bookshelf

TOO CUBED UNAUTHORIZED

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

VOLUME I

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

- SEEN & HEARD
The Snowy Day Is NYC Library’s Most Popular Book

- SEEN & HEARD
ALA Releases List of 2020’s Most Challenged Books

- SEEN & HEARD
NYT Readers Voting on Best Book of Past 125 Years

bookshelf

DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

bookshelf

Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).