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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Esperance, Adam Oyebanji Oh this was GOOD good. Totally surprised me. Wrote it up for May Lightspeed, will say more then.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The Get-Together, by @ctaylorbutler.bsky.social, illustrated by Lonnie Ollivierre. Picture book about a multi-generational family gathering. So much fun, and beautifully illustrated. Got this for a kid I know, want to keep it for myself.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted A Love Potion At A Werewolf, by Kimberly Lemming. Lemming really doesn't miss with her Blackety-Black monster romances--they're always cute, hot, and laugh out loud funny. I will say I wasn't expecting the tentacles, though.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Southern Comfort, by Sandra Kitt Bougie beach romance by one of the Black romance OGs. So cute. Sooooo dated! (Although it was published in '04, not '94 as I'd assumed.) Scratched a good nostalgia itch.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

A Palace Near The Wind, Ai Jiang Ecological science fantasy with a lot of interesting twists and a painfully naive main character. Wrote about it for April Lightspeed so won't say more here.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff Oooooh, I hated this book. Great reference section tho.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Condomnauts by Yoss, translated by David Frye REALLY weird sci-fi about a class of intergalactic sex workers who are also first contact alien ambassadors. The main character is a queer Afro-Cubano but still a little heavy on the regressive machismo for me. Also--content warnings abound.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

The Very Fat Conker, Enid Blyton. Read this as a kid and it's been tickling the edges of my memory lately so tracked it down. Will refrain from making boredom in the pre-TV age jokes.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Nigerian Men Will Stain Your White, by Alexandria Humphrey I wanted to love this, heard good things, but it doesn't feel finished? It's kind of a Lagos Waiting To Exhale vibe. Also(spoiler) promises homophobia in the sequel. Gross.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Rangikura, by Tayo Tibble. Gutsy, vulnerable poetry collection by a young Maori woman. Section 2, a long prose poem titled Little, is one of the most painful beating hearts I've read in a while.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

I'm on the Stoker preliminary ballot. Holy schnikeys. Thank you, annoying teenaged boy's voice in my head that wouldn't leave.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Nooo! Noooooooooo! I thought we all knew not to do this anymore!?! I thought...*sob*...we knew...

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Crazy As Hell, by V. Efua Prince and Hoke S. Glover Great little book of irreverent, thought-provoking, wildly disparate Black history vignettes.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, by P. Djeli Clark Weird and wild and FUN, with the usual immersive worldbuilding and high stakes action. Also, this features maybe the best sudden appearance of Phenomenal Cosmic Power that I've read in a looooong while.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

The Unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses. This is not as disturbing as Tender Is The Flesh but whew it's close. At least it's rampantly abusive religion and climate disaster instead of cannibalism, this time.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

The Earl Who Isn't, by Courtney Milan Books like this British East Asian regency romance in which a guy grapples with desire and relationships through the lens of sexual responsibility are exactly why I ride so hard for romance. No other genre does this so transparently. Also Courtney Milan so 🌟

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

There's this presient vs predictive debate going on around Octavia Butler and the CA fires but no mention of how Butler's depiction of fire in Altadena was also personal. These pages are from Ibi Zoboi's middle-grade biography of Butler, titled Star Child..

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

The Golden Girls: The Way We Met, a Little Golden Book by Derek Elmer, illustrated by Shane Clester. Just as fun and camp and ridiculous and cute as you'd expect.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Silver and Smoke, by Van Hoang This was really good--an Asian-American ghost story set in Old Hollywood. Wrote it up for Lightspeed, will share more later.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Happy Christmas Eve, fellow readers. Reading a collection of classic Black American Christmas writings. One mentions a chinquapins in a market. Had no idea what that was, so now I'm telling you. Chinquapins are a variety of wild chestnut native to North America that look like this:

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni. Because I just had to. I wrote up a little about what her words mean to me on my site, if you're interested: equalopportunityreader.com/2024/12/11/r...

The Kindle cover of The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, depicting a line drawing of a hardback book, nestled in a squishy yellow armchair.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I got myself a proper readin' chair for Christmas and couldn't wait to unwrap it.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Full Exposure, by Thien-Kim Lam. Romance about a Black photographer on vacation & a Vietnamese guy born and raised in Versailles.(The NOLA neighborhood, not the palace.) Light, sweet, sexy. As a Black lady I've learned to be nervous when non-Black ladies write us, but Lam did an excellent job here.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Somebody's Dilemma, by @joshuavalentine.bsky.social Trippy mix of camp 70s style queer sci-fi and psychosexual shock horror. Methodical worldbuilding, pulls no punches, doesn't care who might or might not like it--this is a STATEMENT, darlings. Self-published, and all the more brave for being so.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

I didn't realize I was so (relatively) early. Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,177,646!

A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,177,646, Mel The Bookworm ‪@eqreader.bsky.social‬, joined on Sep 22, 2023"

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 30/01/2024

"A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things." Rest, N. Scott Momaday

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

Re-reading Bartleby the Scrivener and Melville references the clerks eating Spitzenbergs. Had no idea what that was so I looked it up and now I'm telling you. It's a type of apple that was really popular in 18th century New York. You can really only get them now if you know someone with a tree.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 21/11/2023

Blind white author, for no real reason: "Is being blind like being Black?" Me:

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

Having lunch while reading Tupac Shakur's poetry. It's a beautiful book.

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Melissa, A Watkins(also a writer and a bookworm) @eqreader.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

Yes, it is 2 pm in middle America right now. However, I am (technically) on vacation. And I just met a tricky deadline. Judge thou not the writer.

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