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Category Archives: Our Best
Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family – Mark Daley
(Reviewed by Jay Gendron) Mark Daley takes us through a courageous, heartbreaking journey in Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family. This book serves as an indictment of the foster care system in … Continue reading
Posted in Bios and Memoirs, Non-fiction, Our Best
Tagged foster care, memoir
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Goldenseal – Maria Hummel
(Reviewed by JD Jung) Lacey and Edith, ages seventy and seventy-one respectively, have been estranged for forty-four years. It’s now 1990, and Edith decides to travel across the country to visit her one-time best friend. Lacey, born in Prague, … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Fiction, Modern Literary Fiction, Our Best
Tagged friendship, Los Angeles, relationships, socio-economic class, WWII
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Ilium: A novel – Lea Carpenter
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The game of espionage, at its essence, is observation, seduction, patience. And a fluid relationship with your sense of self. To commit espionage at the highest levels you have to be willing to forget who you … Continue reading
The Vacation House – Jane Shemilt
(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommisionsEarned 2003 -Thirteen-year-old Sofie and her family toiled at a vacation house on the island of Paxos, Greece. This house was owned by a wealthy British family and frequented every summer by them and their friends. … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Our Best
Tagged class, Greece, London, Sexual abuse
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All Who Wander – Joe Clifford
(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “I’ve spent years in therapy pushing dark memories into a black corner where, without light, I though the wild things could not grow. I was wrong. Left alone and ignored, I’ve provided ideal conditions for them … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Our Best
Tagged family dysfunction, psychological drama
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A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom – Brittany K. Barnett
(Reviewed by Ann Onymous ) “Listening to King’s voice ringing out from the pulpit, i felt warmth begin to flow where only a wrung-out feeling had been. King’s tenor lifted me from within. His words were a balm for my … Continue reading
Posted in Non-fiction, Our Best, Social Justice
Tagged criminal justice, Martin Luther King, prison, social justice
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The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants – Orlando Ortega-Medina
(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “We were a family of emigrants, on the move from generation to generation. Forced to flee our homes because of intolerable situations imposed on us by those in power. The United States was meant to … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Modern Literary Fiction, Our Best
Tagged addiction, family, immigration, Judaism, LGBTQ, Religion, San Francisco, thrillers
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The Vulture Fund (Curtis Westcott Crime Thrillers Book 3) – Jeff Buick
(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned Two unlikely murders that don’t appear to be related become the focus of Boston detective Curtis Westcoast and his team as they try to unravel one mystery after another. This is a murder mystery series … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Our Best
Tagged hedge fund, India, murder
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Uncle Charlie Killed Dutch Schultz: The Jewish Mob: A Family Affair – Alan Geik
(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned There are a lot of family histories out there to read about, but this one is different. While Alan Geik’s parents were not directly in the mafia, many of their relatives and friends he met … Continue reading
Posted in Bios and Memoirs, History, Non-fiction, Our Best
Tagged Crime, gangsters, Mafia, Prohibition, WWII
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American Refuge: True Stories of the Refugee Experience – Diya Abdo
(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “When refugees leave, it is rarely, if ever, happy. And it is never something they choose to do. Their bodies, finding no other way to survive, split themselves from their souls, wave goodbye to them, … Continue reading
Posted in Immigration, Our Best, World Issues
Tagged immigration, Interviews, refugees, resettlement
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