Arid – Anne Joyce

Posted on August 17, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Jeyran Main) Arid is a dystopian futuristic story and environmental cautionary tale where a group of moguls has created an unbearable living situation. Joshua, Xiomara, and others are all fighting to simply survive the situation and to provide vital resources, such as water. The Purifiers who are the ones forced out of their…

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Shades: Detroit Love Stories – Esperanza M. Cintrón

Posted on August 13, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) It’s the 1960s and we follow two women into a bar who just want a diversion from the hardships of everyday life. From there, Shades draws us in and takes hold of us through the entire eighteen interwoven stories. We learn the raw truth about girlfriends, lovers, family and just trying…

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The 6:41 to Paris – Jean-Philippe Blondel, (Translated from the French by Alison Anderson)

Posted on August 10, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “What I feel now is pure hatred. And that surprises me---because I’m not like that, particularly toward someone I haven’t seen in what must be at least twentyfive years…I can’t help but sneak looks at him.” Forty-seven-year-old Cécille Duffant is traveling on the 6:41 train back to Paris as she often…

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

Posted on August 7, 2019 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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Secrets To Being Amazing: What confident people don’t do – Denise Wijayaratne

Posted on August 5, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Self- awareness is the first step to change, and to a better world.” “Find the good things you like about yourself and focus all your time on that. If somebody says something unpleasant about you, ask yourself if that’s true. If the answer is yes, then the next question is, what…

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Dark Cure: Lifesaving medical research or dangerous genetic modification? – Cameron K. Moore

Posted on August 1, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Matt McAvoy) Dark Cure  is not really what I was expecting, but the surprise was a rather welcome one. Whilst I was anticipating some sort of medical-corporate legal thriller, this is actually a fully-fledged actioner, somewhere between “Die Hard” and “Universal Soldier”, though with a great deal more maturity; the more fun part…

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PREACHER AND CO – Brendon Boone

Posted on July 29, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Christopher J. Lynch) There’s an old saying in writing, ‘Readers don’t care about stories, they care about people.’ And that’s exactly what author Brendon Boone does; he makes us care about his characters from the very first page. A historical novel set at the conclusion of the Civil War in the Deep South,…

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Sleepless Night – Margriet de Moor (Translated from the Dutch by David Doherty)

Posted on July 24, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The love, the hatred, the fascination with everything he had or had not done, fascination that spiraled into fervid curiosity. Into obsession. Into madness.” A teacher combats her insomnia by baking cakes in the middle of the night. In between, she plays scenes in her head from her short marriage. Why…

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DART – Dale Renton

Posted on July 19, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Matt McAvoy) At first sight this sci-fi action fantasy hybrid seems to be similar to many others, but in reality, it is quite better than the average. Set on a terraformed planet, 600 years from now, Dart has not only the very current cautionary messages about the environment and the fears of mass…

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Torn from the World: A Guerrilla’s Escape from a Secret Prison in Mexico – John Gibler

Posted on July 15, 2019 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “This word: disappeared. They have so many ways of erasing you, “of trying to make you doubt the truth of your own life.” After five days, after every two hours, after only having felt a world of pain with no horizon, it is a word that breaks you, that wounds you…

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