Underrated Reads

The Last Election – Andrew Yang, Stephen Marche

Posted on September 12, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Democracy is on the way out. Who will control the aftermath?” This political thriller serves as a cautionary tale that takes place in the very near future, possibly as early as 2024. What would happen if a no presidential candidate received the majority of electoral votes (270) or popular votes?…

Posted in Political fiction | Tagged American politics, deception, democracy, elections, media, scandal | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: I Buried Paul – Bruce Ferber

Posted on September 6, 2023 by J D Jung

(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 gifted guitarist. To the dismay of his parents, Jimmy leaves college for his love of…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Beatles, music, rock music | Comments Off

Sherlock Holmes & the Silver Cord -M.K. Wiseman

Posted on August 29, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “I had my holiday. I had enjoyed three years without a single thread binding me to this or that place, any one responsibility save for my own to myself and the fishing of what I had begun with Professor Moriarty. A task which ought to have ended neatly and without…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Historical Fiction | Tagged Sherlock Holmes | Comments Off

I Only Cry with Emoticons – Yuvi Zalkow

Posted on August 20, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “I feel like maybe he has an answer for me, because I don’t know how to act or what to do or who to be and I hate my job and I’m scared to lose my job…” The “he”, who this forty-five-year-old single dad, Saul, is referring to above, is…

Posted in Humor & Satire, Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged anti-antisemitism, Big Tech, divorce, family, humor, relationships | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited : Songs by Honeybird: Peter McDade

Posted on August 16, 2023 by J D Jung

(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….” As I approached the final chapters of Songs by Honeybird, I had mixed emotions. On the one…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged friendship, history, music, philosophy, sexism | Comments Off

The Dead Chip Syndicate – Andrew W. Pearson

Posted on August 12, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) I’ll admit that I didn’t fall in love with this book right off the bat. But by the second or third chapter, it had really begun to grow on me. The protagonist is Anthony, a struggling writer (aren’t we all) who ends up getting pulled into the high-stakes world of…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged Action thriller, crime fiction, Macau | Comments Off

All-Night Pharmacy-Ruth Madievsky

Posted on August 9, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “You have no idea what it’s like being your sister. I’ve never had a day of rest in my life. Chasing after you like a dog. Leaving pieces of myself behind. And every time, you act as if that’s how it’s supposed to be. You lead, I follow, no questions…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged drug abuse, drug addiction, family, family dysfunction, Judaism, refugees, Soviet Union | Comments Off

Naked Came the Detective – Glendall C. Jackson III

Posted on August 4, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned Washington D.C. journalist “Chris” was always thinking about what happened to a high-end call girl he was obsessed with. One day he received an envelope from her, the contents in memoir form. He shares it with us and occasionally intersperses his perspective. This unnamed woman was no dummy. She studied…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged murder, prostitution, short books | Comments Off

Fakists – John Y Flanagan

Posted on August 1, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned Readers will be invited into the world of art forgeries in the light crime novel, Fakists. Specifically, we learn a fascinating manner of who can benefit and how. Tom Landsaw has just been released from prison, and subsequently we learn about the events that led him there. We also discover…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged art, crime fiction, forgery, light fiction | Comments Off

Las Biuty Queens: Stories- Iván Monalisa Ojeda, translated by Hannah Kauders

Posted on July 28, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned Upon arriving in New York City from Chile, Iván became Monalisa and worked the streets of New York City. She befriended other Latin American transgender prostitutes, and though they were from different countries of origin, they understood each other and held a unique bond. Though this is a work of…

Posted in Latin American Literature, Short stories | Tagged drug abuse, LGBTQ, prostitution, transgender, violence | Comments Off