Underrated Reads

Fire and Vengeance (Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery Book 3) – Robert McCaw

Posted on June 18, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) When I first started reading Fire and Vengeance, I didn’t know what I was in for. What I soon realized was that I was experiencing a thrilling murder mystery amidst the gorgeous Big Island in Hawaii. A volcanic explosion that destroyed a school building with multiple casualties just looked like an…

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

How Speleology Restored My Sex Drive – Michael Bernhart

Posted on June 12, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) A thrilling romp with twists and turns and more fun than should be legal. I’ll be honest when I say that I didn’t expect much when I read the description of this book and agreed to review it. To me, it seemed as if the author had way too bizarre…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Humor & Satire | Tagged humor, thrillers | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited – We Are Taking Only What We Need: Stories – Stephanie Powell Watts

Posted on June 6, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “What was I thinking? The restaurant was a fishbowl full of floor-to-ceiling windows. Just beyond the parking lot Highway 18 looked like a runway, a straight shot, launching me anywhere…until my eyes settled on the across-the-street hamburger joint…making me forget that I was in the middle of my life, in the…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged African-American, North Carolina, rural America | Comments Off

Ivy is a Weed- Robert Morse Roseth

Posted on June 1, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) A public relations director for a university, Mike Woodsen, is called by the campus police to the scene of the dead Information Technology department head. This popular professor, Jeremy Ronson, apparently fell from a four-story campus building. Was it an accident, a suicide or possibly a murder? Mike Woodsen reviews the…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers | Tagged crime fiction, university politics | Comments Off

There Has to Be a Knife – Adnan Khan

Posted on May 25, 2020 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) < “Those pleasures that I always had access to with her---the tactile, her body, food, her laugh---I knew I would have to keep her away from my darkness to preserve them. I wanted too many shallow, pleasant insights, and quick repetitive happiness; I did not want to risk discovery. I did…

Posted in Culture, Modern Literary Fiction | Tagged Canada, class conflict, grief, Islam, mysogeny, Toronto | Comments Off

Sins in Blue – Brian Kaufman

Posted on May 21, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) “Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable,” said Janis Joplin. Sins in Blue is a story of an unhappy bluesman who is rediscovered by a young college student trying to revive his career. Willie Johnson is a poor white blues guitarist who grew up during the Depression and lives with…

Posted in Culture, Historical Fiction, Music inspired | Tagged blues, depression-era, music | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited and in Remembrance: Eddie: The Life and Times of America’s Preeminent Bad Boy – Ken Osmond and Christopher J. Lynch

Posted on May 18, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) This "revisited" post is in remembrance of Ken Osmond (1943-2020) who passed away yesterday. “…unlike the warriors’ Valkyrie, the Hollywood version didn't let you know that you were going to die immediately; you were baited, strung along, and then let down to die a slow, lingering death. And like every actor,…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged biography, classic television | Comments Off

Dance with the Clouds: Backpacking the World That Was – Carl B. Yong

Posted on May 15, 2020 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) Dance with the Clouds by Carl B. Yong was a very enjoyable read and kept my interest from the first page to the last. The book chronicles Yong’s around- the- world backpacking journey in the early 90’s and lands the reader in many exotic and far-flung locales. Yong has…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs | Tagged backpacking, travel | Comments Off

Berkeley Noir (Akashic Noir Series) edited by Jerry Thompson and Owen Hill

Posted on May 12, 2020 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) “I arrived in Berkeley, back in 1991. A Berkeley that seemed to be still living off the fumes of the late sixties, which were fumes so strong you might just want to breathe them in all your life, especially when you add a car and a redwood hot tub.” How do…

Posted in Dark/Sordid/Bizarre, Short stories | Tagged dark, noir, San Francisco, short stories | Comments Off

Instant Pot, please, make my day! – A.J. May

Posted on May 6, 2020 by J D Jung

(reviewed by JD Jung) On the last Cyber Monday, I found an Instant Pot on sale at over 50% off. This appliance was totally off my radar. but at that price, with its rave reviews, I just had to get one. Upon receiving it and opening up the instructions, I felt so intimidated, that I…

Posted in Food & Cooking | Tagged cooking, Cooking techniques | Comments Off