Underrated Reads

The Weasel Cay Chronicles – Chadd Allan Wheat

Posted on September 16, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned Two brothers live in a remote area of paradise, Weasel Cay, a fictitious island in the Caribbean. Charlie Spinnaker is a former Navy pilot who runs the local helicopter service from the island to Key West and Miami. His brother, Jeff is the local constable and owns the best beer…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged Caribbean Islands, CIA, drugs, murder | Comments Off

Ti Amo – Hanne Ørstavik (translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken)

Posted on September 13, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “I look at you and tears run down my face, yet I feel nothing, no grief, no sadness, I can’t feel at all. Is it true, is it actually true, is my love really intense and concentrated?” A fifty-year-old unnamed successful novelist writes to her Italian husband who is dying…

Posted in Scandinavian Literature | Tagged cancer, death, love, truth | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Chill Run: An Eddie Barrow Mystery – Russell Brooks

Posted on September 10, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned Eddie Barrows wants to be an author, but he can’t get published. He loses his girlfriend, then his job and what else could go wrong? He goes to see his parents to get himself a morale boost but is dismayed to find they think he’s a failure. He is lost…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Canada, crime fiction, suspense | Comments Off

Dark State – Christopher J. Lynch

Posted on September 9, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned "The terrorists know...The government knows...Now - YOU will know" A terrorist attack is something we all fear but would it ever be so horrific that you would want to leave your home and not come back for years. This fictionized story talks about the High-Power Transformers that are the backbone…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged California, power grid, terrorist attack | Comments Off

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