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    • September Mini Book Reviews

      Posted at 9:04 am by Jeddarae, on October 3, 2020

      September wasn’t a great reading month for me. Don’t get me wrong, I read some pretty great books, but I didn’t read very many books.

      Why?

      1. I read three books that were over 400 pages. Long books means less books read.
      2. I discovered TikTok. 
      3. Hybrid teaching leaves me brainless by the time I get home.
      4. I am doing more work at home than I usually do–because hybrid teaching leaves less time to get lessons made and papers graded at work.
      5. Did I mention TikTok?
      6. I quit reading two books:  The Guest List by Lucy Foley and The Dragonette Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland. 
      7. Tokking of the Tik.

      Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson–published 2020–romance–two stars:  Jesse’s foster mother, who owned a knitting shop, passes away, leaving the shop to not just him, but his three foster brothers too. They’re all dangerously sexy, but Kerry, a woman who worked in the store and looked to Mama Joy as a mother as well, has always had a thing for Jesse, a bit of a fuck-up. She’s finally finished with school and looking to make her way in the city, but she agrees to help Jesse tackle running the store. Maybe I’m too critical of this genre, but it was just so bland. 


      Making Faces by Amy Harmon–published 2013–YAL romance–three stars:  When the small-town golden boy Ambrose convinces his buddies to join him in the military after the September 11th attacks, Fern Taylor, a small, nondescript redhead who is the preacher’s daughter, pines for him. She’s been in love with him for years. When he returns from war drastically changed, she and her cousin Bailey, who has muscular dystrophy, convince Ambrose to ease back into life in the small town. There’s something very wholesome and innocent about this book, but this book didn’t age well. Be prepared for a tearjerking ending.


      Afterland by Lauren Beukes–published 2020–dystopian fiction–four stars:  A virus plagues the world, killing off most of the men. After her sister betrays her, Cole tries to keep her son, one of the few remaining males in the world, safe from the government by dressing him as a girl and joining a traveling nun cult. Totally Atwoodian but with song lyrics and less serious. It’s refreshing to find a contemporary novel that isn’t completely beholden to some rigorous genre-specific plot line. I totally dug Beukes’s writing style.  


      The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip–published 1974 –YAL fantasy–four stars:  Beautiful. I had a hard time keeping the beasts’ names straight until halfway through the book, but it was a nice change of pace in comparison to the contemporary YAL that gets published anymore. I’ve been slowly making my way through some older fantasy books, and I’m really enjoying them. 


      Bitten (Otherworld #1) by Kelley Armstrong–published 2001–urban fantasy–three stars:  And then I read something like this and am proven wrong by the last sentence of the last review I wrote. I don’t think urban fantasies age very well, and I know to keep in mind the time period in which they are written, but I didn’t much enjoy The Mortal Instruments series either . . . and it could have had something to do with the fact that I read them wayyyyyyy after they’d originally been published. I was totally into Bitten, but parts of it weren’t very fleshed out and it was pretty predictable. I thought maybe Elena lacked a female protagonist’s depth because the book was written by a male author, but nope. Totally penned by a woman. I guess I was expecting a bit more of a badass female werewolf? And it had a totally sexist storyline and it is part romance novel, but . . . Give me Vampire Academy instead? 


      Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid–published 2015–contemporary fiction/romance–three stars:  Hannah moves back home to L.A. from New York to be closer to her best friend and to distance herself from a bad relationship. She has high hopes of rekindling a love affair with her old high school flame Ethan. But on the evening of her welcome back party, she has to make a decision to go home with Ethan or not, and the audience gets to see how her life plays out if she makes either choice. You can tell that this is an early novel from Reid. It’s not as well done as Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and there’s way too much emphasis placed on Hannah’s high bun and cinnamon roll obsession.


      The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones–published 2019–YAL fantasy–four stars:  A zombie fairytale? Lovely and a bit scary. A great October read. 


      White Fragility:  Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism–published 2019–nonfiction–four stars:  If you are a white person and haven’t read this book yet, you should do so. It’s an uncomfortable read. But being uncomfortable is key to growth. I still have so much work to do in identifying and correcting my own behaviors, thoughts, and speech when it comes to discussing race in America. And I still have so much work to do in identifying and correcting my own behaviors, thoughts, and speech when it just comes to existing in a racist society. I learned from this book that we need to rethink what it means to be racist. I learned from this book that relying on intelligence and hiding behind the guise of reading certain books has racism behind it. Earlier this year, I made of list of recommended books to read about racism in America and posted it on Facebook. Was that racist? Yes, because I hid behind intellectualism. I learned about how Black people view white women’s tears, and my gut reaction was, tears? Really? This book points out how our emotions are a product of socialization. Did I mention that I have a lot of work to do? 


      Where Dreams Descend (Kingdom of Cards #1) by Janella Angeles–published 2020–YAL fantasy–four stars:  Caravel meets Night Circus, but sexy, in a young adult way, and a bit of Stockholm syndrome? Yes, please! It was bit too long though. This is a great October read too.


      Anybody have any great October reading recommendations? I want to read something that will scare the shit out of me. Please!

      (All cover art taken from Goodreads.)

      Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged book reviewer, book reviews, mini book reviews
    • A Teacher Poem: We’re in Trouble, Shoot!

      Posted at 9:34 am by Jeddarae, on September 26, 2020
      trouble
      trouble
      troubleshoot
      nobody can hear me
      i've been speaking but i'm on mute
      
      trouble
      trouble
      troubleshoot
      caydon left the Zoom
      because his Chromebook needed to reboot
      
      trouble
      trouble
      troubleshoot
      amira's not paying attention
      because she's choosing a filter to make her look cute
      
      trouble
      trouble 
      troubleshoot
      nobody can hear me
      i've been speaking but i'm on mute
      
      trouble
      trouble 
      troubleshoot
      owen! turn off your camera!
      your dad just walked by in his birthday suit!
      
      trouble
      trouble
      troubleshoot
      mj's Google Doc won't load
      so he can't do the lesson on greek and latin roots
      
      trouble
      trouble
      troubleshoot
      i forgot to click record at the beginning of class
      hope i'm not slapped with a lawsuit
      
      trouble
      trouble
      troubleshoot
      Nobody can hear me. 
      I've been speaking, but I'm on mute.
      
      We're in trouble, trouble, trouble. Shoot!
      Nobody can hear us.
      We've been speaking, but we're on mute.
      
      We're in
      trouble
      trouble
      trouble, bang!
      
      trouble shots fired!
      bang!
      all the teachers are tired
      
      trouble shots fired!
      bang!
      am i too young to retire?
      
      We're in trouble, trouble, trouble, shoot!
      Nobody can hear teachers.
      They've been speaking, but they're on mute.
      
      We're in trouble!
      Shots fired!
      Bang!
      
      We're in trouble!
      Don't shoot the messenger!
      Bang!
      
      The traditional classroom is dead.
      It isn't funny.
      Time of death:  2020.
      
      We're in trouble, trouble, trouble.
      Shoot!
      
      Posted in poems, poetry, teaching, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged poem, poems, poems about teaching, poetry, troubleshoot
    • A Little Thing Tale: On Your Eighth Birthday

      Posted at 11:21 am by Jeddarae, on September 12, 2020

      On your eighth birthday . . . 

      I shut your bedroom door, as quietly as I could, to keep the cat out, but you woke up anyway, a full hour earlier than normal. Sleep still in your eyes and with your over-sized pink nightgown, a shoulder peeping out playing peek-a-boo. I wished you a happy birthday and ensconced you in a too-tight hug before you plopped yourself on the sectional and watched YouTube Kids videos until it was time to get ready for school.


      When we walked out to my blue Buick, I told you to look in the front yard for a surprise. Granny had the yard Sign Gypsy-ed, and it shouted “Happy 8th Birthday Little Thing” to the entire neighborhood for the whole day. We requested a cat theme, but they gave you a purple, pink, gold, and gray girly display instead. It featured a present-laden birthday llama; I promise I didn’t request it. Your eyes widened in delight at the surprise, and your grin, oh that grin baby girl, it was so wide that you would have thought that we surprised you with a trip to Disney World. 


      I jammed to Taylor Swift’s Red album while driving, and you, as always, continued to watch YouTube Kids, a video about fairy circles. You chimed in with “I knew you were trouble when you walked in” in all the right places like you were a tiny background singer on autopilot. Nana and Papa Blob called to sing you happy birthday. Papa Blob butchered “Happy Birthday” even worse than he did when you turned seven. When we stopped at the last, long red light before reaching our destination, you said your throat hurt a little. I told you to grab your water bottle, which I normally wouldn’t send with you but the school’s water fountains are turned off because of coronavirus, but you informed me that I didn’t pack it. Then I realized that I didn’t pack you a snack either. Momentarily, horrible mother guilt mindset kicked in, how dare I not pack my baby girl water and snack on her birthday, but then I remembered the glove department emergency snacks and figured I’d steal a coworker’s extra bottle of water for you. At least I managed to tuck some birthday Oreos into your lunchbox, I thought. 


      You pulled on your favorite, pink kitty mask, adjusting it over your ears and moving its llama lanyard out of your face, after you climbed out of the backseat. I’m always afraid you’re going to tumble out and break your femur or your head wide open because the backseat isn’t roomy and your backpack is heavier than you are. Your gold headband with the beaded bow twinkled in the early morning light. The sky is pink you said. Half a moon hung in it too. You seemed droopy, but I chalked it up to your early morning wake up. 


      In the library, your friends surprised you with a card. One of your friends, the librarian’s daughter, tried to gift you the library’s copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 


      When you climbed into my car after school, you were wearing a different mask, the backup one covered in conversation candy hearts. I asked How was your day? Did you have a good birthday at school? You huffed, Yes, but I had TWO nosebleeds AND I’m getting da bad sneezes. I heard the congestion, phlegmy and liquid, in your normally chirpy voice. I made sure a tissue box was in arm’s reach of your seat and passed back the only pair of sunglasses, a cheap promotion from a college bar–fire engine red with Captain Morgan written on the side, in the car to help combat your sneezes. After you let down your wildly long hair from its daily ponytail, you sighed in relief. You looked too grown and cool, like a snuffly badass. 


      I offered you birthday dinner from anywhere, but you just wanted noodles, edamame, strawberries, and chocolate milk. You worked on your homework while I was in the kitchen, but before I could finish dinner, you escaped into your room’s darkness, hiding from the sunlight like a vampire. Da bad sneezes lived up to their name. 


      Granny came over for cake, ice cream, and “Happy Birthday.” We couldn’t find a candle. The week before, you declared you wanted a Harry Potter scavenger hunt, complete with a Hermione Granger Halloween costume to wear while scavenging. So even though I’d already spent the money I had set aside for your birthday, I made it happen because COVID-19 sucks and you couldn’t have a party. I spent an hour writing clues and wrapped your presents the night before. The scavenger hunt was so worth it. You looked exactly like a tiny Hermione Granger/Emma Watson when you donned your Gryffindor robes. The clues lead you to Hermione’s wand, some LOL Surprise Dolls, Floop, a glittery pink phone stand, the Knight Bus LEGO set, and a build your own robot set. You loved all the gifts. Your eyes sparkled and you twirled and magic-spelled your way through the clues, but I could tell that you were feeling puny. 


      You played with your Floop and then tried to build the robot with Daddy, which was a silly idea because Daddy was broken. He was having surgery the next morning to repair a ruptured biceps tendon and had been sporting a sling for two weeks. I had been outside walking and would have argued against even opening its box. Luckily, your aunt, uncle, and cousin in Illinois Facetimed you, and I put the robot away. You talked with them for quite a while, showing off your completed LEGO sets and your rainbow artwork displayed on the refrigerator, and all of a sudden, you got that I-can’t-function-any-longer-look-in-your-eye, and asked your aunt, Is it okay if I go to bed now? And you abruptly ended the conversation–because you were done with the day, even though it was your birthday.


      You met Buckbeak before you went to bed because you insisted that I read to you despite your yawns and your sneezes. We listened to Lady Gaga’s and Ariana Grande’s Rain on Me, for the millionth time, while I braided your hair. I turned the lights off, put the cat away, brought you some water, and turned on your nightlight. You climbed out of bed, no longer able to form words, and tried to turn your night light off, too bright for your sneezy eyes. You accidentally looked directly into it, starting an uncontrollable sneezing fit. I turned it off. You climbed back in bed and closed your eyes. 

      You were snuffly and ethereal. 

      And I tucked you in, my little tuckered-out birthday girl. 

      Posted in kids, parenting, Uncategorized, writing | 7 Comments | Tagged birthday girl, happy birthday, harry potter, kids, parenting
    • Mini Book Reviews August 2020

      Posted at 10:07 am by Jeddarae, on September 5, 2020

      I had a meh reading month. What about you? 

      Approach my August mini book reviews with caution. Here’s what you shouldn’t read (and four books you should)!


      Anna K:  A Love Story (Anna K #1) by Jenny Lee–published 2020–YAL romance/retellings–three stars:  I never read book blurbs fully before diving into a book, and sometimes it backfires worse than taking a sip of Coke when you’re expecting unsweet tea but occasionally I’m rewarded with an unforeseen, delicious book flavor. Anna K is room temperature water. Parts were witty and then others were listy. It’s Crazy Rich Asians plus Gossip Girl, but it lacks the glamorous good fun the characters in those series have so it’s hard to get past the entitlement here. I liked Dustin (because he isn’t entitled), but he’s choppy.  


      The Stranger by Albert Camus–published 1942–classics–three stars: I’m not exactly sure what I just read here. Mind you, the writing is startlingly clear, but . . . I’m confused as to why the protagonist killed another person. And just who is “the stranger”? The protagonist? The guy who the protagonist kills? Imma just back away from this one slowly like Homer Simpson disappearing into the bushes. 


      Of Curses and Kisses (St. Rosetta’s Academy #1) by Sandhya Menon–published 2020–YAL romance/retellings–two stars:  For the love of books, y’all! When am I going to learn my lesson? Once again, I walked into a book without reading the blurb and ended up with another retelling–this time a Beauty and the Beast varietal. This is the most unimaginative, repetitive retelling I’ve ever read. There’s a bunch of bratty rich kids sent to a boarding school in the middle of Colorado. Woohoo, another story featuring children of the one percent! Jaya and her sister, Indian princesses, enroll there after a scandal at home. Jaya finds out that her family’s nemeses–the Emersons–have a son that attends St. Rosetta’s too, and she plots to use her feminine wiles to seduce him into destroying his family’s good name as revenge for destroying her family’s good name. She’s beauty. He’s beast. There’s nothing original here, and it gets too teach-y.  However, Menon can rock a metaphor; that’s the only reason I finished reading this. Read A Curse So Dark and Lonely instead. 


      Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner–published 2020–LQBT romance–one star:  I don’t often distribute one-star ratings, but there’s nothing that makes this read stand out. Jo, a Hollywood producer, invites her assistant Emma to accompany her to an awards show, not as a date, but as a buffer between Jo and the paparazzi. Rumors swirl anyway, and the two deny that they have feelings for one another. Zero character development? Check. Generic, boring writing? Check check.  


      House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig–published 2019–YAL fantasy/retellings–two stars:  Another freaking retelling???? I’m smarter than my August book choices, promise. A reimagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Again, no character development. Book lovers, throw a four or five star read my way soon like a life preserver. I’m drowning in a salty sea of terrible writing and its sorrows. 


      The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin–published 2020–fantasy–four stars:  Thank. God. Leave it to Jemisin to rescue me. I loved this more than Jemisin’s The Fifth Season. Each borough of NYC manifests as a person, and those people must find each other in order to save the city from alternate universes. While the writing glows, the judgments and themes further illuminate Jemisin’s voice. Take a look:  Innocence is nothing but a ceremony, after all. So strange that you people venerate it the way you do. What other world celebrates not knowing anything about how life really works? And But these people are always gonna tell themselves that a little fascism is okay as long as they can still get unlimited drinks with brunch! Don’t get me wrong, the novel is slow at first because it focuses on establishing the different characters and what they are doing when outside forces attack the city. It gets explain-y too at times when I didn’t think that certain plot points needed further clarification; I mean, it is a fantasy. Reading funk–officially over!


      God Is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens–published 2007–nonfiction–three stars:  He fails to outline any new arguments in his position, and his tone is just so damn disdainful of believers. 


      You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson–published 2020–YAL LGBT romance–three stars:  Moment of honesty:  I can see the appeal to teenage readers here, and that’s why I rounded up. Liz, a band nerd, has gotten into the school of her dreams but didn’t get a much-needed scholarship. At her rich, suburban Indiana high school, prom is a big deal, and king and queen win not just crowns, but big buck scholarships as well. So, she decides to run for prom queen despite the odds against her. At the first meeting, she meets Mack, a new girl also running for court, and Liz is smitten-smacked. So where do I start? This high school is ridiculous. What high school makes prom a scholarship pageant? At one point, Guy Fieri caters an event (maybe prom itself? I can’t remember) . . . I mean, come on! The school has its own social media app, lording over Snapchat and TikTok and the like, just like in Tweet Cute. Also, is this a thing now? Where individual high schools have their own apps that trump mainstream social media? Also, Mack just so happens to be cousins with a member of Liz’s favorite band. And they just so happen to go on their first date to that favorite band’s show and then later on in the novel the lead singer surprises Liz at school. And all that just fits too nicely. And, what new girl runs for prom court? The people who run the school are idiots, and I hate seeing that repeatedly in YAL. And it took me forever to read this book because I just wasn’t that invested in it. The writing is cute-ish though, and Liz and Mack’s relationship will be relatable to high schoolers. And this cover? Swoon!


      Brunch and Other Obligations by Suzanne Nugent–published 2020–contemporary fiction–four stars:  The title had me at brunch despite the fact I’m not a huge fan of that whole let’s-combine-two-meals-into-one-on-the-weekends-meal vibe. Stop your gasping. If you had the stomach problems I do, you’d feel the same way. Brunch menus are limited and often revolve around gluten, making it damn near impossible for me to find a meal that I can actually eat AND fill me up, and Bloody Marys are the worst (fighting words I know) and mimosas give me heartburn to rival a pregnant woman’s who’s carrying a baby with a headful of hair. Anyway, when their mutual friend Molly dies, three women who grew up together but barely tolerate each other respect their friend’s last wishes and eat brunch together once a month. Because it’s light-hearted and funny, I’ll overlook its predictability. It gets a bottomless-beer cheers from me. 


      The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue–published 2020–historical fiction–three stars: In Ireland during the 1918 flu outbreak, Julia works as a nurse in a large hospital in a small unit where pregnant women with the flu are treated. The first day takes up around 50 percent of the book and moves at a glacier’s pace. I might be mistaken, but the novel doesn’t possess a plot. However, it’s so very readable, and the last 30 percent makes up for a draggy first half. Unfortunately, it doesn’t use quotation marks to indicate dialogue. Vomit emoji.


      Want by Lynn Steger Strong–published 2020–contemporary fiction–four stars: Despite having rich parents and being Ivy League-educated, Elizabeth and her husband struggle to make ends meet for their family while living in New York City. I loved how deep this novel dived into Elizabeth’s mind and how it explored her complicated friendship with her best friend from home Sasha. It felt like it needed more editing, and then on closer inspection, I liked its rambly stream of consciousness. Strong did a nice job portraying the ins and outs of charter school teaching in a big city (not that I’ve ever worked in one, but it’s how I envision it). I don’t know if I would recommend this to everyone, but if you err more on the side of literary, it’s worth the read. 


      Pericles by William Shakespeare–drama/classics–three stars:  Not his best? Pericles, a king, thinks his wife dies during childbirth, so she receives a pirate’s burial. She washes ashore on a distant land still alive. After his wife’s supposed death, Pericles leaves his newborn daughter with a trusting family in a different foreign land. After the girl grows up, the family tries to have her murdered, but pirates kidnap her instead. When Pericles returns to check on her, he’s told she’s dead. Then at the end, they’re all reunited like the whole thing isn’t completely implausible anyway . . . 


      The Bird and the Sword (The Bird and the Sword Chronicles #1) by Amy Harmon–fantasy–published 2016–four stars:  Because of a curse before her mother’s murder, Lark can’t speak, but with her inner voice, she can bend animals, nature, and inanimate objects to her will. Living in a world where magic is banned, her silence keeps her safe. When the king absconds with her to ensure her father’s fealty against battling unnatural magical creatures that threaten the kingdom, she must find her voice to keep the realm safe. My friend from high school pointed me in Harmon’s direction, and I must say, Harmon’s writing is magic and a welcome reprieve. What prevented this from five-star status? A predictable storyline. 


      As always, I welcome discussion!

      (All cover art taken from Goodreads.)

      Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged book reviewer, book reviews, mini book reviews
    • A Teacher Tale: Holy Shit the Students Come Next Week

      Posted at 9:39 am by Jeddarae, on August 8, 2020

      Monday is the first in-person learning day for my students. Wednesday is my first day teaching both virtual and in-person learners at the same time. 

      [Gulps. Takes a deep breath. Sings to herself “Everything’s gonna be alright. Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye. Everything’s gonna be alright. Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye.”]

      shawnmullins

      https://tenor.com/view/good-cold-morning-lullaby-shawn-mullins-gif-15555338

      I can’t express to you how utterly mush-for-brained and overwhelmed I am right now (as are all teachers at this point). I’m going to be spending my weekend curled up in a little ball of denial on my couch singing real lullabies to myself, not the 90s rock variety, conserving brainpower and energy for the Herculean task of navigating in-person and virtual teaching simultaneously next week. 

      Can I do it? Absolutely, but you better be damn sure I’m gonna fuck it up spectacularly for a while–because I have to do eighty million and five things at one time. 

      My teacher desk set up includes three different computers. I can’t even count to three right now without needing a break between two and three. I’ve got Computer #1 hooked up to my SmartBoard that I’ll be running a Google Meet on for my virtual learners. Computer #2 I’m using to join the Google Meet, so I can interact with my virtual learners. Computer #3 is in charge of ALL OF THE OTHER THINGS. 

      I’ve got my Britney Spears headset (I don’t know how to use it yet, but, whatevs.), and you better believe that I’m gonna pretend that I’m a pop star while donning it. 

      britney

      https://tenor.com/view/britney-spears-turn-around-smiles-pretty-gif-15473483

      And I’ll probably get distracted by it to the point where I forget that I’m supposed to be teaching and operating three different computers at the same time and making sure that the students who are physically present are behaving and learning and healthy and socially distancing and wearing their masks and not-convinced-that-Mrs.-Ram-is-mentally-unstable. (Who am I kidding? I want them convinced that I’m insane.)

      So, there’s all that. 

      Plus, can we talk about my BIGGEST concern for this school year? How am I going to pull all of this off without dropping expletives like a sailor while I’m doing it? For realz. I’m doomed. So. So. So. Fucking. Doomed. Fuck.

      (I joke. I joke. But seriously. I’m doomed. My cursing has gotten a smidge out of control as of late.)

      Think happy thoughts for all teachers and students as the school year starts.

      We need all the good juju you can throw our way.  

      phoebe

      https://tenor.com/view/bad-juju-dont-want-that-bad-juju-friends-phoebe-buffay-lisa-kudrow-gif-13642805

      And throw some other stuff our way too if you can–like soap, Lysol, Clorox wipes, etc. You could literally throw a bottle of liquid Dial handsoap and hit me with it in the face, and I would thank you for the abuse as long as you were donating the handsoap to my classroom.

       

       

       

      Posted in teaching, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments | Tagged english teacher, school, teaching, teaching middle school
    • Mini Book Reviews July 2020

      Posted at 8:52 am by Jeddarae, on August 1, 2020

      I had a fantastic reading month. So many good reads.

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      An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes #1) by Sabaa Tahir–published 2016–YAL fantasy–four stars:  Considering I’ve been let down more often than not in recent months with YAL fantasy, this was a much-needed surprise. When Laia’s grandparents are murdered and her brother is taken captive by the Empire, Laia joins forces with the Resistance, becoming a slave and a spy to free her brother. A cadet named Elias, the bastard son of the vicious Commandant, wants nothing more to escape his fate, but soon discovers that destiny has other plans for him, including colliding with Laia. As a fantasy reader, the first couple of chapters are always the hardest for me. It’s difficult to orient myself in a made-up world, and if I can’t find solid footing after committing myself to 10 percent of the book, I often give up. At first, this book’s minimal worldbuilding took a bit too long to establish itself, but once I crossed the threshold, I was quickly swept up by the tale. The writing isn’t anything fancy, and the whole in-love-with-the-enemy-archetype is used, but the story twists and enchants anyway. Towards the book’s last 25 percent, the chapters end on crescendoing cliffhangers, and what’s not to love about that?

      An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)

      Pushout:  The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris–published 2016–nonfiction–four stars:  Morris delineates how the education system fails to meet the needs of Black girls and how often they get overlooked because there’s so much emphasis on Black boys. She critiques schools’ zero-tolerance and uniform policies, schools’ lack of mental health services, teachers’ approaches to discipline, etc. This book breaks my heart because it further highlights how entrenched systemic racism is in the current educational model. All schools and teachers need to approach discipline through the lens of intersectionality, and more mental health services need to be provided for students so they can find success in the classroom instead of being criminalized by a system that fails to meet their needs. When will this country start shoveling money into public schools?

      Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

      Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas–published 2020–contemporary fiction–three stars:  What a strange, strange little book.  Catherine House is like an Ivy League school, but it’s not. It’s super selective, but its students are misfits and drunks. It’s prestigious and beautiful, but it’s crumbling. The curriculum is challenging, but it’s nonlinear and overlapping. At first, Ines struggles to find meaning while navigating the mysterious campus and can feel that something deeper, more sinister, lies at the heart of the school. A selective group of students focuses their work on plasm, and Ines becomes obsessed with it, even though it’s not her focus of study. Eventually, the mystery behind plasm and Catherine House reveals itself, forcing Ines to make the one choice she doesn’t want to have to make. This book has so much potential, but . . . the plot meanders and takes a really long time to come together, probably because it takes place over such a long time frame. The storyline could have been tidier if it had taken place over a year instead of three. For such a complicated, unconventional adult story, the Lexile level came off as lower middle grade. If you’re big into atmosphere, I could see you really enjoying this book, but for the most part, it doesn’t have mass appeal.

      Catherine House

      Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism:  And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee–published 2018–political nonfiction–four stars:  An interesting argument on how capitalism commodifies and inhibits women from achieving financial freedom from men. In a capitalistic society that runs on women’s unpaid work and stereotypical gender roles instead of providing appropriate public social assistance programs that help women get access to birth control and pay for costly child care, women can never truly be free nor truly enjoy sex. I’m interested in learning more about sexual economics theory.

      Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence

      The Marriage Game by Sara Desai–published 2020–romance–two stars:  After a breakup with an influencer and a viral retaliation video, Layla moves from NYC back to Cali to start her own personnel business. Her parents who own a Michelin-starred Indian restaurant have the perfect office space for her in their building, but Layla’s dad leased the space to Sam, a former doctor turned corporate for-hire-to-fire man. Layla refuses to give up the space, and Sam, instantly attracted to Layla’s sass and curves, decides to let her stay put, as long as she lets him help her weed her way through a list of potential husbands from an arranged marriage website. A cute concept hides in this book, but the third person omniscient narration obscures it. The narrative jumps around and has gaps. When Layla goes on her dates with potential husbands, Sam tags along, and they both hold conversations with one another like the third person isn’t there. Every man that Layla goes on a date with is a stereotype. At the end of the novel, Sam hasn’t learned anything and is still an asshat when it comes to his sister, but he gets the girl–and isn’t that the only thing that matters in a romance novel at the end?

      The Marriage Game

      Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan–published 2020–contemporary fiction/romance–two stars:  Kwan can do wrong. Sex and Vanity fails to rise to the juicy, dishy vivaciousness of the Crazy Rich Asian series. The end.

      Sex and Vanity

      A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2) by Sabaa Tahir–published 2016–YAL fantasy–four stars:  Book two picks up right where the first left off, maintaining a breakneck pace through the first several chapters. Helene’s first-person perspective is introduced into the narrative alongside Laia’s and Elias’s. Book two isn’t quite as good as the first one, worrying me about where the storyline is going to go in the next two books. The plot in the middle of the book felt like boring filler, which I find tends to happen with longish YAL fantasy reads, but the pace picked up again towards the books’ end. In contrast to the pace, the magic reveals itself slowly, which tortures me. When I’m reading fantasy, I expect magic, magic, magic. The Commandant’s spy is revealed, and who it is is an interesting twist. I’ve got high hopes for book three.

      A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)

      Braving the Wilderness:  The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown–published 2017–nonfiction/self-help–four stars:  Somehow, the universe knew when to place this book in my hands. I could hear the lyrics of my favorite the Chicks song, “The Long Way Around,” buzzing around in the soundtrack of my mind the whole I time I was reading:

      Well, I fought with a stranger, and I met myself
      I opened my mouth, and I heard myself
      It can get pretty lonely when you show yourself
      Guess I could have made it easier on myself
      But I, I could never follow
      No, I, I could never follow.
      Brown offers powerful insight on how to stand firm in personal beliefs amid a world that’s forgotten the rules of civility. If you’re disenchanted with the state of politics and social media, pick up this book.

      Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

      Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan–published 2020–contemporary fiction–three stars:  Elisabeth, a new mother and an author, hires Sam, a student at an all women’s college, to watch her baby three days a week while she writes her next book. Despite their age difference, the two women become close. Elisabeth meddles in Sam’s life, and Sam envies Elisabeth’s privilege. I’m conflicted here. Friends and Strangers parallels Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age in so many ways–highlighting themes ranging from racism, ageism, elitism, etc.–but it lacks the humor and the depth that Such a Fun Age achieves. Sullivan covers so many topics–new motherhood, capitalism, cattiness, influencers, IVF, Facebook forums and on and on–through her characters’ conversations, but it’s presented in a way that’s already been done before. There is no fresh take. And while she writes with ease, the sentences are short, as are the paragraphs, and sometimes plot events are just listed in a paragraph consisting of a sentence or two before moving on to the next one. I did like how Sullivan switches out of the present narrative to describe past events and does so frequently, which is refreshing. And I liked how even though this is told from Sam’s and Elisabeth’s third-person limited perspectives, it felt like I was reading a story in the first person. Maybe if I hadn’t read Such a Fun Age first, I would have enjoyed this more.

      Friends and Strangers

      The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich–published 2020–historical fiction–three stars:  Set In 1953 on a Chippewa reservation in North Dakota, Thomas works as a night watchman for a factory. When he receives notification that Congress is posing a bill that would take the reservation away from them, he devises a way for community members to travel to Washington D.C. to speak out against it. A young woman named Patrice, Thomas’s niece, works in the plant but takes some time off to travel to Minneapolis to look for her sister who’s missing, getting kidnapped upon stepping off the train in the city and swept up with the same shady business circle that her sister found herself in. Patrice escapes, returning without her sister but with something just as dear, changed by her time in the city. I adored Patrice as well as Wood Mountain and the wide range of characters and their development. Erdrich speckles the pages with deep, well-written thoughts like: Things started going wrong, as far as Zhaanat was concerned, when places everywhere were named for people–political figures, priests, explorers–and not for the real things that happened in these places–the dreaming, the eating, the death, the appearance of animals. I saw refreshing historical vernacular like “gadabout” and “toothsome,” which I’m totally stealing and am going to try to bring both of them back into fashion. Think I can get my 8th graders to start describing their crushes as toothsome instead of snacks? But, she structured the book in such a way that it detracted from the story. You’re not only privy to Patrice’s and Thomas’s stories as the focus of the third person narration, but at least 15 other characters as well— including a ghost and a couple of horses that ditch the homecoming parade to mate. The chapters are short and told from MOSTLY one perspective and then switch to a new point of view in the next, making it hard to get invested in any one character’s story at a time. Then other parts of the story are told in the first person, and another part is like a transcript. Verdict:  too many perspectives and too many different structures. Also, I found my eyes glazing over, like Thomas’s from lack of sleep while he’s on night watch, while reading about him on night watch. This book is based on the real-life events surrounding Erdrich’s own grandfather, and the story is totally interesting, but the structure will make the book inaccessible and unpalatable for some.

      The Night Watchman

      Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia–published 2020–historical fiction/horror–four stars:  The Haunting of Hill House meets Jane Eyre with hints of “The Yellow Wallpaper.”  In Mexico during the 1950s, gorgeous, headstrong Noemí gets sent from Mexico City by her father to check on her married cousin Catalina, who has sent a disturbing letter, in a remote part of the country. When Noemí arrives at High Place, the house itself and its inhabits exhibit strange behavior, and Noemí starts having terrible dreams. Determined to rescue her cousin, Noemí refuses to leave until she can escape with Catalina. My only criticism of this novel is that it could have been creepier. Moreno-Garcia layers on repetition, much like Shirley Jackson does in The Haunting of Hill House, subtly at first but oh so effectively. It was nice to watch the imagery of the ouroboros, mushrooms, fairy tales, the color yellow, etc. build into the narrative. At times you don’t know what’s real versus what’s a dream. This was just so well done and such a welcome break in the monotony of a mediocre adult fiction reading streak for me.

      Mexican Gothic

      We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie–published 2014–nonfiction–four stars:  Based on her TEDx talk on the same topic, Adichie provides her own insights on feminism. I’ve been reading oodles of feminist literature this year, and this short essay reiterates ideas outlined in what I’ve already read. If you’re just getting into feminist literature though, this might be a good starting point for you. I did like what she had to say here:  Because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the most important attribute for survival; the physically stronger person was more likely to lead. And men in general are physically stronger. (There are of course many exceptions.) Today, we live in a vastly different world. The person more qualified to lead is not the physically stronger person. It is the more intelligent, the more knowledgeable, the more creative, more innovative. And there are no hormones for those attributes. A man is as likely as a woman to be intelligent, innovative, creative. We have evolved. But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much.

      We Should All Be Feminists

      The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams–published 1944–play–three stars:  I needed to read something in a legitimate honest-to-god book. I’d read 80 ebooks in a row, and I was starting to read books differently. Lucky for me, I have a book that belonged to my grandmother that’s four of Willaims’s plays. I jumped into The Glass Menagerie thinking that I’d never encountered it before, but I quickly realized that I must have read it long ago as it became increasingly familiar. It was pretty okay. I’m going to tackle A Streetcar Named Desire next when I need to touch paper again.

      The Glass Menagerie

      A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight–published 2020–thriller–four stars:  When an old law school friend calls Lizzie collect from Rikers wanting her to represent him because he’s about to be charged with his wife’s murder, Lizzie doesn’t want to get involved but promises him that she’ll find a lawyer to defend him. After bringing it up with her boss, Lizzie decides to take on the case, believing in Zach’s innocence, but as she digs deeper, she uncovers a hidden ugliness in her old friend’s life and the truth of the crime. Alternating with Lizzie’s perspective, Amanda’s story is told as it leads up to her death. I really, really, really enjoyed this thriller, a thriller miracle for me. The title is multilayered. Multiple storylines and twists come together nicely. I couldn’t put this book down the last 40 percent of it. However, the writing isn’t anything spectacular, and there were a couple of loose ends. I bet this book is going to be Goodreads’s best thriller of 2020.

      A Good Marriage

      One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London–published 2020–contemporary fiction/romance–four stars:  [Whispers to herself] I will not overanalyze or overthink this read. [A little bit louder now] I will not overanalyze or overthink this read. As a plus-size fashion blogger, Bea is used to internet trolls bashing her. But when she becomes Main Squeeze’s new leading lady, think a cheesier version of The Bachelor, after writing a blog post about the show’s lack of body diversity that goes viral, America and the internet can’t decide if they love her or hate her. Determined not to fall in love on set, Bea shuts down, even though the cast is made up of hunky men. She questions whether they really could fall in love with a girl like her. If you’re looking for something light-hearted and easy to escape into, this is the book for you.

      One to Watch

      The Swap by Robyn Harding–published 2020–thriller–three stars:  At the beginning of the year, I found novels with influencer main characters a novelty. Now, I’m so over it. If I read one more book this year that has a self-centered, stunning influencer as a main character I might consider a reading strike. Freya, a former influencer, lives with her former professional hockey player husband in a glass house in the woods. But this couple is no Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher. A little lonely, Freya makes friends with a teenaged Low, to whom she gives pottery classes. Low becomes obsessed with Freya and is furious when she makes another friend, Jaime. When Jaime and her husband go over to Freya’s house to do shrooms as a double date (is this, like, a thing?), the night gets out of control when some good, old-fashioned partner swapping occurs. Emotions run high, and the ugly truth behind Freya and her husband’s marriage comes to light. Since when is partner swapping such a thing in books? Maybe it’s just a thriller thing? I mean A Good Marriage featured some swinging too. So here’s the deal:  I didn’t hate this thriller, but it wasn’t anything fantastic.

      The Swap

      Why We Can’t Sleep:  Women’s New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun–published 2020–feminist nonfiction–four stars: To prepare for my impending midlife crisis–hopefully it’s still a good decade away–I decided to read up on what to expect. While this book focuses on Gen Xers, this millennial totally related to the content. This book is particularly great because it features the voices of so many different women and lets other women know that they’re not alone.

      Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis

      The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett–published 2020–historical fiction–five stars:  Raised in a small Louisiana Black community, light-skinned twin sisters Stella and Desiree run away to New Orleans to escape the small-mindedness of their town. The twins’ lives diverge there, Desiree moving to Washington D.C. after Stella runs away without saying goodbye. Desiree marries an abusive man and escapes back home with her daughter Jude. Although Desiree doesn’t want to stay in Mallard, she moves back in with her mother, enrolling Jude in school, where Judes suffers for years in a hostile environment because she’s darker than the other Black children. Stella, meanwhile, makes the decision to pass as white and marries a banker, and even though she’s wealthy and has everything she could ever ask for, her lies haunt her. She too has a daughter, and Stella’s and Desiree’s girls eventually cross paths, forcing the twins to confront their pasts and their mistakes. Bennett is masterful at weaving in and out of different decades and perspectives. I loved how the two generations’ stories interlaced. Add. This. Book. To. Your. TBR. Now. This is the best fiction I’ve read all year.

      The Vanishing Half

      Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff–published 2019–YAL science fiction–three stars: Read Brian Sanderson’s Skyward instead. There are so many eerie parallels between Skyward and Aurora Rising. Both feature female protagonists with latent, world-saving powers, space fighting, and quippy AIs–just to mention a few. Aurora Rising has too many narrators and not enough worldbuilding. Despite this, I can understand why teenagers would like it, but I won’t be recommending it to my students.

      Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1)

      (All cover art taken from Goodreads.)

       

      Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 4 Comments | Tagged book reviews, books, mini book reviews
    • A Little Thing Tale: How Can She Be So Big and So Impossibly Little?

      Posted at 1:06 pm by Jeddarae, on July 25, 2020

      She’s big enough now, on tippy-toes and on ever-lengthening legs, to swipe her allergy medicine off the lazy Susan from the upper cabinet that’s to the left of the stainless steel stove. She’s grown taller and stronger but no matter how hard she presses down on the liquid Xyzal’s child-proofed, plastic cap, she’s unable to master its removal. She sighs in frustration while I think . . . When will her dexterity match her determination? Did her hair grow long enough to reach the tops of her legs, or did her legs grow long enough to reach her hair? How can she be so big and so impossibly little? 

      She interrupts my thoughts, asking, “Mom, is there going to be any fires?” 

      She sniffs her medicine, crinkles her nose, and laps the Xyzal tentatively, wary of the medicine although she takes it nightly.  

      “No sweet girl,” I reply before she careens down the dim, narrow hallway–arms outstretched to alternate touching both sides of the hallway as she goes, ricocheting like a bowling ball off bumpers–to brush her teeth. Her hair, tangled and bleached a light summer brown, drifts behind her, torturing the gray tabby kitty following her. She casts a mischievous smile, a plea that sifts twinkles into her brown sugar eyes, over her shoulder down at the cat.

      Before she disappears around the corner, the kitten capitalizes on the plea, bowling into her. He jumps, swiping at her hair. 

      “Suny! Stop it!” she shrieks, affronted, sounding more like a teenage girl whose little brother has ruined her Instagram worthy ponytail by pulling it than a little thing admonishing a naughty kitten. 

      And I think . . . How can she be so big and so impossibly little?

      She brushes her teeth, changes into her nightgown, climbs into her bed. While I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to her, the cat bats around a stray Lego, distracting us both. 

      It’s her turn to play a song while I braid her hair. “Alexa, play ‘Rain On Me’ by Lady Gaga,” she instructs her Amazon Echo Dot. I start on her right side, combing back her locks with my fingers, dividing it into three sections. I waterfall it three times before grabbing a crunchy section, tacky and wafting hints of apples into the air.

      “Did you get applesauce in your hair today?” I ask, ditching the braid and starting over. A whole pouch of applesauce must be ensconced in half her hair. 

      “No, I got it all over my dress.” She says, rolling her eyes. 

      “Did you clean it up?”

      “No.”

      “Did your hair touch the front of your dress today?”

      “Maybe.”

      “So where do you think the spilled applesauce went?”

      Realization dawns in her eyes. “My hair?”

      “Next time, clean up after yourself, and put your hair behind your shoulders while you’re eating,” I suggest, barely disguised laughter in my tone.

      She shakes her head yes in response and, in time with the poppy dance music playing in the background, croons, “Rain on me, tsunami.” 

      I shake my head at her and leave her hair loose. It’ll be even more of a disaster in the morning, but I can’t waste any more energy dealing with it.

      “Would you rather have applesauce in your hair or open the Chamber of Secrets?” she asks.

      “Totally have applesauce in my hair.”  A crooked smile steals across my face. “What about you?”

      “Samesies!” she giggles. 

      She curls up into a ball on her bed, surrounded by stuffed animals and stuffed animal-shaped pillows, and I pull her fluffy pink comforter up to her chin. She reaches for her favorite plushie, a small gray and white striped kitty with a turquoise glitter bow and waterfall-colored, glassy eyes. 

      “You know what you forgot to do today?” I ask.

      “What?”

      “Feed the invisible chickens in the front yard.”

      “Mom,” she draws the word out, making it two syllables, “How many times do I have to tell you? Invisible chickens don’t exist.”

      “And how many times do I have to tell you that just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there? How can you keep letting out pets starve?” I feign distress.

      The incredulity dissipates from her face like a balloon slowly leaking air. How much longer can I keep this charade up? I want her to picture invisible chickens pecking around free-range, clucking, and happy with the palm trees and our house in the background forever.

      “I don’t believe you,” she whispers, more dubious than assertive. 

      “I guess I’ll just have to feed them after I finish tucking you in.” 

      I kiss her forehead. My lips accidentally brushing the spot where she dabbed it with holy water.

      “Good night, sweet girl,” I say while turning off the lights, checking to see that I’ve positioned her nightlight’s reflection properly on the wall so she can make shadow puppets until she falls asleep.

      “Mommy,” she calls, tacking on the M and the Y because she’s more little than big in the dark. “I know I already asked, but is there going to be any fires?” 

      “No sweet girl. But you know what to do if there is one. Go to sleep. I need to go feed the invisible chickens.” 

      I close her door halfway and pause. She has both hands raised above her, thumbs hooked and twisted, fingers splayed wide open and fluttering–creating a shadow butterfly on the wall. Her tongue sticks out her mouth’s left side, and she bites down on it in concentration, just like she did when she was a chubby toddler building towers out of blocks. My breath hitches because she’s still impossibly little, if only for a little while longer.  

       

       

       

      Posted in kids, Uncategorized, writing | 8 Comments | Tagged harry potter, kids, parenting, writing
    • A Poem: Thin Air

      Posted at 10:23 am by Jeddarae, on July 18, 2020

      you’re thin air
      i need an oxygen mask
      because you’re blowing thin air
      i gasp and i gasp and i gasp
      and i sigh

      because i can’t breathe your thin air

      you’re breathing in lies and breathing out lines
      i can no longer ignore the signs
      when you’re weaving thick lies out of thin air

      your thin air is under pressure
      your thick lies are under pressure
      think you can press my face into the gas
      for your pleasure

      i can’t breathe because you’re pressing my face into the gas for your pleasure

      i’m under pressure
      i’m under pressure
      and i’ve got one question to ask
      for good measure

      how can you be so cold when you’re full of hot air?

      i gasp and i gasp and i gasp
      and i sigh

      if i stay here a moment longer
      i’ll disappear into thin air
      but my lungs are getting stronger

      My lungs have gotten stronger.
      I won’t stay a moment longer.

      Because I can’t breathe your hot air.
      No more oxygen masks
      because I’m through with thin air.

      You’re out of thin air.
      My lungs have gotten stronger.

      And you’ve disappeared into thin air.

      white clouds in pink and blue clouds

      Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

      Posted in poems, poetry, Uncategorized, writing | 4 Comments | Tagged out of thin air, poem, poems, poetry, thin air
    • A Teacher Tale: A Mini-Lesson on Evaluating Resources and Building Arguments (What You’ve Forgotten and What You’re Doing Wrong)

      Posted at 1:26 pm by Jeddarae, on July 11, 2020

      Hey every adult on social media! Every. Single. Person. Not just the right. Not just the left. Not just the Karens. Not just the Chads. Not just the Boomers. Not just the Millenials. Every. Single. Person.

      You would fail the argumentative units taught in middle schools and high schools across the country. If your Facebook arguments were essays handed into English teachers and if the articles you’re sharing were the resources you’d use to support those arguments, English teachers would return your think pieces to you with glaring red Fs, inked in the upper right-hand corner and circled for emphasis.

      Okay, so everybody wouldn’t fail (Hello, glaring flaw in reasoning!)– but if you want people to listen to your opinions about controversial topics, it can’t hurt to revisit the basic rules of how to evaluate resources and build an argument.

      So can you take five minutes and listen to me–a woman with 14 years of teaching experience in middle and high schools who holds an English degree from the University of Illinois and a master’s in Secondary English Curriculum and Instruction from Louisiana State University–about what you’re doing wrong and then reevaluate your thinking? It’s the same process my eighth graders go through whenever I give them feedback.

      What You’re Getting Wrong About Evaluating Resources and Building Arguments

      1. Stop writing off vetted and reliable news organizations and media resources because of a minuscule amount of bias. It’s important to recognize bias and if particular outlets lean left or right, but that’s just one step in the complicated process of evaluating resources and arguments. Does it lean slightly left? Does it lean slightly right? That’s not enough to discredit the facts or information presented in the source. Now if a resource or news organization is heavily biased then disregard it. You’ve seen those news bias charts floating around (you can take a look at a couple of different ones here and here). And what’s alarming is some Americans–both conservatives and liberals–are choosing to get their news from the most outrageously biased sources they can find instead of looking at minimally biased news sources on both sides of the political spectrum. If you handed in an argumentative essay to me and most of your citations were from these online news sources—The Huffington Post, The New Republic, BuzzFeed News, Daily Kos, Alternet, Occupy Democrats, Palmer Report, Patribotics, The Federalist, The New York Post, The Daily Mail, Fox News, The Daily Wire, Newsmax, RedState, The Blaze, InfoWars, WorldTruth.TV, The National Enquirer, and so many others–these heavily biased resources would weaken your entire argument, potentially causing you to fail the assignment. Might there be grains of truth and facts in these resources? Maybe, but you shouldn’t have to dig through skewed information and inflammatory language for it. Also, please recognize any argument any person makes will be biased–because that person is trying to prove a point regarding a debatable issue. (And P.S., some of you don’t use the word bias and its forms correctly within sentences–which further detracts from your argument. Bias is a noun. Biased is an adjective. Examples of correct usage:  The article has bias. An article is biased. The biased article weakens your argument. Your bias is showing. Examples of incorrect usage:  Another bias article is posted on Facebook. An article is bias because it’s hyper-partisan. The bias argument is faulty.)
      2. And what about that complicated evaluation process? You have to consider multiple factors when evaluating a news source. Unfortunately, it’s not an exact science, and sometimes you can’t discredit a source for one factor alone. When looking for facts and data to back up arguments, consider these things:  is the information true, does it give a list of resources, is it opinion, is it propaganda, is the information current, is the information written by an expert or are expert sources used within the resource (authority), is the information published by an accredited institution, does it address counterarguments, is it based in fact, is there inflammatory language, are there flaws in reasoning, does the site work well, is the website free from errors, is the website organized easily, AND/OR is there a minimal amount of bias? Look at these things when evaluating sources. Is any single resource going to meet all the above criteria? Maybe? Maybe not? Weigh its merits before deciding to use it. Now let’s inspect some of the more important points made here.
      3. Is the information true and based in fact, data, and logical reasoning?  If you use a resource that gives inaccurate information (Can you find the same information on multiple, reliable resources?), it renders the entire resource and your argument invalid. You cannot argue with facts; they speak for themselves. I repeat–facts are not debatable. 
      4. Is the information up-to-date? I cannot stress this enough. When using resources to back up your point, use the most recent information available. Let’s examine the controversy surrounding masks. At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in March, Dr. Fauci, the nation’s foremost expert in infectious diseases, said to not wear a mask in a 60 Minutes interview. This clip, widely circulated via YouTube and Facebook, is still being used to back up people’s arguments for not wearing a mask. However, this is old news because as doctors and scientists have learned more about how this brand new virus spreads and how to treat it, they have changed their recommendations to wearing a mask. Dr. Fauci and other experts now say everyone should wear one in public based on the current research. Yes, information and recommendations can change that quickly. Adjust your wheelhouse to new information and stop clinging to outdated data. Let me put it to you like this, up until the 19th century, doctors used to bleed patients as treatment. Hey, got pneumonia? A sore throat? Let’s drain you of your blood to help you get better! Let’s make you super weak to fight this infection! Sounds ludicrous right? (Sidebar:  On the day he died, George Washington woke up with a sore throat, and as a treatment, his doctors drained 40 percent of the blood from his body.) Do doctors still use this practice? NO! Because it’s been proven ineffective and choosing to still practice it would be negligent. Now that was a super long time ago, but just like I wouldn’t want a doctor draining my blood to treat coronavirus, I wouldn’t want doctors to use treatments on me from three months ago–when they didn’t know much about the virus. When scientists and doctors are presented with new information that proves old information wrong, they change their previous stances. You need to do so as well. Take a little time. Dig around on Google. Check to see the date the information was originally published or if it’s been updated recently. Stop spreading old news as new news. If you use old information, it renders your entire argument invalid.
      5. Is the information written by an expert on the topic, and does that resource have the authority to give you the information? Am I an infectious disease expert? No. Are you an infectious disease expert? Probably not. And no amount of googling will make you or me one. Trust what people who have degrees and have studied topics extensively are telling you and then use their expertise to back up your argument. At this point, you might be thinking, Mrs. Ram, you’ve just obliterated your own authority, but I didn’t. What’s my expertise? What are my credentials? As pointed out above, I have authority when it comes to literature, writing, and 14 years of teaching both. So do I have the authority and expertise to discuss with you how to evaluate resources and arguments? Yes. But, just like I tell my students, don’t ask for my expertise about Huey Long’s assassination, why the sky is blue, or how to figure out that algebraic equation—because I’m not an expert on those topics. Here’s another example. Would you want your cancer treated by a hospital administrator, a general practitioner, a gastroenterologist, or an oncologist? This seems like a no brainer, right? So why choose articles, listen to speeches, or elevate arguments from people who are in leadership positions who ignore experts when it comes to mask-wearing and COVID-19? Why choose a resource about anti-mask-wearing or about how coronavirus-is-a-hoax penned by a plastic surgeon, gastroenterologist, rheumatologist, or even a general practitioner over experts even more knowledgable? Just like I don’t want my ulcerative colitis treated by my dermatologist, I don’t want my information about coronavirus from anyone but an expert. Again, dig. Who wrote the information that you’re reading? Do they have the authority to tell you this information, and if they don’t, did they gather that information that they’re providing from other expert sources? 
      6. Is there inflammatory language? If you want people to listen to your argument, limit or refrain from using language that insults and angers the people you’re trying to persuade. Choose resources that practice this as well. That negative language will work on people who already agree with you, but it won’t on the people who don’t. Were you offended when I told you at the beginning that you’d fail an argumentative unit? I did it on purpose to show you how negative language can affect an argument. 
      7. And finally, just liking or loving a person or an entity is not enough to use them as a resource. A good solid argument is based on facts, data, and logical reasoning and can be strengthened by using emotional and ethical appeals. If it’s built only using emotional and/or ethical appeals, disregard the argument.

      Y’all. I didn’t even touch flaws in reasoning, but you can read more about that here. 

      You might not like me now or the information presented here. You might have caught on to some flaws in my logic (feel free to point them out to me). But that’s not enough to discredit the basic rules of how to evaluate resources and how to build an argument that I presented to you. 

      Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you dislike what I told you. If your argument isn’t grounded in facts, statistics, data, and logical reasoning and isn’t backed up by credible, reliable, trustworthy resources, you don’t have an argument and people aren’t going to consider what you have to say. Because you’re wrong and you’re choosing to ignore or argue with information that can’t be argued with.


       

      What I’m going to ask you to do now is to sit and reflect. How can you be better at choosing resources and building arguments? What do you need to rethink? How can we all be better about how we engage in persuasive discussions on the internet and in person? 

      Works Cited:  See links embedded in the post. 

      Posted in teaching, Uncategorized, writing | 0 Comments | Tagged argumentative writing, english teacher, evaluate an argument, how to build an argument, rhetorical appeals
    • Mini Book Reviews June 2020

      Posted at 11:27 am by Jeddarae, on July 3, 2020

      Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough–published 2020–thriller–two stars:  Setting a thriller in Savannah sounds like a sure bet. Spanish moss and haunted city squares seem like the perfect suspense recipe. Alas, this book doesn’t do its setting justice. Marcie, a former waitress who has married into the upper echelons of Southern society, befriends Keisha, a black British bombshell who is freshly married to Marcie’s husband’s law partner. There is some literal weird voodoo happening in this book, it’s too long, and the ending sucks. The end. Don’t read it.

      Dead to Her

      Godshot by Chelsea Bieker–published 2020–contemporary fiction–three stars: Ummmm, I’ve read tons of bizarre books, but this one might be the weirdest one of all. Fourteen-year-old Lacey May belongs to a cult. Her mother leaves her, and Lacey moves in with her Grandma Cherry, a woman who plays with taxidermied rodents and carries a cane made out of bull testicles. The writing is captivating. I had a hard time putting the novel down, but I also had a hard time with the child rape, the incest, and the teenage pregnancies. Other issues I had? I could go on and on. Lacey May works as a phone sex operator. A person getting away with shooting another person. All of the god glitter. Nobody in the town of Peaches stood up for the poor girls. Ultimately, I know this is a work of fiction and warns of believing in something blindly, but just because it’s readable doesn’t make it a four-star read.

      Godshot

      Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips–published 2019–fiction/mystery–four stars: This. Is. How. A. Mystery. Is. Done. Two girls vanish from a remote Russian city. Even though each chapter was told from a brand new character’s perspective and those characters didn’t seem like they had anything to do with the case, I didn’t even care. The girls’ disappearance was always lingering in the background. All of the characters’ lives overlapped by the end.  Not only did Philips do a phenomenal job laying out the starkness of the Russian setting and the corruption of the Russian government, but she also delved deep into societal obstacles that women still face. And the ending, gahhhhhhhh! Chills. Chills. Chills.

      Disappearing Earth

      Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin–published 2020–contemporary fiction/chick-lit–four stars: Clap your hands! Clap clap! Clap your hands! Clap clap! This book made me happy and I know it. Seriously. (I know I’m lame; I can’t help it.) Booted from a band just before making it big, Claire finds herself crooning toddler tunes for cash to a baby playgroup. During the playgroup, the Upper East Side mommies drink wine and enjoy the free samples that are heaped on their leader Whitney, a Momstagrammer. Claire forms an unlikely friendship with one of the moms named Amara, gets sucked into their group, and discovers the real reason why the mommies can do it all. Y’all. I found the writing hilarious. Hankin makes penning funny similies look easy and can turn that hilarious simile into a metaphor that lasts the whole paragraph. The women drop the F-bomb, and it’s refreshing to see it in writing. Even though the book is borderline far-fetched at the end, who cares? I needed this fun read.

      Happy & You Know It

       

      The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein–published 2017–nonfiction/history–four stars: Although this book is more than dry in a few spots, this is an important read, outlining just how pervasive systemic racism is in the United States. For example, I had no clue that the people responsible for the interstate system purposely routed it through Black suburban areas, destroying Black people’s homes and forcing them to move into over-crowded Black urban areas.

      The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

      Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore–published 2020–fiction/time travel–four stars: Moment of honesty: At first I couldn’t buy into this book. On New Year’s Eve the night before Oona’s 19th birthday at the stroke of midnight, Oona time travels to 2015, waking up disoriented and in an aged body. As it turns out, this happens every year at the same time, and Oona experiences her life out of order from year 19 on. If you can move past the unbelievable premise, apparently this only happens to Oona and nobody else, then you might enjoy this mashup of 50 First Dates, Back to the Future II, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

      Oona Out of Order

      You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe–published 2020–nonfiction/history–three stars: This is the first biography that I’ve read in years, and I’m dustier than a forefather’s boots after a hard ride on a horse when it comes to the American Revolution’s history. Aside from the catchy and borderline risqué title, the book’s quirky writing style fell off the proverbial saddle far too early in the ride. Coe skims the surface of what history readily teaches about Washington and his life, instead delving deep into the forgotten: the many illnesses he overcame, his life as a gentleman farmer, and the often neglected fact that American was founded on slave ownership and that Washington indeed owned slaves. It’s refreshing to see a book that gives the facts that are often left out of textbooks, but the book failed to hold my interest throughout.

      You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

      Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella–published 2020–mystery thriller–three stars: Despite Cadence’s brother’s suicide at Harvard during his senior year, Cadence decides to attend Harvard anyway that fall, partially for closure and for figuring out what led to her mentally ill brother’s death. When she starts to hear voices in her head, she begins to question her own sanity, but the voices can’t be ignored. Rant alert: If. I. See. One. More. Naturally. Born. Red-headed. Protagonist. In. The. Next. 50. Fiction. Books. I. Read. I. Might. Scream. Statistically, redheads only occur naturally in 1-2 percent of the world’s population, so why is there an inordinate number of them as female leads in novels? From this point forward, I’m adding an extra column to my book tracking spreadsheet to track this mathematically impossible proliferation of gingers in fiction. And before my soapbox gets too sudsy causing me to slip off, I’m over books set at the Ivies. I’m also over books where a high school protagonist only wants to get into the Ivies. And I’m going to extend my rant to all top twenty universities for that matter.  How about a little collegiate diversity? Guess where Serritella went to school? You get one guess. Now that I’ve rinsed off my lather, the ghosts were contrived, and I didn’t like the way the ghosts’ dialogue with Cadence was done. The book was too long. I disliked the storyline. At the end of the book, there was a five years later chapter and an epilogue after that. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times–#deathtotheepilogue.

      Ghosts of Harvard

      A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #1) by Holly Jackson–published 2019–YAL mystery/thriller–two stars: Pippa, a high school senior working on a capstone project, investigates the closed case murder of a teenage girl because Pippa doesn’t believe that the girl’s boyfriend, Sal, committed it. Where do I start with this trope-laden novel? How about the title? I can’t stomach the phrase “good girl” anymore. Hello, it’s 2020? What about feminism? The so-called good girl also breaks into a house and faces no consequences for it. Sounds a whole lot like white privilege to me. Jackson replaces character development with giving characters nicknames and terribly punny dialogue. This book should have been written in the first person instead of third-person limited to help the lacking character development. The detective work was too easy; everything felt clinically clean. And if it was that easy for a teenager to figure out, then why didn’t professionals figure it out before? And guess where the aspiring teenage detective wants to go to college: Columbia. (Vomit. See above rant.) I do not get why this is rated more than 4 stars on Goodreads at all.

      A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)

      Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump–published 2020–contemporary fiction–three stars: Following the story of Claude, a young Black man whose parents have abandoned him to live with his grandma on the South Side of Chicago, the narrative captures his childhood and then follows him to college in Missouri. This book has massive potential and airs on the literary side, but it could have more power as a YAL novel. Bump did an excellent job of capturing Claude’s childhood perspective, and that voice tried to grow with Claude as he aged, but it wasn’t as masterful as it was in the beginning. I felt like the allusions to Chicago and historical events were glaring instead of woven in to highlight the narrative. Some passages had that whole I’m-going-to-teach-you-a-theme vibe that should have been more subtly executed. But the writing in other places was superb. Look at these. (I added further clarification about the quote in a bracket): 1. “Brother,” a bearded one [a white college boy to Claude] said to me, “can’t you help us party?” He was pathetic. He was sad, on the verge of tears. If he didn’t party soon—what was he going to do? He was lost and scared, empty, hopeless. I imagined him in a library, or any quiet setting; I imagined him struggling with his own thoughts. 2. Whitney was terrified of what most terrifies white people in liberal-minded professional environments— Whitney didn’t want Simone to call her a racist. I’m looking forward to picking up another of Bump’s novels in the future.

      Everywhere You Don't Belong

      Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo–published 2020–YAL/poetry–four stars: Camino’s dad who lives in New York City visits her once a year in the Dominican Republic. In NYC, Yahaira resents her father’s yearly trek home to the Dominican Republic. When a plane traveling from NYC to the Dominican Republic crashes, Camino’s and Yahaira’s lives collide, both trying to make sense of the aftermath. The poetry is fire, but I disliked how Camino didn’t tell anyone who loved her that El Cero was a predator, allowing her loved ones to think she was encouraging him. If people were warning her about him, why not speak up and tell them that their worries were warranted? (Also, you’ll never believe where Camino wants to go to college . . . Columbia anyone? Sigh.) Anyway, here’s some of Acevedo’s gorgeous verse: dirt-packed, water-backed, third-world smacked: they say, the soil beneath a country’s nail, they say. I love my home. But it might be a sinkhole.

      Clap When You Land

      Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuire–published 2016–YAL fantasy–four stars: I love a good book about doors that lead to other worlds. Nancy finds herself back in the real world after deciding to make sure that living in an underworld world is the right choice. But upon her arrival home, her parents who have feared her dead after her long absence send her to boarding school, where other children who have been thrust out of their found worlds learn to cope. Most of the students long to go back, looking for doorways around every corner. As the new girl, Nancy becomes the prime suspect when a murderer goes on a spree at the school. There’s a Lewis Carroll nonsense vibe to this book that makes my Alice in Wonderland soul sigh in delight.

      Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)

      The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin–published 2020–contemporary fiction–two stars: Inevitably an established author is going to write a World War II historical fiction novel or a 9/11 love story. More authors should just say no to both options. I’d love to give Giffin the benefit of the doubt here, but her already proven novelist skills are rudimentary at best in this overplayed storyline set during 9/11. The writing is beyond generic. Her descriptions of the terrorist attack lack emotion, creating no mood as a result. Like a lot of other books I’ve been reading recently set in the ’90s and early 2000s, Giffin plops allusions into the narrative with no real finesse. It makes for stilted reading.

      The Lies That Bind

      Mindf*ck (Books 1-5) by S.T. Abby–published 2016–dark romance–three stars: I’m reviewing the entire series in one mini book review because 1. These are more like novellas than books and 2. I read them all in the same month. Normally, this isn’t something I would pick up because I mainly read books I can get from the library, but a friend told me I had to check the out. And I’m all for reading out of my normal reading zone. Lana, a serial killer, falls in love with the enemy–an FBI agent named Logan. Throughout the novels, the real reason behind Lana’s past and what’s made her become a murderer is revealed, making the reader question their moral compass. The second book in the series is the best one. And while the entire series is totally binge-able and a little bit of a guilty pleasure, the writing itself is merely competent.

      Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1) by Shelby Mahurin–published 2019–YAL fantasy–two stars: I knew the universe would punish me for reading 6 novellas in a month; however, I didn’t know it would seek its revenge swiftly nor in the form of a lengthy YAL fantasy book that the masses (for reasons I cannot ascertain) adore. Similar to the setting and storyline in Sin Eater, S & D takes place in an alternate version of Europe, France from what I understand here, and focuses on how religious zealots can inflict harm on the world when they possess little knowledge about what they’re fighting against, in this case, witches. Reid, a witch hunter, is forced to marry Lou–a plucky, bawdy witch–without realizing he’s married to the enemy. Every plotline in this story lacks originality. A seventh-grader could have constructed the syntax lining the pages. Since Mahurin went to the trouble of describing how the magic works in the world, she could have done a better job making the magic come alive–instead, it’s an afterthought. Just plopping a plot into an alternate version of history isn’t worldbuilding. Lou and Coco shamelessly flirt with Ansel, a 16-year-old. Gross. Lou and Reid have sex for the first time on the rooftop while it’s freezing during Yuletide like some kind of salacious Christmas carol gone wrong. (Sex on the rooftop, click click click! Down through the chimney with good Saint Dick.) Gross, gross, gross. Overall, this novel amounts to nothing more than a commercially placating YAL money grab. Read Sarah J. Maas or Holly Black instead.

      Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove, #1)

      Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston–published 2019–romance/LGBTQ+–four stars:  Considering I’m a year late to singing this book’s praises, you probably don’t need to read this review because you’ve probably already read it. For some reason, I kept backlisting this book, but in an attempt to finally listen to an audiobook to completion, I enlisted my high school friend, an audiobook aficionado, to recommend one. She said this one was excellent, so I listened. And I listened. And I listened. And I listened. And that’s the problem with audiobooks and me. I’d rather read it because I enjoy it more and it takes less time. I need to see words on a page. I need to see how the sentences form. I need to see where there are breaks in chapters. However, this particular audiobook was excellent. Now to the story itself, the First Son of the United States Alex falls hard, and in once instance into a very expensive royal wedding cake, for his rival across the pond, Prince Henry.  But how can Alex and Henry keep their romance a secret without inciting an international political disaster? Alex and Henry’s love story radiates off the page (iPhone?) with warmth and humor. (If I hadn’t just finished binging Schitt’s Creek, I’d say Alex and Henry’s love story is my new favorite, but David and Patrick’s has won that title.) The characters are well-developed and diverse. McQuiston writes with wit and unmistakable style. I also love that she’s an LSU grad, Geaux Tigers! Is this book closer to a five star read? Sure, for some, and it might have been for me too if not for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I should have read it instead of listened to it. And secondly, no matter how witty emails between two lovers can be, I don’t want to read/listen to them. I hate reading other people’s steamy emails/letters/whatever IRL. Why would I want to read them in a book?

      Red, White & Royal Blue

      Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld–published 2020–contemporary fiction–contemporary fiction–two stars:  In this novel, Sittenfeld writes what Hillary Clinton’s life could have been like if she never married Bill. While the story is well-researched and a plausible what-if, it failed to engage me, managing instead to signal my icky radar into high alert. If you think that imagining former presidents having sex with their wives is akin to thinking about what your parents do between the sheets, then this book is not for you. A naked Bill plays the saxophone for Hills, gag. Furthermore, watermelons, of the literal kind, are mentioned all too frequently by Bill. I could not read a single line of Bill’s dialogue without hearing his good-ol-boy twang in my head. And Sittenfeld’s chosen portrayal of Hillary perplexes me. Hillary can’t get over how handsome Bill is. Hillary just wants to be loved. Hillary comes off as stiff and aloof; it’s even reflected in the sentence structure. Hillary is ruthless. Did Sittenfeld want to make Hillary unlikeable? And while this is an alternative historical narrative, I had a hard time digesting Sittenfeld’s choice to erase Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black female US Senator, from history so Hillary could get elected to Congress. This is, by far, my least favorite Sittenfeld venture.

      Rodham


      All cover art taken from Goodreads.

      As always, any discussion is welcome!

      Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged book reviews, books, mini book reviews
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