Underrated Reads

Nine Moons – Gabriela Wiener, Jessica Powell (Translator)

Posted on June 14, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) “Europe is the best place for a Latin American to starve to death and drink good wine.” Gabriela Wiener and her husband originally travelled from Peru to Barcelona on student visas. However, when these two journalists sought employment as undocumented immigrants, they found they were on the bottom of the hiring…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs, Latin American Literature | Tagged childbirth, immigration, pregnancy | Comments Off

Where Silence Ends – Angela Ruiz, Mary Ruiz

Posted on June 8, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Jeyran Main) Where Silence Ends is a beautiful story about how a young girl finally breaks silence over all the abuse and trauma she has gone through. Reading through four generations of Mexican American culture, family drama, and abuse, this memoir truly advocates for those who endure sexual abuse and how hard it…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs | Tagged memoirs, Sexual abuse | Comments Off

Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer – Marty Essen

Posted on June 3, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) Marty Essen is an interesting personality who went from being in the music industry to becoming a political activist and then a travel writer/lecturer covering seven continents. This autobiography has a laid-back narrative that feels like your cousin coming home to tell his stories. Starting with his teenage experience working…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs, Non-fiction | Tagged autobiography, Business, entrepreneur, travel | Comments Off

Barcelona Dreaming – Rupert Thomson

Posted on May 30, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “His discovery that I had been seeing a Moroccan immigrant half my age shocked him even more than the fact that I was implicated in my next-door neighbor’s death. He believed I was trying to destroy myself. Kamikaze behavior, he called it.” “The Giant of Sarrià”, the first in these three…

Posted in Modern Literary Fiction, Short stories | Tagged addiction, Barcelona, class, illegal immigration, race | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Torment – H.D. Hunter

Posted on May 24, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I wish I could tell them how hard it was. How hard it still is. I wish I could tell them that just because a person doesn’t understand what it means to be broken doesn’t mean they can’t tell they aren’t whole. “ This young man plagued with the label of…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged mental illness, modern literary fiction, short books | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: A Rebel in Gaza: Behind the Lines of the Arab Spring, One Woman’s Story – Asmaa al-Ghoul (Author), Selim Nassib (Author), Mike Mitchell (Translator)

Posted on May 18, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I think the real occupying forces are the internal ones, Hamas, Fatah, the parties…then comes the major occupation: Israel. We can’t get rid of the latter without first of all getting rid of the former. To be honest, we are being subjected to a siege of the mind that is much…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged book reviews, Gaza, Hamas, Palestinian crisis | Comments Off

Operation Chaos: The Trump Coup Attempt and the Campaign to Erode Democracy – Kevin James Shay

Posted on May 14, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) It’s bad enough that many Republicans still refuse to accept the validity of the legitimate 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Now congressmen such as Ralph Norman (R-SC), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and others even refuse to acknowledge the violent insurrection of January 6, where Trump supporters demanded the overturn of…

Posted in American Politics, History, Non-fiction, Politics and Social Justice | Tagged authoritarianism, book reviews, democracy, insurrection, political history, racism, Republican party, Trump, White-nationalism | Comments Off

Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance – Erica Dhawan

Posted on May 11, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) Have you ever read an email or text that you felt was curt or angry, only to discover that was not the intention of the sender? Worse, have you been the one who was accused of such? These communication problems are all solvable and Erica Dhawan shows us how in her…

Posted in Business, Non-fiction, Your Best Self | Tagged body language, Business, computers, digital communication, digital signatures, email, IM, technology, texting | Comments Off

Smokescreen: What the Marijuana Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know-Kevin A. Sabet

Posted on May 6, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Heidi A. Swan) Whether you are for marijuana legalization or against it, it is important to understand the truths about the industry and how laws are being made. Additionally, marijuana is a drug, and like every other drug, it has side effects. Full disclosure: I know a few of the people profiled in…

Posted in Non-fiction | Tagged book reviews, drugs, marijuana | Comments Off