Underrated Reads

Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys – Joe Coulombe with Patty Civalleri

Posted on August 27, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) Becoming Trader Joe is a true story about a marketing genius who went against conventional mega grocery store chains to create his own style of branding, with a name with unusual food products. Joe Coulombe started out working at Rexall Drugs and when they decided to close their Pronto Market stores,…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs, Business, Non-fiction | Tagged Business, marketing, Trader Joe | Comments Off

The Final Days of Abbot Montrose: An Asbjørn Krag Mystery – Sven Elvestad and Stein Riverton

Posted on August 23, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by Ann Onymous ) Retired Detective Asbjørn Krag and his police colleague Keller are trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Abbot Montrose. But with no photographs, no one really knows what the Abbot looks like. He may have been kidnapped or murdered but with no ransom note and no body…who knows…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Scandinavian Literature, World Literature | Tagged crime fiction, Norwegian literature | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Dancing to “Almendra” – Mayra Montero, translated by Edith Grossman

Posted on August 20, 2021 by J D Jung

Comprar este libro It’s October 1957 in pre-Castro Cuba, and Havana is filled with gangsters, casinos, and corruption. Twenty-two-year-old entertainment reporter Joaquín Porrata is fed up with working for a newspaper where he’s only allowed to interview “comedians and whores.” Upon hearing that gangster Umberto Anastasia was gunned down in New York City, he asks…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged crime fiction, Cuba, Havana, Historical fiction, Latin American Lit | Comments Off

Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One’s Passage From This Life to the Next – Raymond Moody, Jr., MD, PhD with Paul Perry

Posted on August 17, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Pat Luboff) “… these shared death experiences open up an entirely new avenue of rational enlightenment on the question of life after death. They also open a new avenue for scientific studies. And as these studies are completed, it will become clear that shared death experiences are the key to proving the existence…

Posted in Non-fiction, Philosophical reads, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged afterlife, death, near death experience, shared death experience | Comments Off

She Shits Bricks and Other Short Stories – Samson Tonauac

Posted on August 13, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) We’ve all been through a lot this past year and a half. Not just with COVID-19, but with social unrest, political chaos, and dealing with people who won’t accept basic facts as reality. Everyday life has definitely become strange. Enter She Shits Bricks and Other Short Stories. These thirteen short cyberpunk…

Posted in Sci-Fi/Speculative/Fantasy/Mythology | Tagged compulsion, corruption, dark humor, futuristic, greed, money, reality, science fiction, sex, short books | Comments Off

The Underbelly (Outspoken Authors Book 3)- Gary Phillips

Posted on August 10, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) Mulgrew Magrady, an often-times homeless Viet Nam veteran is trying to get his life back on track. Though he is eight months sober, he is still suffering from his earlier impulsive actions. He abandoned responsibility for his family which later led him to lose contact with his ex-wife, grown kids and…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged addiction, class, crime fiction, gentrification, Los Angeles, noir, race, social justice | Comments Off

The Wrong Side of Murder (Curtis Westcott Book 2) – Jeff Buick

Posted on August 3, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) The Wrong Side of Murder involves a twenty-year murder mystery that catches you off guard with all its twists and turns. It features detective Aislinn Bryne who has to cope with a long-lost high school friend and has to solve a case that is close to home. Jeff Buick has vivid…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged crime fiction, detective fiction, mystery | Comments Off

Cenotaphs – Rich Marcello

Posted on July 30, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “If you live long enough, most people leave, a few by staying true to themselves, more by death, indifference, or being driven away. “ Seventy-five-year-old retiree Ben Sanna realizes that no one has stayed with him for his entire adult life. In fact, his marriage, family, job, and health all fell…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged death, grief, loss, love, redemption, relationships | Comments Off

Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir – Rajiv Mohabir

Posted on July 25, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) “I wanted to stop hiding. I wanted to tell them that I was queer. Queer sexually, queer religiously, queer by caste, and queer countried.” Rajiv Mohabir never felt that he belonged. As a resident of Central Florida and from a family of Guyanese-Indian immigrants, he felt like an outsider. He was…

Posted in Culture, Immigration, Modern Literary Fiction, World Issues | Tagged class, culture, Guyanese, immigration, India, LGBTQ, multiculture, political activism, race, sexuality | Comments Off