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TOO CUBED UNAUTHORIZED

Name: TOO CUBED UNAUTHORIZED
Author: Lonna Mae
ISBN: 978-0984598106

VOLUME I

by Lonna Mae ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 2011

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The early days of a jam band show it’s all been a long, strange trip.

Although this debut novel from the pseudonymous Mae opens with the demise of jam band Too Cubed, it’s not long before the story finds its true beginning: the back story of the original four members and how they bond through their love of psychedelic music and a fabulously pure and potent form of acid. This first installment of a four-book series—with a fifth volume available for reference—takes readers from the early days of Too Cubed until they are poised for takeoff with a new bassist in tow. Like-minded souls Stan, Max, Bert and Trip rally behind Stan’s controlling nature. The eight man lineup, musically structured like the Grateful Dead, drops acid nonstop and endeavors to stretch musical boundaries while seeking collective enlightenment. Each of the four main characters is written with a distinct, stereotype-free personality, as is Olly, the Hawaiian drummer Stan encounters on vacation and coaxes into leaving paradise for the cold Massachusetts winter. Too much of the text, however, is given over to Grateful Dead shows, drug dealing and dropping acid; passages describing concerts, parties and hallucinations drag. But when the band members are allowed to roam the page, a wonderfully hypnotic narrative rhythm develops and it’s hard to put the book down. While there’s not much at stake for the band—small problems are glossed over and big ones dealt with by a literal stroll on thin ice—it’s clear the next volume will pick up where this one ends. The unconventional novelistic structure is as gleefully loose and laid back as the band whose story it tells. Seasoned veterans of the psychedelic music scene may see parallels to modern-day band Phish but the heavy drug use may turn off outsiders.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2011

ISBN: 978-0984598106

Page Count: 394

Publisher: Lonna Mae Enterprises

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
TOO CUBED UNAUTHORIZED
by Lonna Mae

- BOOK REVIEW
TOO CUBED UNAUTHORIZED
by Lonna Mae

- BOOK REVIEW
TOO CUBED UNAUTHORIZED
by Lonna Mae

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.