've never read such a bleak and hopeless thing in my life, and fellow readers, I was a teenager who read *Sartre*, okay?

*whew* At least I was able to make some thematic sense of it, in the end.

05/27/2026

Eastern Monroe Public Library (that's in Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania) included my review of Milk Fed in their May 2026 staff pick recommendations roundup. Thanks, librarians!

Their May list has some good titles overall, including work by S.A. Cosby, Aisha Muharrar and Katie Yee, so check it out!

🌺 April’s showers bring May‘s flowers. Staff member Maddie S. has chosen some favorite books and films to borrow and enjoy as you smell those flowers blooming. Don’t forget we also have our Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, and Memorial Day staff picks!🌳 Read Review Read Review Read Review ...

05/25/2026

- It's Not You, It's Capitalism: Why It's Time To Break Up and How To Move On

25-year old me would think that 45-year old me is *ballin*. 45-year old me is annoyed because I work too hard to not be. Both of us are pi**ed off. Somehow, the steady rise of my income is far outmatched by the upward sprint of the cost of living, and after having spent most of my life in countries with socialized healthcare and bigger budgets for education and art than weaponry, American economics are deeply dissatisfying.

So this, which explains the racist, classist underpinnings of many of America's financial policies and provides reasonable socialist alternatives, came along at exactly the right time. It's a great primer on what was, what is and what could be in American finance. Jabali pulls together history, politics, economics and current affairs in just fhe right amount to educate readers without overwhelming us with stats or manifesto. The result is a really hopeful, comprehensive overview of how socialism could work in the USA and why we should consider it.

It's also *really* funny. Artist Kayla E has provided some whimsical illustrations to go along with the light, tongue in cheek tone a lot of the explanations use. Facts and future-building are presented seriously, but for the examples and history commentary? This book got jokes. Leftists, socialists and progressives in the US have gained a well-deserved reputation for being miserable, didactic grumps. It's nice to see something like this that doesn't take anything but the stats too seriously. The humor is also very Black American milennial woman, and you know I'm always here for writing that uses an lens to educate the masses.

The only thing missing here is maybe an explanation of how and why failed socialist governments aren't the same as what's being proposed for the US. That trips a lot of people up and always needs to be addressed. Also, the author grew up in the Republic of New Afrika movement, and while she does talk about it, I wanted to know more. Maybe another book is on the horizon?

This makes a great companion to Boots Riley's I Love Boosters.

Worker's rights to It's Not You...

05/23/2026

😂

I don't understand how my boyfriend doesn't like soup
~ KodiakFangirl

05/23/2026

- I'm a proud multi-reader but sometimes that habit gets the best of me.

That said, it's a long weekend in the US and Ive decided to use it to finally finish at least three of the books I have laying around that I've already read all but the last 30 pages of.

I'm already confused. Wish me luck.

05/22/2026

Everybody starts somewhere. Welcome fellow readers....

Libraries are indeed amazing places to read a book, borrow one or research papers. There's so much more to do at the library. 📚

05/21/2026

- Spoiler alert: I have since finished the book and done some reading and OOH-WEEE have I got something to tell you all next time.

But in the meantime, here's some griping.

05/20/2026

It's also q***r, political, and intercultural.

"The novel is presented as a translation of a rediscovered memoir, written from the perspective of a novelist who sails to Japan-occupied Taiwan in 1938 and embarks on a culinary tour in the company of an interpreter, with whom she falls in love. The book features fictional footnotes and afterwords by the book’s characters as well as “real” ones by King, which “wrap an intriguing metafictional layer around its core love story”, said judging chair and novelist Natasha Brown."

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King, pulled off an ‘incredible double feat’ in succeeding as ‘both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel’