John Paul Jaramillo’s debut story collection The House of Order was named a 2013 Int’l Latino Book Award Finalist, and his most recent work Little Mocos is now available from Twelve Winters Press. In 2013 Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature listed Jaramillo as one of its Top 10 New Latino Authors to Watch and Read. He is currently a professor of composition and literature at Lincoln Land College-Springfield, Illinois.
Join us this month as I interview Reading Books Together co-host, John Paul Jaramillo, about his newest novel. Carlos Montoya, published by Twelve Winters Press, explores many of the same themes (and even characters) as John Paul’s previous works, The House of Order (Anaphora Press, 2012) and Little Mocos (Twelve Winters Press, 2017). The book is a stylistic departure in many ways from his previous writing, and we discuss that, writing process, and the family stories that must be explored through fiction.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
For Febuary’s podcast, no, wait, March’s podcast, John Paul discusses On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Deborah discusses On the Road The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac. They both discuss Toad from TheWind in the Willows and the importance of long and rambling novels. They also have some fun reading one-star reviews from Goodreads.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
For January’s podcast, we talk about George Eliot’s 800 page masterpiece in 19th century realism, Middlemarch. We talk about its scope, impact, and Deborah gets mad at John Paul for spoilers while he says, “Spoilers? It was published in 1872!” We also have some fun reading one-star reviews from Goodreads.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
This Christmas I watched 12 crappy Hallmark movies and here are my crappy findings:
—12— The Nine Kittens of Christmas–When the cat answers the phone at the end, I rolled my eyes so hard I flipped over the couch.
–11–
Christmas in Tahoe
When two things I hate collide—Train and Hallmark XMas movies. When the guy from Train sang his XMas song, I rolled my eyes and fell out of my chair.
–10–
Journey Back to Christmas–When Candace Cameron Buree went forward in time from 1950s to the present and found the future to be too progressive. I rolled my eyes and hurt my neck.
–9–
A Christmas Together with You–In this crap burger the male lead trying to save the family b and b or whatever well his dog hides/sneaks in the backseat of the female leads car and she has to turn around and drive back to return the dog. And I’m thinking did the dog open the door? Did the dog have the keys to the car? Or did the guy put the dog in her car because he’s a creeper and knew she would come back with the dog?
–8–
Christmas Cookie Catastrophe– At the end Santa or some dude who looks like Santa is revealed to have stolen a cookie company recipe even though the recipe is on the bag of cookies all so the two leads—a widower and uptight business woman—can dry kiss at the end. So bad it hurt my feelings.
–7–
The Christmas Train–Danny Glover in hallmark hall of shame kidnaps co workers to forcethem/trick them into falling in love on Christmas or something. 48%on Rotten Tomatoes and Deborah said it is dumb don’t watch it so I watched it because I have low self esteem.
–6–
Family for Christmas–So in this one Santa sends a successful but uptight news woman forward in time where she is a wife and mother and has to pick out raisins from cereal and cook for her ungrateful husband. she decides being a housewife preferable to being an award winning journalist.
–4 and 5–
Sisters/two uptight business women swap jobs for some reason and they both fall in love in the workplace and renovate a theater. The city sister goes to the city and the city sister goes to the country. Even though they are from the same hometown. This one is two movies for some reason though pretty much the same movie.
My favorite part was when they were both over.
–3–
A Royal Corgi Christmas–So I mixed up ‘a very corgi Xmas’ with ‘a royal corgi xmas’. Spoiler alert: Both are crap burgers that involve charming dogs—and the dogs are more charming than the actors.
–2–
Hannukah on Rye–This one has so many Jewish stereotypes I actually lost track of them. They play the Fiddler on the Roof music, the meddling parents try and set up the two leads and the plot involves dueling secret latka recipes. I’m embarrassed for all involved. PS; It’s also a ‘Youve Got Mail’ ripoff.
–1–
A Christmas Wish is the most hysterically sad and depressing feel good XMas movie I’ve ever watched with Deborah. It was the gateway drug for awful Hallmark movies. Spoiler: too poor for an XMas tree equals a laugh riot. It’s like if Tiny Tim was even more sad and depressing.
For December’s podcast, we discuss Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We talk about Dickens’ background and his poverty. We discuss Patrick Stewart and Mr Magoo. We also have some fun and read one-star reviews from Goodreads.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
In November’s podcast, we discuss Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. We talk about pantheism and God-searching in the woods. We also have some fun and read one star reviews from Goodreads.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
In this month’s Halloween Spooktacular, we talk about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: the 1818 Text. We discuss science fiction, horror, and organic chemistry as well as Percy Shelley’s gifted heart.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
Radiant Child is a 2016 picture book by author/illustrator Javaka Steptoe. It is a biography of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) whose work first appeared in NYC in the late 1970s. In this month’s discussion, we talk about picturebooks as a form and the lives and work of both Basquiat and Steptoe, which overlap in several ways.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in Creative Writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos, and Carlos Montoya.
Reading Books Together: A Podcast with Deborah Brothers & John Paul Jaramillo
Music “Viv” by Joel Styzens from Relax Your Ears
John Paul Jaramillo and Deborah Brothers sit for a 40 minute discussion of 2022’s novel Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine. The August “Reading Books Together” podcast discusses young people and reading, historical fiction and Colorado history.
–Deborah Brothers holds a Ph.D. in English Studies and reviews books for Choice and The Lion and the Unicorn and her essays, fiction, and scholarly work have appeared in several publications.
–John Paul Jaramillo holds an MFA in creative writing and is the author of three books: The House of Order, Little Mocos–a novel, and Carlos Montoya–a novel.
