Mrs. Ram's Jams

Category: books

• Mini Book Reviews for February 2019

  Posted at 12:39 pm by Mrs. Ram Jam, on March 2, 2019

  
  

  

  

  

  Well. It’s happened. I screwed up my I-must-write-my-mini-book-reviews-as-soon-as-I-finish-books New Year’s resolution. I didn’t pen a single one in February. I blame the flu-like virus that made me miserable last week, Little Thing’s flu bout, two out-of-town friends coming to visit, and sheer laziness.

  Oh well. At least I read 13 books? And February is a short month. Huzzah!

  Here’s my February reading list:

  • All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin:  Easy peasy breezy read. I’ve always enjoyed Giffin.
  • Bird Box by Josh Malerman:  Do I even need to review the book since everyone’s seen it on Netflix? I refuse to watch it, but I sure as hell loved reading it.
  • The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton: This. Book. Killed. Mrs. Ram’s. Jams. Seven. Times. I hated it. It was 200 pages pages too long and hard to follow.
  • The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan:  The best thing about this book is its gorgeous cover. I love magical realism, but I haven’t encountered a spectacular YA one yet. After Leigh’s mother commits suicide, Leigh’s convinced her mom has turned into a bird. Leigh also talks and thinks in colors. Her best friend constantly asks her, “What color”? By the end, I was color blind and gagged at every pretentious color mention.
  • The Common Good by Robert B. Reich:  Reich argues that America has lost sight of its founding ideals. I wholeheartedly agree with him.
  • Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #3) by Jenny Han: Lara Jean for life! Book 3 was better than book 2 but super predictable.
  • Without Merit by Colleen Hoover:  I’ve not had much luck with Hoover. I picked this up because I thought it was her rather well-reviewed suspense novel, but it wasn’t. Sigh.
  • Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai:  This middle grade poetry read stunned me. Ha and her family evacuate Saigon during the Vietnam War and find safe harbor in Alabama.
  • The Trouble With Poetry–And Other Poems by Billy Collins
  • The Hating Game by Sally Thorne:  Romance is my least favorite genre, but I loved this book. Lucy and Joshua’s repartee was hysterical.
  • Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1) by Neal Shusterman:  YAL gold. For realz. In the dystopian future, people live forever, but for population control, scythes select people to be killed.I haven’t had this much fun reading a dystopian novel since Red Rising.
  • My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren:  After finishing The Hating Game, I thought to myself:  Hey maybe I do like romance novels. I’m going to try another one out. Bad choice Mrs. Ram’s Jams. Bad choice.
  • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne:  It’s no secret that I eschew reading World War II and Holocaust literature, but I teach this novel in 8th grade ELA. And it breaks my heart every damn time.

  What are you reading?  And as always, conversations are welcome!

  (All book art is taken from Goodreads.com.)

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  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, read, reading, writing

• Mini Book Reviews for January 2019

  Posted at 11:25 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on February 2, 2019

  

  

  

  

  

  Y’all. At January’s end, I’m still on target with New Year’s resolution number one. I finally wrote my mini book reviews upon a book’s completion. Aren’t you proud of me? Your virtual back pats are appreciated. Thanks!

  However, I’m not exactly on target for reaching my “Mrs. Ram Jam shall read 150 books in 2019”  decree. I read 11 books, but two were stupid long, and I didn’t finish one I was 100 pages into. But here’s the bright side:  I’ve already read 4,427 pages this year. How do you like them apples?

  Just a heads up, my January reads were backlist books since my library hasn’t amassed many 2019 releases yet.

  1. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4) by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling–I’m a fan of this series, but this underwhelmed me. I’m invested in Strike and Robin as characters and was eager to see their relationship’s direction. However, I found the narration silly. There was a whole bunch of Strike and Robin going back and forth questioning their feelings for one another like a bad romance novel. The book is super long too, which I’m not against, but tedious detail makes me feel Rowling was trying too hard.
  2. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi–This novel tells the story of two half sisters, who have never met, and their offspring over several generations, starting in Ghana during the late 1700s. I appreciate the epic’s scope, the heart-rending stories, and the crisp prose. However, I had a difficult time orienting myself. Once you’re introduced to a narrator, he/she is never reintroduced. The novel’s biggest strength is the author’s ability to craft different voices through third person narration. The stories sucked me in but left me yearning for more than the minuscule snapshots of the narrators’ lives.    
  3. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, #1) by Jenny Han– In a cathartic act, Lara Jean, a high schooler, pens letters to her past crushes and stores them in a hatbox. Mysteriously her letters get shipped out, including one to her older sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh (who’s also the boy next door), triggering a love life mayhem avalanche. To avoid an uncomfortable situation with him, she and Peter Kavinsky, another love letter recipient, fake a relationship and hilarity ensues. Bottom line:  Lara Jean is damn likable, and the stark writing describing Lara Jean’s dead mother made me sob. I need more Lara Jean in my life.
  4. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) by Patrick Rothfuss– Kote, an infamous arcanist who’s hiding out as an innkeeper, tells the epic tale of his parents’ deaths, time at university, and search for the Chaudrain to a traveling chronicler. While easy to read and compelling, this novel could be shorter. I could have done without the world’s myths/stories, and the part where Kote is a homeless orphan drags.
  5. P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, #2) by Jenny Han–Book two spoiler alert!!!! Book two continues book one’s story line, and it’s slow at first. Lara Jean and Peter get back together, but someone posts a video of their steamy hot tub make out session to Instagram. LJ is convinced it’s Genevieve, but Peter doesn’t believe her. This is a great YAL read, but I was mad while reading it. For starters LJ gets bullied online and faces serious double standards. Also, I can’t stand Peter in this sequel; he’s conceited and a lousy boyfriend. However, Kitty, Lara Jean’s little sister, continues her precociousness, TV watching, and wisecracks, making book two worthwhile.
  6. A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin– A young boy named Ged calls on the fog to prevent his village from being pillaged. Once his wizarding powers are discovered, he’s sent to Roke for training where he butts heads with Jasper, another young wizard. To prove he’s more powerful than Jasper, he performs a magical act,  unleashing an unnamed demon into the world which he must vanquish before it takes over his body and mind. Originally published in the sixties, this book’s an oldie but a goodie.    
  7. Becoming by Michelle Obama– Obama gives enough of her personal story to make me feel like I know her a little better while maintaining a certain level of privacy surrounding herself. She doesn’t sugarcoat her history or her feelings, and she made me cry while discussing her and then President Obama’s reactions to Sandy Hook. It’s one of the best autobiographies I’ve read recently.
  8. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza–In this narrative told primarily through the third person omniscient perspective, the reader is introduced to Rafiq, Layla, Hadia, Huda, and Amar, a Muslim Indian family living in San Francisco. It starts at Hadia’s wedding, where Amar makes his first familial appearance in years. From there, the story weaves back and forth from Layla, Hadia, and Amar’s point of views in non-linear, entwined perspective flashbacks. At the end, it switches to Rafiq’s, the patriarch’s, first person point of view. Third person omniscient is my least favorite perspective to read, but it’s done effortlessly and gorgeously. I ranked this five stars for multiple reasons, but take a look at these plain spoken sentences. They’re perfect–

  • Exhibit A:  “He wondered, on the drive, how they would address what had happened. And now he sees it is as easy as saying ‘knew’ instead of ‘know'” (86).
  • Exhibit B:  “He is so happy he could dance, uncharacteristic of him, but maybe with her he is someone who dances” (106).
  • Exhibit C:  “Just before Abbas turned the corner, he looked back and said, “Congratulations again.” Or maybe it was, “I was right back then.” And he held his hand up in a wave, and maybe she nodded, and maybe she stood still” (151).
  • Exhibit D:  “Who are you now? He wanted to ask her, but maybe she was who she always had been, and he was who he had always been, and it was foolish to think that the years had changed anything” (237).

  9. Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy–In this YAL novel, Willowdean Dickson, comfortable in her overweight frame, loves Dolly Parton and hanging with her bestie Ellen. However, her former beauty queen mother struggles with her daughter’s weight. When Willowdean starts dating her super hot coworker Bo, her confidence plummets and she decides to compete in the local beauty queen pageant as an “ef” you to her mama and the community. This book is a gazillion times better than the Jennifer Anniston produced Netflix film.
  10. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens–Abandoned by her entire family, Kya Clark raises herself in North Carolina’s marsh  in the 1950s and 60s. Her story alternates with a prominent man’s murder and its investigation in 1969. Once involved with the man, Kya gets arrested and put on trial for her life. Let’s be honest, the main character in this book is its setting. Owens painstakingly fleshes out the birds, grasses, and channels of the marsh. On the whole, it’s a compelling read, and I knocked it out in two days, but I was put off by the dialogue. It was stilted, and while I know it was written in a dialect, it was cheesier than a Wisconsin dairy cow.
  11. The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander–Alexander’s premise, laid out in the title, argues the War on Drugs unfairly targets poor Black Americans creating a new “undercaste” in society. Once convicted and labeled felons (for mostly non-violent drug offenses), they are stripped of their voting rights, can be denied housing upon release, and can face job discrimination while assimilating back into the workforce–essentially a new, legal Jim Crow. While the statistical data and other odds and ends are a bit dated, the book was published in 2010, the embedding of legal precedent into her rhetoric and her comparison between Jim Crow and mass incarceration astounded me. Read this book.

  As always, discussion is welcome! Happy reading y’all!

  (All images are taken from Goodreads.)

   

   

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, books, reading, writing

• A Poem: The Lie, Barry

  Posted at 12:58 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on January 26, 2019

  

  You don’t want to go
  to the library.
  It’s full
  of lies, Barry.

  All silence, syntax, and story–

  You know the truth, Barry, lies

  in the noise, gibberish, and vainglory–
  of society’s gobbledygook and pocketbook.

  You can’t find truth
  in a book
  because books spread nothing
  but lies, Barry.

  To tell the truth, Barry, nobody goes
  to the library nor reads books anymore.

  Who needs to when they’ve turned all the good ones
  into shows
  on all the streaming services galore?

  Here’s the truth, Barry.
  The library is scary.

  Full
  of syntactic stories warning
  of silence

  Full
  of parables to teach children how to overcome violence

  Here’s the truth, Barry.

  The library is scary
  because it calls out vainglorious gibberish as noisome–
  you’re no longer able to hide
  behind fear and hate–anti-intellectual poison.

  Here’s the lie, Barry:
  the truth is buried at the library.

  But go ahead and continue to lie, Barry,
  while I unbury my truth, Barry, at the library.

  Posted in books, poems, poetry, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 5 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, books, libraries, library, lies, poems, poems about books, poems about libraries, poetry, read, reading

• A Poem: Books Are Babies

  Posted at 10:04 pm by Mrs. Ram Jam, on January 17, 2019

  

  I tell a version of this to my students the first time I hand out school-owned novels to them to read for class. Because. Middle. Schoolers. Destroy. All. Of. The. Things.

  ---

  Books are babies.
  If you wouldn’t do it to a baby, then you shouldn’t do it to a book.

  Would you
  throw a baby to another person?
  bend a baby backwards?
  leave a baby in the classroom or on the bus by itself for the night?
  step on a baby?
  smack your friend with a baby?
  shove a baby spine side up in the bottom of a backpack and then put books on top of him?
  balance a baby on your head?
  drop a baby?

  Books are babies.
  If you wouldn’t do it to a baby, then you shouldn’t do it to a book.

  You should
  read to your baby.
  talk to your friends about your baby.
  laugh at your baby when it says something funny.
  cry when your baby breaks your heart.
  cheer your baby on.
  learn from your baby.
  love your baby.

  Because books are babies.

  Posted in books, poems, poetry, reading, teaching, Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, books, poems, poetry, reading, students, teaching, writing

• New Year’s Resolutions 2019

  Posted at 1:17 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on January 12, 2019

  

  I sucked to the ninth power at sticking to my 2018 new year’s resolutions.   

  Did I reacquaint myself with the Russian language? Nyet. Did I perform 365 days of yoga? Namaste no. Did I read less and write more? Bahahahahahahah! That’s rich, considering I read 136 books last year compared to 119 the previous year.

  At least I semi-mastered the art of not spacing twice after a period. I’ll take that as a minor success in the face of failing my previous year’s resolutions.

  Here are my 2019 New Year’s resolutions. (P.S. I always wait to start my new year’s resolutions until after my birthday, which is January 7th, hence the delay.)

  • Lose my foot injury weight. Remember all my foot issues from last February? I JUST got released from physical therapy last month, and at this point, I’m unsure if my foot will ever be 100 percent again. And listen, I’m used to being chronically ill, but foot injuries are a whole other pain animal. And because I spent 2017 hobbled, I packed on 15 pounds due to decreased mobility. Let me throw it at you like this: in 2017, I had about 4.2 million steps. Last year, I only had around 3 million. That’s the equivalent of not moving at all for three months last year as compared to the previous year. I walked . . . wait for it . . . 500 miles less last year than I did the previous year. Seriously. 500 miles less. Since my pain is now managed, I need to suck it up buttercup and lose the extra pounds. If anyone has any exercise suggestions for me, I’ll take them. Yoga’s off the table. My feet simply can’t handle it. I can’t run, plank, or lunge. No jumping jacks. The elliptical machine is a no go either. I might just have to briskly walk in my orthopedic, old lady footwear for cardio and then do modified pilates. Or suck it up and fork out the money for a personal trainer.
  • Read more diverse authors. I thought I was doing a decent job, but when I look at what I read last year, it’s not nearly as representative as it should be. Another book loving friend of mine shared a kick-ass premade reading log spreadsheet (find it here on Bookriot.com) with me that tracks all kinds of reading stats, including an option to help me keep tabs on author diversity. This spreadsheet is my new best friend.
  • Write the damn mini book reviews immediately upon finishing a book. This. Will. Happen. I’m four for four already this year. Go me! I’ve promised myself I can’t start a new book until I’ve written a review for the recently finished one. I’ve added a tab on my reading spreadsheet to keep them all in one place for easy fluffing up prior to publishing.  
  • Get “Baby Shark” off repeat in my head. Send help!   
  • Stop being a chicken and try to get a literary agent. I finished writing a children’s book last year. Have I done anything to try to get in published? Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, does half-heartedly researching literary agents and sending it off to some friends for feedback count? I could have been using my foot injury downtime to make serious headway, but I’m terrified it’s not good enough and hid behind reading books instead. Putting it in writing here leaves me panic-stricken but holds me accountable. I’ll need all the happy thoughts I can get because I know rejection lurks around the corner. Rejection sucks, but it’s part of the process and will make me a better writer in the long run even if I never get published.

  Happy New Year to you and yours, and I apologize profusely for getting “Baby Shark” stuck in your head again. (You know you sang it to yourself at least once since I mentioned it.) I thought it would be a diversionary tactic to get it to ooze out of my head permanently.

  Sorry shark? Doo doo doo doo doo doo . . .

  

  Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, new year, new year's resolutions, read, writing

• Book List: Mini Book Reviews for December 2018

  Posted at 12:48 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on January 5, 2019

  
  

  

  

  

  

  

  Because I struggle getting into the Christmas spirit (Yes, I detest most Christmas music and refuse to decorate prior to Black Friday.), I figured my Scrooge-laden soul could benefit from some holiday reads in December.

  I binged Elin Hilderbrand’s holiday series Winter suggested by a Facebook friend, and it did inspire me to be less bah humbug-ish. Promise. Don’t believe me? I played Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” while hanging ornaments and adorning the fireplace mantle with fake poinsettias and glittery snowflakes. Huzzah! The Ram-a-grinch’s holiday heart grew a seasonal three sizes. It has since returned to its nonholiday appropriate size.

  Here’s what I read in December with some mini reviews thrown in. (One of my new year’s resolutions is to write my mini reviews as soon as I’m done reading the books. It’s just too hard to write them a month after I’ve read them anymore, especially when some of the books are part of a series read in succession. Be prepared for some cop-out reviews.):

  • The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert–YAL; Despite some negative Goodreads reviews, I really enjoyed this fantasy novel.
  • Winter Street (Winter #1) by Elin Hilderbrand–contemporary fiction
  • Winter Stroll (Winter #2) by Elin Hilderbrand–contemporary fiction
  • Winter Storms (Winter #3) by Elin Hilderbrand–contemporary fiction
  • Winter Solstice (Winter #4) by Elin Hilderbrand–contemporary fiction; These books chronicle Kelley Quinn, the owner of Winter Street Inn on Nantucket, and his flawed adult children, his Santa cheating wife, and his CBS news anchor ex-wife Margaret Quinn during the Christmas season. It’s dishy, dysfunctional, and soap opera-esque. While a total guilty pleasure, I did give the last book four stars because by the end of the series I loved these crazy characters.
  • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari–nonfiction; Harari’s portrayal of the human race’s history is sweeping and mind-boggling. He starts at the beginning of human evolution and then tackles the agricultural revolution, imperialism, industrialization, and capitalism (to name a few). His logic is thought-provoking, and you might not agree with everything he has to say. While I understand the limits of covering humankind’s history in a 443 page book, I thought it was neglectful of him to essentially ignore the historical implications of how women have been treated. Despite this, Sapiens earned a spot on my top twenty reads of 2018. (Side note: The world conspired against me reading this book. I had it on hold for two months, it came in while I was out of town over the summer for two weeks, so it got sent back. Then I placed it on hold again and waited eons for it. Chunks of pages were falling from the binding when I finally got my hands on it, and the library took it out of circulation upon its return.)
  • Vicious (Villians #1) by V.E. Schwab–YAL
  • Vengeful (Villians #2) by V.E. Schwab–YAL; The Shades of Magic Series by Schwab is one of my favorite fantasy reads ever so I had to pick up this young adult series by her as well. The first one left me a bit underwhelmed. Victor and Eli’s story begins in college, where they discover the ability to become extraordinary–by killing themselves and then coming back to life. Eli awakens from death with regenerative powers while Victor can cause pain. They end up nemeses and more nefarious than heroic, picking up a motley crew of extraordinaries along the way. The second book more than made up for the slow pacing of the first, and I ended up rating the second four stars.
  • The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy–suspense/mystery; Ummmm, it’s okay? I keep reading suspense even though most of it is less than stellar in hopes that one will finally wow me with brilliantly written prose. Am I asking too much from this genre?
  • Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage–horror/thriller; A nonverbal little girl, who idolizes her daddy, fantasizes about killing her mother and then tries to do so. It’s fucked up, but I was never genuinely scared during this book. It alternated between both Suzette’s (the mother’s) and Hanna’s (the daughter’s) perspectives. The more I read, the more I dislike authors trying to narrate from the “now” perspective of children; in this case, Hanna’s perspective is over-developed and the diction too rich for that of a seven-year-old.
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo–nonfiction; Read it. Digest it. Then, like Oluo beseeches, stop talking about it and start taking action. It’s a must read, making my top three of books read in 2018.
  • Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira–Science Fiction; I liked Pedreira’s style, but in the midst of all the science fiction jargon, it was hard to keep track of the characters and the plot.
  • Dear Martin by Nic Stone–YAL; Much in the same vein as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, Justyce, an ivy league bound African American student who goes to a mostly upper class white school, witnesses the gun death of his best friend by an off-duty white police officer. Throughout the novel, Justyce writes letters to Martin Luther King, Jr., explaining the everyday microaggressions and full-blown racism he faces from society, ultimately writing rhetorical questions as an outlet for his frustrations. This is joining my recommendation list for my students.
  • Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay–nonfiction: I had published my top twenty books read in 2018 before I read this novel, and dammit, I would add this book to it if I could. I love Gay’s personal critique of feminism, and her essays are the shit. Her writing style is enviable. Slapping me in the face, her sentences left me raw and awakened the bad feminist in me too. Also through close examination, she offers cinematic and literary critique of women’s tropes and race portrayal in artistic mediums.

  As always, any discussion is welcome, and I’m always taking recommendations.

  Happy New Year. My resolutions post is slated for next week.

  (All cover art taken from Goodreads.)

   

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 3 Comments | Tagged bad feminist, blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, dear martin, read, reading, sapiens, so you want to talk about race, the hazel wood, the perfect mother, vengeful, vicious, winter street, writing

• Top Twenty Books 2018

  Posted at 12:19 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on December 29, 2018

  

  

  (All book art taken from Goodreads.)

  As per requested, here are my top twenty reads of the year.

  I’m currently sitting at 132 books under my belt and am hoping to hit 135 before year’s end. Not only did I read more than I did last year, but I made an effort to read more nonfiction. And because I’ve already reviewed most of these books on this list, I’m taking the laziest route possible and not re-reviewing them. (Please feel free to check out my previously posted book reviews. Next week’s post will be reviews of my reads from December.) However, I did rank them from most favorite to not-my-favorite-but-still-really-good.  

  1. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah–five stars–published 2018–historical fiction
  2. Uprooted by Naomi Novik–five stars–published 2015–fantasy
  3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo–five stars–published 2018–nonfiction
  4. Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) by Ernest Cline–five stars–published 2011–science fiction
  5. The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1) by Katherine Arden–five stars–published 2017–fantasy
  6. The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy, #1) by Katherine Arden–five stars–published 2017–fantasy
  7. Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)  by Leigh Bardugo–five stars–published 2015–fantasy/YAL
  8. Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) by Leigh Bardugo–five stars–published 2016–fantasy/YAL
  9. Stardust by Neil Gaiman–five stars–published 1999–fantasy/YAL
  10. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari–five stars– published 2011–nonfiction
  11. The Martian by Andy Weir–five stars–published 2011–science fiction
  12. Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan–five stars–published 2018–nonfiction/memoir-ish
  13. Furiously Happy:  A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson–five stars–published 2015–nonfiction/memoir-ish
  14. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones–five stars–published 2018–contemporary fiction
  15. Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) by Pierce Brown–five stars–published 2014–science fiction
  16. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal–four stars–published 2017–contemporary fiction
  17. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain–four stars–published 2014–nonfiction
  18. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn–four stars–published 2006–mystery/thriller
  19. Circe by Madeline Miller–four stars–published 2018—fantasy
  20. Less by Andrew Sean Greer–four stars–published 2017–contemporary fiction

   

  As always, I’d love to hear what you have to say about these books if you’ve read them. Cheers!  

   

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 4 Comments | Tagged best books 2018, blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, reading, top twenty, top twenty books

• Book List: Mini Book Reviews for November 2018

  Posted at 1:02 pm by Mrs. Ram Jam, on December 1, 2018

  
  

  

  

  I love and loathe writing my monthly mini book reviews. For one, it’s a gimme post. I always know what I’m going to write the last week of every month. But conversely, writing reviews are hard–even if they are mini!

  This month I did KIND OF keep my promise that I’d pen reviews as soon as I finished a book. By KIND OF, I mean I wrote the first two reviews immediately upon book completion–but then slacked off on reviewing the rest until last night.

  Also, it was a bit of a slow reading month for me.  I started two books, A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult and The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton, that I ended up quitting because I couldn’t get into them.

  ---

  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis:  Please don’t hate me, but I wasn’t a huge fan. I much prefer The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Is it just me, or do lots of these self-help books fall prey to promoting the author’s brand?
  • Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn:  Camille Preaker, a cub reporter at a mediocre Chicago newspaper, unwillingly gets sent to her Missouri hometown to cover the grisly murders of two girls. While investigating the homicides, Camille stays with her disquieting mother and off-putting yet beautiful teenage half sister in Camille’s too perfect childhood home, uncovering the truth of her past in the process. Too frequently, I read thrillers that neglect to create a specific mood besides suspense; however Flynn’s graphic, unsettling diction flayed me and left my arms in gooseflesh. This novel disturbed me; I absolutely loved it.
  • The Alice Network by Kate Quinn:  A work friend who adores historical fiction recommended this book to me. It’s a true-ish story about women spies during World War I. Even though I found it bingeable, it teetered on inconceivable poetic justice-like plot events.
  • Stardust by Neil Gaiman: Gaiman. Is. A. Fantasy. God. It’s the shit. That is all.
  • Elevation by Stephen King: King eschews horror in this novella and tells the tale of Scott Carey, a man who’s quickly losing weight but not showing it outwardly. It’s a plainly written story, highlighting the importance of friendship and community.
  • Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine:  In an effort to read more middle grade books, I snagged Ella Enchanted off a library shelf. What a cool take on the Cinderella story for girls! At birth, Ella gets cursed with obedience by a seemingly well-meaning fairy. Ella spends her days trying to fight commands given to her by others but ultimately has to do the curse’s bidding, which leads her on quest to break the curse.
  • Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris:  Bring Me Back screams predictable, formulaic mystery novel lacklusterness, but it’s frustratingly readable. Read Sharp Objects instead if you crave literary merit.
  • Clock Dance by Anne Tyler: In the throes of an empty nest, Willa Drake finds new meaning in life when she answers a call to care for a little girl, whom she’s never met, while the girl’s mother recovers from a gunshot wound. Tyler’s been writing novels for over 50 years; why has it taken me this long to pick up one of her books? I ranked this a four out of five stars on Goodreads only because I disliked the book’s last page.

  As always, discussion is welcome! And does anybody have any holiday book recommendations for me?

  (Book cover art taken from Goodreads.)

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, read, reading, writing

• Book List: Books Read in October 2018

  Posted at 1:13 pm by Mrs. Ram Jam, on November 3, 2018

  

   

  

  

  

  

  Next October, I swear I’m going to read nothing but horror, thriller, and zombie novels.  I read quite the random mix, but I managed to squeeze in a few spooky-ish books for Halloween month.

  Let the monthly mini book reviews commence.

  (I swear, next month, I’ll write book reviews immediately after I finish reading books.****said with my fingers crossed behind my back****)

   

  • Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight: This checks off all the right mystery/suspense/thriller boxes. I’ve been dying to read McCreight’s Reconstructing Amelia, but my library system doesn’t own a copy.
  • Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson: Tyson takes a mind-boggling concept and makes it quasi-understandable for normal folks. I felt small and insignificant, in a good way, while reading this book.
  • Seraphina (Seraphina, #1) by Rachel Hartman: I was in desperate need of a good dragon book when I picked up this. I wanted to love this YAL book about a half-human, half-dragon girl, but I just couldn’t.
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain:  As a person who needs her quiet time, I was immediately taken with the title of this book and was not disappointed with its content. Cain critiques the American societal ideal of extroversion and argues the value of introversion in society. While it highlighted points that I’d already logically deduced myself, the data that Cain used to back up her research was fascinating.
  • How to Walk Away by Katherine Center: When am I going to learn that I really don’t enjoy contemporary, mainstream chick lit/romance and stop wasting my time?  However, if you do enjoy that genre, you might enjoy this book. Margaret has it all, until she gets in a plane crash that her new fiancé caused that leaves her paralyzed. Beware of cheesy narration.
  • Shadow and Bone (Grisha Verse, #1) by Leigh Bardugo: Mehhhhhhh?  I rated it a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads because I try to evaluate books based on how much I enjoyed reading a book with a consideration of the genre, in this case YAL, in mind, but read Bardugo’s Six of Crows series instead. Seriously. If you love YAL and haven’t read Six of Crows yet, you’re missing out.
  • The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind #1) by Terry Pratchett: I wanted to love this novel because what’s not to love? It’s fantasy, sci-fi, and humor all rolled into one, but it’s ridiculously random and not my color of humor (But Twoflower’s luggage with legs is hilarious; I’ll give it that.). I prefer Kurt Vonnegut and Carl Hiaasen.
  • In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1) by Tana French: The cover of this book gives me the heebie jeebies. The protagonist, Detective Ryan, gets a murder case in his hometown that appears to have a connection with his own past. Is this a good book? Yes, but it is wordy.
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman—­­The Graveyard Book was a perfect middle grade read. As a young boy, Nobody Owens finds himself in a graveyard after his family is slaughtered. Over the years, the beings of the graveyard raise him and keep him safe from the murderer who is still on the loose. It’s creepy, supernatural, and delightful.
  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: This is a prettily written book about a future world that’s been devastated by a virus that wiped out most of the world’s population. It’s a great book, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer my post-apocalypse novels to be gritty and less romanticized. Give me Stephen King’s The Stand any day.
  • The Girl With All the Gifts (The Girl With All the Gifts, #1) by M.R. Carey: If you can’t read a zombie book during Halloween month, when can you? In the not so far dystopian future, zombies have taken over the world, but Melanie and a group of children like her are anomalies. Melanie has the zombie virus, and instead of acting like all the other mindless, flesh-eating monsters, she is sapient and can control her hunger. It was a fun read, but it was full of gaps in the storyline.
  • The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. I. Need. To. Stop. Reading. Romance. Novels. I didn’t enjoy anything about this book, except the cover.
  • All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood: Despite the terrible narrative technique (How many alternating narrators can you have in one novel? A bazillion, apparently.), a rushed ending, and a plot highlighting a pedophilic love affair, Greenwood’s novel is strangely addictive. I was eight different shades of uncomfortable reading it. It’s Sons of Anarchy meets The Thorn Birds.

  As always, any discussion is welcome, and I’m always looking for recommendations.

  All cover art taken from Goodreads.com.

   

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, reading

• Book List and Reviews: What Mrs. Ram’s Jams Read in September

  Posted at 11:31 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on October 6, 2018

                   

  September was a glorious reading month over here at Mrs. Ram’s Jams. I hit the 100 books read for the year mark, and read some great (and some less-than-great) books.

  For a full list of what I’ve read so far this year, you can check out my book challenge list at Mrs. Ram’s Goodreads Book Challenge.

  But without further ado, here’s my September reading list:

  • Uglies (Uglies, #1) by Scott Westerfeld. This has been on my YAL back burner for years, and a student’s copy, perched on her desk’s edge, reminded me of its existence. Premise: there are ugly people. Said ugly people have an operation to make them pretty when they turn 16. Some people in society question if uglies need to turn pretty and run away to start their own society. I had a hard time choking it down. At least it had a decent message? The fact that it’s on a student’s desk even though she’s been reading it the entire first nine weeks suggests how ***yawn*** it is.  
  • The Travelers by Chris Pavone. Every now and then, I need a good international thriller. Pavone doesn’t disappoint.
  • My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella. This was my least favorite read in September, and it’s chick lit at its worst.
  •  Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. A twenty-something, second-generation Indian woman living in London thinks she’s teaching a creative writing class at a community center to widowed Sikh women, but the women are under the impression they’ve signed up for a course in learning to read English. What happens next? The. Widows. Start. Writing. Erotica. YESSSSSSSS!
  • Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Earlier this year, I read Novik’s Uprooted and exalted it, touting it as a book to reread. Her latest novel, Rumplestiltksin-inspired, doesn’t compare to Uprooted’s caliber in the slightest fashion, primarily in regards to narration.There are a bazillion first person narrators, and when they switch, the only clear demarcation of the new POV is a fancy symbol separating one narrator from the next.
  • Less by Andrew Sean Greer. This year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner is MORE than deserving of the prestige. Arthur Less, a well-meaning blundering novelist, goes on a transcontinental journey to escape the impending nuptials of his former boyfriend only to encounter even more problems along the way. It’s endearing and hilarious.
  • Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) by Ernest Cline. I had so much fun reading this book. It’s set in the dystopian future where the world plugs into OASIS, a virtual reality system, daily instead of existing in the real world. When OASIS’s creator dies, he unveils via a posthumous video that he has programmed in a contest for one winner to win his fortune. The protagonist, Wade Watts, is the first person to uncover the first clue. Gaming, virtual reality, and 80s nostalgia are jammed-packed into this novel, and Cline builds a kick-ass (albeit simulated) world.
  • The Seven Year Bitch by Jennifer Belle. Woman marries man. Has kid. Dreams of divorcing man. Fantasizes about man’s death. Flirts with a wealthy man throughout who tries to woo her away from her husband. You know, typical chick lit. Belle’s story line is damn predictable, but it’s funny and well-written.
  • Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips. Joan and her young son frequent the local zoo. One evening they stay until closing time, and when trying to exit the park, come across gunshot victims, signaling to Joan an active shooter situation. She takes her son back into the zoo for safety and spends the next three hours fighting for their survival. I fiercely recommend this thriller.
  • Ghosted by Rosie Walsh. Sarah immediately falls in love with Eddie and is sure of their connection. But then he vanishes, and she doesn’t hear from him for months. Despite an uneven opening chapter, it was enjoyable–for a romance novel.
  • Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall. This book is a wannabe To Kill a Mockingbird, a tad silly in places, and more than inconceivable in others.

  P.S. Why do I struggle writing reviews for books I loved? It’s much easier to articulate why I didn’t like a book.  

  P.P.S.  I need to start writing reviews immediately when I’m done reading and save them for my monthly books read posts. This whole I’m-gonna-wait-until-the-month’s-end-process-and-review-everything-in-one-fell-swoop malarkey is trash.

  Note:  All cover art images were taken from Goodreads.

  Links to other book reviews and book lists by Mrs. Ram’s Jams:

  Book List: What Mrs. Ram Read Recently

  Mrs. Ram’s Jams Reading List for May, June, and (the First Half) of July

  The Books I Read in March and April

  Mrs. Ram’s Jams Reading List for January and February

  Top Twenty Books of 2017

  The Books I Read in 2017

  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged blogging, book lists, book reviews, books, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, Fierce Kingdom, Ghosted, Less, reading, Ready Player One

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