Underrated Reads

Beware the Mermaids – Carrie Talick

Posted on September 12, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) What happens when you are content with your current life, but circumstances force you to make unexpected changes? Fifty-seven-year-old grandmother, Nancy, thought she was happy, but then caught her husband with another woman on their yacht. This wasn’t a one-time occurrence. This had been going on for years. However, he doesn’t…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged boats, divorce, friendship, infidelity, sea, women's fiction | Comments Off

The Dark Remains – William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin

Posted on September 9, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) October 1972, Glasgow –Detective constable Jack Laidlaw is reassigned to the Glasgow crime squad. Though he has a sixth sense on what is happening on the streets, the higher ups feel he needs “handling”, as he carries a reputation of going rogue. Hence, he is assigned to Detective Sergeant Bob Lilley.…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged British crime, Glasgow, noir, Scotland | Comments Off

The Total FilmMaker – Jerry Lewis, Foreword by Maltin Leonard

Posted on September 2, 2021 by J D Jung

(Review and poem by Betty Jo Tucker) Way back in the 1950s and 60s, I was an avid Jerry Lewis fan. I enjoyed watching his silly characters doing nonsensical things in movies like “The Delicate Delinquent,” “The Nutty Professor” and “Cinderfella.” It was great fun to see his slapstick comedy and to cheer him on.…

Posted in Non-fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged comedy, film, Filmmaking, Jerry Lewis, movies | Comments Off

Here, Right Matters: An American Story – Alexander Vindman

Posted on August 30, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Regardless of any impact on the president, the domestic and foreign policy consequences, or personal costs, I had no choice but to report what I’d heard. That duty to report is a critical component of U.S. Army values and of the oath I’d taken to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.”…

Posted in American Politics, Bios and Memoirs, History, Immigration, Non-fiction, Politics and Social Justice, Reviewers' Top Picks, World Issues | Tagged Donald Trump, ethics, immigration, impeachment, military, Russia, Soviet Union | Comments Off

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