Category Archives: Our Best

Our favorite underrated reads

The Deceptions – Jill Bialosky

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Beautiful Aphrodite, she did what she pleased. Surely, she did not worry about pleasing her husband, or hate herself for her acts of infidelity. Those gods and goddesses, they have no shame.” Our unnamed narrator … Continue reading

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Send Her Back and Other Stories -Munashe Kaseke

(Reviewed by JD Jung) This collection will captivate you as soon as you start reading. “Send Her Back” is just one of twelve riveting tales centering around women who immigrated to the U.S. from Zimbabwe. In that specific title, a … Continue reading

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I Buried Paul: A Novel: Bruce Ferber

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned This is the story of forty-nine-year-old Jimmy Koslowski and his uncertain life as a struggling musician. It starts off with his family, where his father is an orchestra leader, and his older brother is a … Continue reading

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The Krubera Conspiracy – Jeff Buick

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned The country of Georgia is home to the Krubera Cave, the world’s deepest cave at 7,308 feet beneath the earth. Here is the setting for this spy thriller as the brother team of Damon and … Continue reading

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Songs by Honeybird – Peter McDade

(Reviewed by Pat Luboff) #CommissionsEarned “Find your focus and the story may write itself: music and drugs, race and gender, a tragic barn fire and a missing body. It’s all much more dramatic than one usually sees in a dissertation….” … Continue reading

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Tard – Del Staecker

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Thou shalt not be a victim, and thou shalt not be a perpetrator. But above all else—thou shalt not be a bystander.” That’s one lesson Richard Bettis learned from Matt. One referred to Matt Mueller … Continue reading

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Paris Noir: The Suburbs: Akashic Noir Series – Hervé Delouche (Editor)

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Where was French romanticism? The opulence of the West? I found Paris—Pantin, really—very different from what I had imagined. I found Pantin ugly…”. An Albanian national flees his country in fear for his life and … Continue reading

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Taking Down Backpage: Fighting the World’s Largest Sex Trafficker – Maggy Krell

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “While a commercial sex transaction may seem consensual on the surface, the lopsided power dynamic, the history of trauma and abuse, and the lack of options often make the consent illusory. And sex without consent … Continue reading

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Five-Alarm Fire (Cat Caliban Series Book 5) – D.B. Borton

(Reviewed by Pat Luboff) I have a friend named Dori. We don’t see each other or speak to each other often, but when we do get together, something special happens. We get into a rapid-fire back-and-forth that turns into laughter … Continue reading

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The Total FilmMaker – Jerry Lewis, Foreword by Maltin Leonard

(Review and poem by Betty Jo Tucker) Way back in the 1950s and 60s, I was an avid Jerry Lewis fan. I enjoyed watching his silly characters doing nonsensical things in movies like “The Delicate Delinquent,” “The Nutty Professor” and … Continue reading

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