Red Blood, Yellow Skin by Linda L.T. Baer

Red Blood, Yellow Skin by Linda L.T. Baer

Publisher: River Grove Books (June 2015)

343 pages, eBook (provided by the publisher for review)

Book Rating: 4 Stars

Content Note: Includes Violence and Sexual Situations

This is a memoir of a young Vietnamese woman’s experience during the hostilities between France and Vietnam, then later between North and South Vietnam. Loan’s father was killed during the hostilities when she was very young, and after her mother remarried, her family was constantly on the move trying to escape the war-torn areas, while struggling to find enough food. Loan eventually sets off on her own to relieve her family of another mouth to feed and heads to Saigon looking for work, at the age of 13. Loan describes a harsh, yet simple existence in the countryside as a youth prone to getting in trouble, and a corrupt, chaotic lifestyle she was drawn into in the big city of Saigon. Very interesting to read from a Vietnamese point-of-view about a time period that we usually only hear from the American GI that was stationed there. Easy read, not overly encumbered by statistics or political history, but very focused on the story of a people caught in the middle of someone else’s fight.

The Mud Dance by Neil Grimmett

The Mud Dance by Neil Grimmett

Publisher: Peach Publishing (June 2016)

191 pages, eBook (purchased myself for $4.99)

Book Rating: 4 Stars

Content Note: Includes Swearing, Sexual Situations, and Violence

Kenny and Larry met at school as young men, and the friendship they forged led to their lives being inextricably linked from then on, as they attempted to make it in the 1970’s heyday of the music business. In many ways, this is the story of the making of a washed-up rock musician, told in all its gritty glory. This isn’t an uplifting or overly hopeful story, but there is something to be said for realism—no glamorization here. Kenny was a very likable narrator, and I often felt he was the victim of bad surroundings and worse company more than anything else. Larry was a sociopathic, brooding musical prodigy of sorts, with a charisma that made him even more dangerous. Interesting story, full of colorful characters. Definitely gives you a little peek into the life of a struggling rock musician, as fame comes and goes, and they come to find their goals and motivations change along the way.