We Are Bridges: A Memoir – Cassandra Lane

Posted on May 2, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by Ann Onymous ) “We are bridges made of blood and water, soil and skin.” Yes, we are bridges: connecting our present to our past and to our future. Cassandra Lane’s great-grandfather was named Burt Bridges. He was lynched in Mississippi in 1904. This event permanently imposed its imprint on Cassandra’s psyche and all…

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A Sunday in Ville-d’Avray – Dominique Barbéris (Author), John Cullen (Translator)

Posted on April 29, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) “My sister had always been incapable of choosing. She was also incapable of breaking off the relationship…She was yielding little by little—I see that now, and something in me understood her---to the novel-like element he imported into her life. And natural curiosity also played a part. “ Two sisters have a…

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The Man Who Lived Underground – Richard Wright, Afterward by Malcolm Wright

Posted on April 26, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “…even though his entire body was drenched in what seemed to him a cloud of hot vapor, even though his throat gagged at the reeking odors, he felt that he was safe for the first time in many long and weary hours…” Fred Daniels, a twenty-nine-year-old black man in an unnamed…

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A Pocketful Of Confidence: Self-help for the confidence-challenged – Nancy Lombardo

Posted on April 21, 2021 by J D Jung

(Review and poem by Betty Jo Tucker) A helpful book to live by, folks. filled with secrets and even jokes. “A Pocketful of Confidence” Includes great tips that make good sense. Easy reading and lots of fun Your life will change when you are done. Your self-confidence will increase. And shyness stopping you should cease.…

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Revisited Again – Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Posted on April 17, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The militias referred to in the Second Amendment were intended as a means for white people to eliminate Indigenous communities in order take their land, and for slave patrols to control Black people.” American historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues that understanding the history and reasoning behind the Second Amendment is crucial in…

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The Last Twist of the Knife – João Almino (Author), Elizabeth Lowe (Translator)

Posted on April 12, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) “Pieces of the past arrive that either frighten me or invite me to a reunion. It’s what I see, what I hear. The rest I imagine…” A seventy-year-old lawyer decides to abandon his current life in Brasília and move back to his hometown in the Northeast, buying a small ranch in…

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Shackles of the Storm – D. Kardenal & L. Kardenal

Posted on April 9, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Jeyran Main) Shackles of the Storm is the first book in the Spirits of Seiran series. The story is set in the seaside port city of Kahlaran. The story begins with Zaira, the adopted daughter of a perfumer accused of a double murder alongside her foster-father. As they both flee, Zaira discovers a…

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Eat the Mouth That Feeds You – Carribean Fragoza

Posted on April 4, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) “Since always, our paths had been broken. And yet we insisted on finding our way back to each other.” Yes, families can have a strange and complex dynamic. This is but one major theme in the riveting stories of Eat the Mouth That Feeds You. These eclectic short but powerful stories…

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Death in a Bookstore: An Inspector De Vincenzi Mystery – Augusto De Angelis

Posted on March 30, 2021 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) Inspector Carlo De Vincenzi is faced with one of his toughest assignments yet. Senator Prof. Ugo Magni was found shot to death in a Milan antiquarian bookstore. On the shelf just above the body, a book of erotica: La Zaffetta – Venetia 1531, was missing. Could this be a clue to…

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The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi – Richard Grant

Posted on March 26, 2021 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) I admit that I have never been to Natchez, Mississippi, but it seems to be a town full of contradictions. British travel writer Richard Grant accentuates this superbly as he relays his accounts and interviews with both black and white residents, in between revealing the true history of this city in…

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