Underrated Reads

The Deceptions – Jill Bialosky

Posted on September 6, 2022 by J D Jung

(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 and protagonist is a published poet who teaches at a boys’ academy in New York…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged betrayal, Greek mythology, poetry, seduction | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: How Speleology Restored My Sex Drive – Michael Bernhart

Posted on September 2, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) #CommissionsEarned A thrilling romp with twists and turns and more fun than should be legal. I’ll be honest when I say that I didn’t expect much when I read the description of this book and agreed to review it. To me, it seemed as if the author had way too…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged humor, thrillers | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Five Night Stand – Richard J. Alley

Posted on August 30, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “There are four people as similar as they are unique—one at the end of his career, one lost in the middle, one who dreams of beginning, and the fourth, a child, not knowing what is ahead of him. None of them know for sure what awaits them; they’re all discontent,…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged jazz, Memphis, New York | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: New People – Danzy Senna

Posted on August 26, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “The poet is not a New Person…He doesn’t have mud-toned dreadlocks or octoroon gray eyes or butterscotch skin. …He has the body, the skin, the face that cabdrivers pretend not to see, that jewelers in midtown refuse to buzz inside. His body is the very reason they got those buzzers…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged identity, race | Comments Off

The Hundred Waters – Lauren Acampora

Posted on August 22, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Grown people need friction to live.” Most people would think that Louisa Rader is living the perfect life. As the director of the town’s art center, this former model and photographer lives in a wealthy Connecticut suburb with her successful architect husband Richard, and their twelve-year-old daughter, Sylvie. But Louisa…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged aging, art, boredom, environmentalism, privilege, rebellion, wealth | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Havana Libre – Robert Arellano

Posted on August 18, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “…now that doctors are malnourished malcontents while dropouts driving tourist taxis are relative millionaires.” Twenty-eight-year-old Dr. Manolo Rodriguez, a pediatrician for the national medical service in Havana, Cuba, resents how most of the medical resources go to tourist hospitals. He is also afraid that the family clinic that he runs…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Castro, Cuba, espionage | Comments Off

The Risk in Crossing Borders – William McClain

Posted on August 13, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “She kept coming back to the question of what to do with her life. Most people sorted that out in their twenties and thirties. What was wrong with her?” Yana Pickering is over fifty years of age, divorced, with grown children and content with her life in Seattle. However, she…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged immigration, Lebanon, refugees, Seattle, Syria, transgender, war | Comments Off

Ways of Walking: Essays – edited by Ann de Forest

Posted on August 7, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “The act of walking is one of revolution, and one of continuity.” “Walking gives us time to think, time to reflect…” “When you walk, you shed where you have been.” These are just a few quotes from Ways of Walking. These twenty-six essays look at this common activity in unique…

Posted in History, Non-fiction, Philosophical reads, Short stories | Tagged artists., civil rights, freedom fighters, history, philosophy, Religion, slavery, writers | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: A Matter of Conscience – James Bartleman

Posted on August 2, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “…Canadians in general are more prepared to help the poor of the Third World than the First Peoples in their own country.” James Bartleman, retired Ontario lieutenant governor and member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, also of Scottish ancestry, educates us on the crimes committed against the Indigenous…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Canada, Indigenous peoples, Ontario | Comments Off