An UnderratedRead Revisited: Law of the Jungle – Christina Hoag

Posted on January 9, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung)


#CommissionsEarned

Exceptional
Rowena Aldus is an Oxford scholar whose passion is researching the venom in spiders to use for medicinal purposes in humans. Though she finds this fascinating, she struggles to get funding.

Author Christina Hoag details the hardships one has in living a very primitive life in the Amazon Jungle away from modern civilization. The descriptive narrative has you feeling how difficult it is with all the hazards of a jungle setting.

Unfortunately, the workings of the Venezuelan government start to impede her visa status. Venture capitalist Guy Westerphal discovers her research and comes to the rescue. He has the financial means and soon wins her over by seducing both her mind and body in order to market the venom to make a medicine to cure erectile dysfunction. They soon form a partnership to get the clinical trials done in hopes of launching this product. Rowena lets her guard down and allows her new partner to handle the business side of the company. You may think you know what is going to happen next, but it’s a lot more sinister.

This is where the story turns, and we find Rowena charged with a crime and she must escape only to be caught by guerilla terrorists and sentenced to a camp in an isolated jungle area. One feels her depression as she tries to survive in a hopeless pattern.  To stay alive, she learns the medicinal value of plants and uses this to become the “doctor” for this gang to keep her alive.

How she overcomes her imprisonment and gets back to the United States is cleverly written and what happens in her next encounter with her former partner is surprising. How do you find someone who thought you were dead? And what do you do when you discover that you have been betrayed? What is the law of the jungle?

This is a quick read but the details on survival are well written and what happens at the end will stun you. For fans of crime fiction, Law of the Jungle is a definite page-turner.

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An UnderratedRead Revisited: The Exhumation – Nick Padron 

Posted on January 6, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung)


#CommissionsEarned

Exceptional
Madrid, 1937 – Civil War chaos has engulfed the country as the city is under siege. Amid uncertainty, three Americans are going there to find and hopefully exhume the remains of a dead American soldier and give him a proper family burial.

The deceased’s uncle hires Major Williamson, a former military commander, and his interpreter, John to join him in this search with a huge monetary reward for their efforts. John narrates this harrowing three days of trying to get the aid of the two warring factions so they can succeed in their efforts. What makes this story exciting is John starts out like a mundane public servant and surprises you as each hour unfolds.

While the search begins, John meets a fascinating young lady, Maripaz, and his love for her
gets him into a world of deceit and espionage that he is not prepared for. As their mission
takes off, his allegiance to the Major and to their goal is hindered by obstacles that test his resolve and his ability to survive. Does he continue his assignment, or does he throw it all away for this new love? I enjoyed how the writer mixes romance and war in a most unusual setting. If you are a romantic like me, you want love to win over everything else.

There are roadblocks everywhere they turn, and John must decide whether telling Maripaz the truth of his past will harm or help his driving love for her. I like the way the characters interplay their newfound love amid the traumatic times they are living in. It reminds me a little of the movie “Casablanca.”

As the story evolves, you learn more about John and his uncanny way of making the best
of the various situations he falls into. The Spanish are all wary of Americans coming to interfere in their affairs. How he handles this love affair as he intermixes with the
Nationalists (the Fascists), the Republicans (the Communists), SIM (the secret police)
and the Banditos is a study of what war does to people and how they survive in an unpredictable world.

John had an escape plan but it doesn’t include the girl so what does he do? The tale has you on the edge as you root for a story book ending. But does he succeed?

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Just a Reminder…

Posted on January 3, 2023 by J D Jung

(JD Jung)

Dear readers,

Do you wonder why it takes us so long to post reviews and why there is so much time between posts?

I assure you that we’re still reading, searching for those literary gems to share with you.  Unfortunately, most of them don’t meet UnderratedReads’ standards of at least “highly recommended.” So, even though we’ve read many books, we’re not going to waste your time by sharing some of them with you.  That way, when we do post a review, you can rest assured that at least one reviewer highly recommended the book.

Specifically, to our authors/publicists/publishers: If one of our reviewers can’t “get into” a book by the first few chapters, I instruct them to put it aside…for good.  Please remember this when you submit a request, and we agree to “read and possibly review your book”. No reviewer gets paid by our site; it’s a labor of love. Also, please read our “FAQ” before submitting.

You may find a book that you consider to be a real find, whereas another reader may be struggling to get a quarter the way through the book. We know it’s all subjective and our staff of reviewers realizes that too.

So, even if you don’t see anything new for a while, that doesn’t mean we’re asleep.  It means that we’re still looking for great content to share with you.  Please be patient.

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Happy New Year 2023!

Posted on December 31, 2022 by J D Jung

(by JD Jung)

Happy New Year!

We at UnderratedReads wish all our readers a safe and Happy New Year filled with health and love throughout 2023.

We have discovered wonderful books during 2022, and since we only post reviews of books that we recommend, all books on our site are highly recommended.

However, here’s an abbreviated list of our highest rated books that we discovered in 2022, in no particular order. There’s something here for everyone:

Non-Fiction

Uncle Charlie Killed Dutch Schultz: The Jewish Mob: A Family Affair – Alan Geik (reviewed by Don Jung)

American Refuge: True Stories of the Refugee Experience – Diya Abdo (reviewed by JD Jung)

Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul – Michael Fanone and John Shiffman (reviewed by JD Jung)

Virginia Bader: A Collage of Memories of The First Lady of Aviation Art – Jill Amadio (reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch)

I Feel Your Stare: An Autobiography – Cheryl Gillespie (reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch)

Taking Down Backpage: Fighting the World’s Largest Sex Trafficker – Maggy Krell (reviewed by JD Jung)

Fiction

Dark State – Christopher J. Lynch (reviewed by Don Jung)

The Safe Game – Wes Verde (reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch)

Tard – Del Staecker (reviewed by JD Jung)

The Deceptions – Jill Bialosky (reviewed by JD Jung)

Send Her Back and Other Stories -Munashe Kaseke (reviewed by JD Jung)

I Buried Paul: A Novel: Bruce Ferber  (reviewed by Don Jung)

The Krubera Conspiracy – Jeff Buick (reviewed by Don Jung)

Songs by Honeybird – Peter McDade  (reiwed by Pat Luboff)

Paris Noir: The Suburbs: Akashic Noir Series – Hervé Delouche (Editor) (reviewed by JD Jung)

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

Posted on December 29, 2022 by J D Jung

(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 and the laughter feeds on itself and grows and grows until we don’t know why we’re laughing. It becomes laughter for its own sake.

This is the second Cat Caliban book I’ve read, and it was like getting together with an old friend who makes you laugh. Only, in this case, I know why I’m laughing. It’s because the character of Cat is so funny, and the writing is so good. Cat is a woman who lives in Cincinnati. In this book, she is experiencing the symptoms of menopause, among them, hot flashes.

Her friends have talked her into signing up for pottery classes. She is awful at it and she knows it. She makes blobs that turn into heavy, hard objects when they are fired in a kiln. Heavy and hard enough to be used as a murder weapon, which turns out to be the case when Cat discovers human remains in the kiln. She sets out to solve the mystery of whodunit.

Along the way I learned a bit more about pottery than I needed to. I didn’t mind all the things I learned about the history of silent movie stars, society, and prejudice I learned in the last book of hers I read. I suspect that every Cat Caliban book will have a similar educational aspect.

The action takes place around Halloween. One day while I was reading the book my husband got the blues. I said, “Let me read you some of this.” It was Cat’s description of trick or treat in her neighborhood. Before long, both my husband and I were laughing out loud. Beats taking a happy pill!

I look forward to reading more of Cat’s adventures. I can always use a good laugh.

For more background information, see my review of the first in the series: One for the Money.

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An UnderratedRead Revisited: One for the Money (Cat Caliban Series Book 1) – D.B. Borton

Posted on December 26, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Pat Luboff)


#ComissionsEarned

”Suspicion is second nature to any woman who’s raised three kids.”

I’m going to say something about this book that I don’t think I’ve ever said about a book: I loved every word! It gave me such a feeling of joy as I read it. I felt like it was written just for me and members of my specific cultural club. All the references were so wonderful. If you know what it means to say, “waiting for the duck to descend,” you, too, spent your misspent youth watching Groucho Marx’s antics on “You Bet Your Life.”

Fans of the Stephanie Plum series will know what I mean when I say that the heroine, Cat Caliban is her name, is a mixture of Stephanie, Lula AND Grandma Mazur. The plot is: Cat, a widowed Grandma decides on a new life as a detective and buys an apartment building in an interesting neighborhood. Right away, there’s a dead body in one of the upstairs apartments.

With a colorful cast of helpers, Cat takes this on as her first case. Along the way, D.B. brings us into the worlds of silent movie stars and homelessness. In the solving of the mystery, the author exposes the politics of racism and sexism; all with a sharp sense of humor that kept my joy meter peaking in the red zone. D.B.’s descriptions are a study in precision. An example: “Sophronia Hewlett was paper-thin and obsidian black, with a permanent worry crease across her forehead.”

I totally recommend this book! But there is a major problem! The title is the same as the first book in the Stephanie Plum series. Given the similarity in tonality, I think this is a huge error. D.B., if you’re listening, you need to change the title. For me, the obvious route would be to play on the heroine’s name. How about: “Cat’s Second Life: The Case of the Murdered Tenant.” Then the next book could be called “Cat’s Third Life….and so on.

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An UnderratedRead Revisited: Christmas Eve Can Kill You – William Marantz

Posted on December 24, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung)


#CommissionsEarned

Exceptional

For many of us, ushering in the New Year serves as a letdown, following the joyous Christmas season. For Izzy Miller (aka Muddy Rivers, aka Val Virgo), the season represents the low points of his life. Not only did he feel like an outsider looking in as a Jewish kid, but it was also during this season that the disillusioned country singer Rivers gave up his dreams and returned to his hometown of Winnipeg to eventually become Val Virgo, a voice in the world of talk radio. But this particular holiday season will prove to be the worst, as he receives a death threat from a caller on his radio show.

Should the threat be taken seriously? I think so. Just a few weeks ago, packaged bombs went off, killing two people. The “North American Aboriginal Peoples Army of Liberation” (NAAPALM) has taken credit for the murders, but most doubt that the organization even exists. What Val does know is that justice isn’t blind. He also knows that his past has come back to haunt him, but when he tries to “paint a picture of the past, the colors bleed together.” The really problem is that he’s not the only victim.

Christmas Eve Can Kill You is a page-turner that you won’t be able to put down. Along the way, there are numerous players and lots of twists and turns, but not so many that you’ll lose track of the story. In fact, at the end, I smacked myself upside the head, wondering how I didn’t figure it out. I guess I just enjoyed the ride way too much.

It’s not just the plot that makes this an exceptional novel. Author William Marantz makes use of alluring characters and the bleak city itself—or should I say “railroad crossing,” as he refers to Winnipeg—to move the story.

The story also isn’t simply good versus evil. You’ll feel for old Failik Finkelman, a Holocaust survivor who has led a life of crime in his new country. In other words, the characters are actually human (except for Nuisance, whom you’ll learn about later). Among others, you’ll chuckle at Val’s producer, whom he calls the “girl wonder,” since one wonders if she’s a girl. And it’s all told using Val’s cynical voice. The entire novel is written in sardonic style, always with a wry sense of humor.

I first read Christmas Eve Can Kill You in 2010 when it was released. You’ll find it a great way to escape and start the New Year.

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An UnderratedRead Revisited: My Part of Her – Javad Djavahery, Preface by Dina Nayeri, Translated by Emma Ramadan

Posted on December 22, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung)


#CommissionsEarned

Exceptional

“For what reason did the people take to the streets to demand the Shah’s departure? I assure you that if we asked the question today, the majority of Iranians wouldn’t know how to respond. For liberty? I don’t think so. For a better life? I don’t think that’s it either. Because starting in 1979, they have been far less free, their lives more difficult than before, and yet they don’t rise up. So why was this country handed over to mullahs? In exchange for what? No one knows.”

Our narrator fondly remembers life in his seaside village the summer he was thirteen years old. He always awaited the arrival of his older distant cousin, with whom he was quite infatuated with. We enjoy the summer along with him, as he describes his youthful scheming, friends, family, and the colorful scenery along the Caspian coast. Though he was from a working-class family, life was good.

He is later tormented by his decision to become a left-wing activist, trying to free his country from the Shah and Western imperialism. “We wanted to defend the country against an enemy that we had invented ourselves. We were persisting in a revolution that was leading the country to chaos. “

He became a political fugitive, constantly on the run, as many of his friends had already died. He felt like a fraud. The once vibrant seaside town became empty, dark, and dreary.

Through this fictional story, My Part of Her sheds light on many questions I had regarding the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The author, who has been in exile since the age of twenty, explains this conundrum in a very personal way with captivating characters, graphic events and a spellbinding story. This is all enhanced with his (and the translator’s) artistry of language.

Do not skip over the book’s preface as it gives insight to the events, characters, and their motivations. Dina Nayeri, who was a small child during that time and subsequently fled the country with her family, gives her perspective on the errors students and activists made in their protests against the Shah.

My Part of Her is an engrossing story along with essential lessons from the past that we must not forget. Studying History enables us to learn from our mistakes as to not repeat them in the present and future.

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The Endless Rose – Carlos Maleno (translated by Eric Kurtzke)

Posted on December 19, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung)


#CommissionsEarned

“Then he thought of that woman, of her writing, that disappeared into itself—chaotic, brutal, savage, suicidal—like automatic writing, or the writing of a lunatic.”

Thirty-seven-year-old publisher Roberto Fate was totally mesmerized as he read a manuscript submitted by an unknown Argentinian writer, twenty-six-year-old Paula Boccia. Though his older partner, Jacobo Cruz shared his enthusiasm for her work, it was Fate who would continually fantasize about her. Cruz had his own obsessions.

The two invite her to Almería to publish her novel, even though she’s in Spain for a totally different reason. Paula wears a prosthetic leg, which makes it difficult for her to get around. This plays into the story.

Through dream sequences, day-to day events and learning about the past of these three, The Endless Rose takes us into dark places with flawed characters. We learn in the first chapter that a murder has taken place and we try to figure out how it and all events relate to each other in this remarkable story. The plot along with the author’s haunting prose captivated me from beginning to end. While The Endless Rose is dark and disturbing, the ending is a complete surprise, nothing that I anticipated.

At only 125 pages, The Endless Rose is a complete and captivating thriller.

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An UnderratedRead Revisited: A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris- Philip Greene

Posted on December 16, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung)


#CommisionsEarned

Exceptional

“When spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise.”

                                     – Henry Miller

“… shining a spotlight on the Paris of the 1920s and the expats and Frenchmen who created this monument to freedom, excess, and the art of drinking well”

– John Hemingway (in the foreword)

With the enactment of the Volstead Act (Prohibition) and widespread puritanical attitudes in the United States, many artists, musicians and literary greats fled to Paris in the 1920s for the very reasons stated above. With them came the popularity of “American” bars.

Cocktail historian Philip Greene combines history, culture, cafes and spirits in his latest cocktail companion, A Drinkable Feast. Drinks are presented in alphabetical order with the recipe, tasting note and the story behind it. He includes aperitifs and liqueurs in addition to cocktails.

Though you won’t find today’s popular tropical drinks like the Margarita or Daiquiri, Greene claims that if you master the Whisky Sour (which there is a recipe for), you can make these and other drinks by using the base and just switching in and out different components.

A couple years ago at a holiday party, I discovered the Manhattan. Yes, I know I’m behind in the cocktail world. Anyway, I whipped out this book, looked in the index and found two recipes for my new favorite drink. This cocktail, like the others, is rather simple to make using minimal ingredients.

Yes, there is a Parisian connection to the Manhattan, as well as other non-French cocktails such as Negroni (and its variations), Bloody Mary, Manhattan, Sidecar and Spirit of St. Louis. You’ll find what it is along with the recipes.

You’ll learn the salacious background of “The Jimmie Special”, favorite cocktails of Salvador Dali (the Bloody Martini), James Joyce (Sherry Cobbler), F. Scott Fitzgerald (the Orange Blossom), Ernest Hemingway (too many to count) and other artists, composers and writers.

Make sure you read the Foreword written by John Hemingway, the grandson of Ernest Hemingway.

This is one of the few books that I recommend you buy in hardcover as opposed to digital formats. I display it on my coffee table due to the gorgeous photographs in addition to the interesting stories. It will also make the perfect gift for the cultural history and cocktail lover.

A Drinkable Feast will make you feel like you’re stepping back in 1920’s Paris.

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