A Cigarette Lit Backwards-Tea Hacic-Vlahovic

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Punk rock is pure, it stands for nothing.” It’s the early 2000’s and sixteen-year-old Kat feels that punk rock was intrinsically made for her. She desperately wants to be accepted by the punk crowd in her hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The daughter of Eastern European immigrants, her mother…

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The Safe Game – Wes Verde

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) #CommissionsEarned The Safe Game by Wes Verde is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read. Set in the late 1920’s America, it follows the story of three con artists trying to pull off their final score before retiring from the game. The cons — two men and…

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The Weasel Cay Chronicles – Chadd Allan Wheat

(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…

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

(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…

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

(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…

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Dark State – Christopher J. Lynch

(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…

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The Deceptions – Jill Bialosky

(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…

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

(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…

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

(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,…

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An UnderratedRead Revisited: New People – Danzy Senna

(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…

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