Underrated Reads

Accusation (A Raquel Rematti Legal Thriller Book 3) – Paul Batista

Posted on April 1, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned A-list celebrity Aaron Julian has recently been accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple starlets. According to his accusers, he made sure that their careers would tank if they didn’t comply with his wishes. Add to that, each is represented by premier #METOO attorney, Victor Tabnik. This attorney started…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged #METOO, celebrity, corruption, criminal justice, Sexual abuse, sexual harassment and assault, trust | Comments Off

Songs by Honeybird – Peter McDade

Posted on March 27, 2022 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 Modern Literary Fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks, Romance | Tagged friendship, history, music, philosophy, Romance, sexism | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Small Moments: A Child’s Memories of the Civil Rights Movement – Mary M. Barrow

Posted on March 25, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Pat Luboff) #CommissionsEarned I just discovered a treasure that you might not find if you’re depending on the mainstream bestsellers list for reading recommendations. I can’t say enough good things about Small Moments by Mary M. Barrow. Small Moments is a big book, but I don't mean page-wise. It illuminates the horrors of racism…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged civil rights, Non-fiction, prejudice, racism | Comments Off

Tard – Del Staecker

Posted on March 17, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Thou shalt not be a victim, and thou shalt not be a perpetrator. But above all else---thou shalt not be a bystander.” That's one lesson Richard Bettis learned from Matt. One referred to Matt Mueller as an “enlightened outcast”, as he lived with compassion, love, a sense of serenity, and…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Philosophical reads, Reviewers' Top Picks, Sci-Fi/Speculative/Fantasy/Mythology | Tagged corruption, down-syndrome, family dysfunction, fantasy, philosophy, redemption, Religion, sociopaths | Comments Off

Rose Royal: A Love Story- Nicolas Mathieu (Translated from the French by Sam Taylor)

Posted on March 10, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Looking back over all those men, all those failed relationships, she came to one conclusion. She should never have loved them as much as she …

Posted in French Literature | Tagged French literature, noir, short books | Comments Off

Paris Noir: The Suburbs: Akashic Noir Series – Hervé Delouche (Editor)

Posted on March 5, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Where was French romanticism? The opulence of the West? I found Paris—Pantin, really---very different from what I had imagined. I found Pantin ugly…”. An Albanian national flees his country in fear for his life and joins his cousin in this Paris suburb. In this story, “Patin, Really” by Timothée Demeillers, he…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, French Literature, Reviewers' Top Picks, Short stories, World Literature | Tagged French literature, immigration, noir, Paris | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited:My Monticello – Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Posted on February 28, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “My whole life, it seems, there’s been a revival of hatred and violence toward people who look like me. Waves of men have surged into our town from all over the state, the country.” This is Charlottesville, VA in the somewhat near future. After severe thunderstorms rip out the electrical…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged culture, family, gender, multiculture, race, race relations, racism, society | Comments Off

Last Words on Earth – Javier Serena, Translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore

Posted on February 23, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned "The paradox of letters made weapons, words made bayonets with which to pierce the page and exact revenge against my own destiny, which I had judged---until then---to be so harsh." Poet and writer Ricardo Funes didn’t find fame until he was dying. He was born in Peru but went into…

Posted in Latin American Literature, World Literature | Tagged Mexico City, negacionismo, Peru, poetry, Roberto Bolaño, Spain | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Things I Have Withheld – Kei Miller

Posted on February 19, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “…the place where I have always felt most comfortably gay is in Jamaica. In Jamaica, I know the language and the mannerisms of queerness. In Jamaica, I know how to dance. In Jamaica, I do not have to constantly translate my sexuality into mannerisms and speech and dances that sometimes…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Caribbean literature, gender, LGBTQ | Comments Off