Underrated Reads

An UnderratedRead Revisited: The Wishing Pool and Other Stories – Tananarive Due

Posted on March 22, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) You’ll keep looking over your shoulder as you read these eerie stories of horror, with a little science fiction sprinkled in, in The Wishing Pool and Other Stories. The title piece, “The Wishing Pool” features Joy, a woman returning home to North Florida to visit her father who is suffering…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged African-American, aging, horror, race, short stories, society | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited:Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World – Anne Applebaum

Posted on March 18, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The autocracies want to create a global system that benefits thieves, criminals, dictators, and the perpetrators of mass murder. We can stop them.” Historian and journalist Anne Applebaum, suggests what democracies can do to save their political systems and why we should fear these present-day autocracies in her latest book, Autocracy,…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged autocracy, China, democracy, dictatorship, Iran, murder, politics, Russia, social justice, Venezuela | Comments Off

My Bully, My Aunt, and Her Final Gift – Harold Phifer

Posted on March 11, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) Hal endured a tumultuous upbringing under the cruel hand of his Aunt Kathy. While his mother suffered from severe mental illness, it was Aunt Kathy who had to step in to raise him and his two brothers—though "raise" might be too generous a term. Her favoritism toward Hal’s older…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs, Non-fiction | Tagged abuse, death, family dysfunction, mental illness | Comments Off

Ugliness – Moshtari Hilal, Translated from the German by Elisabeth Lauffer

Posted on March 6, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) In this deeply personal book, author Moshtari Hilal interweaves memoir, history, and sociology to explore the painful realities of feeling "ugly" in a world that prioritizes symmetry and Eurocentric beauty standards. Born in Kabul, Afghanistan and later moving to Germany she relates her lifelong insecurities about her "crooked" nose and…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs, History | Tagged Afghanistan, beauty, culture, Eugenics, fascism, Middle East, plastic surgery, ugliness | Comments Off

Dying For Gold: The True Story of the Giant Mine Murders – Lee Selleck & Francis Thompson

Posted on March 2, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) This is an exhaustive book…but it needs to be to properly tell the story of one of the worst labor disputes in Canadian history. In the early 1990s, the remote town of Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, was thrust into a labor dispute – and into the national spotlight, when…

Posted in History, Non-fiction | Tagged Canadian history, labor | Comments Off

The Sable Cloak – Gail Milissa Grant

Posted on February 20, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South, readers are first taken to Greenston, South Carolina, in 1934. We meet Big Will who upon turning eighteen, must join the neighborhood’s vigilante group to keep justice in an area of town that is ignored by white police. Big Will cannot reconcile…

Posted in Historical Fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged African American history, family, Jim Crow, racism, segregation, St. Louis | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories – by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Posted on February 14, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “In New Orleans, culture doesn’t come down from on high, it bubbles up from the street.” - Jazz Pianist Ellis Marsalis (1934-2020) This quote that opens the book epitomizes these stories, as we meet New Orleans residents of all ages and gender identifications just trying to make it day by day. I…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged African-American, gentrification, horror, New Orleans, race relations, society | Comments Off

The Wind on Her Tongue – Anita Kopacz

Posted on February 10, 2025 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) 1872 -Yemaya, who now lives in Cuba, is well known for possessing healing powers inherited from her Nigerian Yoruba Orisha lineage. Her eighteen-year-old daughter, Oya, as the Orisha of storm, wind and weather, also possesses intense abilities. Though unintentional, her powers can be quite destructive. Because of this, Yemaya sends Oya…

Posted in Historical Fiction | Tagged African-American, class, Historical fiction, New Orleans, racism, San Francisco, voodoo | Comments Off