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.
Reading Books Together: A Podcast with Deborah Brothers & John Paul Jaramillo
Join us as we discuss Terry Tempest Williams’ Erosion: Essays of Undoing (2019). November seems to be a good month to reflect and while many of the thirty or so pieces in this collection show how disturbing and chaotic the world can be, Williams reminds us that “Awareness is our prayer.” We discuss the major themes of personal and global loss in these pieces but we also understand they are working as “collages,” layered with activism, deep listening, and the restorative power of nature.
–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
Join us this month as we read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, John Paul’s pick for our second annual October “Spooktacular” podcast. Deborah gives three reasons why the book is worthy of reading and more than three reasons why she never wants to have to read it again. John Paul discusses Marxism, Buffy, homoeroticism, and (of course) reads some one-star reviews.
–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.
Join us this month as we talk about Good Night, Irene: A Novel, Luis Alberto Urrea’s fictionalized account of his mother’s WWII service with the American Red Cross. It is clear Urrea is a poet at heart and his rich descriptions help anchor the reader into Irene and Dorothy’s world and what it takes to survive events that cannot be forgotten. (And of course, John Paul reads a few one-star reviews!).
–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.
Join John Paul Jaramillo and Deborah Brothers for the July edition of “Reading Books Together,” a monthly podcast where we talk about a book we’ve read. We focus our discussion on recurring themes in the life and short fiction of Texas-born writer Katherine Anne Porter, winner of a Pulitzer, a National Book Award, a Gold Medal Award for Fiction, and five nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
–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 month we talk about Brave New World, the classic dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley. We talk about our reactions to the book’s grumpy stylistics as well as its essential ideas and spot-on premonitions. We ramble about connections to Shakespeare and Browning, John Paul reads a few “one star” Goodreads write-ups, and we sum up our own mixed reviews as we revisit this book decades after our first encounter with it from high school days.
–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.
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.
