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Jonathan LaPoma

Goodreads Author

Born

in Buffalo, NY, The United States

Website

http://www.jonlapoma.com

Twitter

jonlapoma

Genre

Fiction, Contemporary, Humor and Comedy

Influences

Jim Carroll, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hunter ...more

Member Since

May 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jonlapoma

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Jonathan LaPoma is an award-winning, Kirkus/Barnes & Noble-recommended novelist, screenwriter, songwriter, and poet from Buffalo, NY. In 2005, he received a BA in history and a secondary education credential from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and he traveled extensively throughout the United States and Mexico after graduating. These experiences have become the inspiration for much of his writing, which often explores themes of alienation and misery as human constructions that can be overcome through self-understanding and the acceptance of suffering.

LaPoma has written five novels, fifteen screenplays, and hundreds of songs and poems. His screenplays have won over 160 awards and honors at various international competitions. Hi Jonathan LaPoma is an award-winning, Kirkus/Barnes & Noble-recommended novelist, screenwriter, songwriter, and poet from Buffalo, NY. In 2005, he received a BA in history and a secondary education credential from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and he traveled extensively throughout the United States and Mexico after graduating. These experiences have become the inspiration for much of his writing, which often explores themes of alienation and misery as human constructions that can be overcome through self-understanding and the acceptance of suffering.

LaPoma has written five novels, fifteen screenplays, and hundreds of songs and poems. His screenplays have won over 160 awards and honors at various international competitions. His dark comedy script HARM FOR THE HOLIDAYS was optioned by veteran producer Warren Zide along with Wexlfish Pictures (AMERICAN PIE, FINAL DESTINATION) in July 2017. Additionally, award-winning producer Byron A. Martin (holding extensive studio tracking for Disney, Sony, and Universal) is attached to his script, LA TIERRA QUE YO AMO (Land That I Love).

LaPoma's novels have been recommended by Kirkus Reviews and Barnes & Noble (B&N Press Presents list), have hit #1 on Amazon Bestseller lists across the USA, Canada, and Australia, and have won top honors at the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Awards, and the Stargazer Literary Prizes.

His literary achievements are permanently codified in the institutional record of record, Gale’s Contemporary Authors (Vol. 391). His five loosely-linked novels—Hammond, The Summer of Crud, Understanding the Alacrán, Developing Minds, and The Soul City Salvation—are preserved globally in elite academic archives and national collections, including the Library of Congress (LCCN: 2019937723), University College London (UCL), and the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. Internationally represented by Alexandra Maramenides of the Rêve Agency, LaPoma lives in Mexico City and is the frontman for the cinematic art-rock project THE CROOKED EAST.
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Combine Editions
Jonathan LaPoma’s books

Average rating: 3.69 · 390 ratings · 130 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story (The Alacrán #4) 3.60 avg rating — 202 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Summer of Crud (The Alacrán #2) 3.47 avg rating — 79 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hammond (The Alacrán #1) 3.88 avg rating — 51 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Understanding the Alacran (The Alacrán #3) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 2017 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Soul City Salvation (The Alacrán #5) 4.17 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Noble Truth it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chinese Tequila by LeeAnne Liang Yu, Jonathan LaPoma (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Fernando Barreda Luna 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Review Blurbs for DEVELOPING MINDS: AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY

Inspired by his own travels, screenwriter and author LaPoma's narrative is raw and edgy, effectively anchored by two protagonists whose brio and "same sense of adventure" keep the story alive...Entertaining and authentic look at the troubled American educational system, courtesy of two men propelled by perseverance and adventuresome spirits. —Kirkus Reviews, Recommended Review

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Published on August 01, 2015 00:35 • Tags: book-em, bookidote, booktica, danno, kirkus, midwest-book-review, noisetrade, readers-favorite, red-city-review, review-blurbs, san-francisco-book-review, stargazer-literary-prizes, the-book-eaters, trang-tran, underground-book-reviews

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Series by Jonathan LaPoma

The Alacrán Series (5 books)
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Jonathan LaPoma (Goodreads Author)

3.67 avg rating — 384 ratings

Jonathan is Currently Reading

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How to Set Up a Trust and LLC: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Protecting Your Assets, Reducing Taxes, and Building Wealth with Trusts and LLCs

by Cole Myers

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The Psychology of Money

by Morgan Housel

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Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody

by Helen Pluckrose

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Jul 17, 2022 10:15PM

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Jonathan LaPoma made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Combining all editions of my novels topic " Hi Librarians, I am the Goodreads AuthorJonathan LaPoma. I am preparing for an upcoming Bookbub promotion and want to make sure all Kindle, paperback, ...more "
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Quotes by Jonathan LaPoma (?)

“But that's just the way it was surviving in America's public schools. Every day was a struggle. Every day was psychological warfare, and if you didn't stay sharp, the system would grind you into human pencil shavings.”
― Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

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“So I returned to the northern strip of Miami Beach, the valley just far enough north to muffle the piercing South Beach celebratory voices, and just far enough south to dull the glittering lights of the Sunny Isles high rises, and I went to sleep in the city where exhausted people lived exhausted lives, but never stopped once to even ponder sleep--to even dream sleep an option, in the country that breeds ghosts, where the people can't understand why everything real always passes right through their arms. There was so much life out there for all of us, but so few would ever touch it. God, how I wanted to feel.”
― Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

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“...this world presents us with so many false prophets that it's difficult for those of us with the most faith and love to refrain from just giving it all away to the first or flashiest bidder”
― Jonathan LaPoma, Developing Minds: An American Ghost Story

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Making Connections: 3831, DEVELOPING MINDS: AN AMERICAN GHOST STORY by Jonathan LaPoma	1	9	Jun 15, 2015 07:54PM
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