Book picks similar to
Tiger in a Trance by Max Ludington


music
grateful-dead
contemporary-fiction
hippies

Lemonade Mouth


Mark Peter Hughes - 2007
    Geniuses. Revolutionaries.The members of the legendary band Lemonade Mouth have been called all of these things. But until now, nobody's known the inside story of how this powerhouse band came to be. How five outcasts in Opoquonsett High School's freshman class found each other, found the music, and went on to change both rock and roll and high school as we know it. Wen, Stella, Charlie, Olivia, and Mo take us back to that fateful detention where a dentist's jingle, a teacher's coughing fit, and a beat-up ukelele gave birth to Rhode Island's most influential band. Told in each of their five voices and compiled by Opoquonsett's "scene queen," freshman Naomi Fishmeier, this anthology is their definitive history.

Finding Tipperary Mary: Two different lives, one heartbreaking secret


Phyllis Whitsell - 2015
    It was as if I had made some kind of connection with her. Even at such a young age, I found it difficult to understand, but I always feared that she was in danger and needed my prayers. It was the only thing at the time that I could do for her. I feared that she might be coming to some harm and that she was not happy, but I was helpless and had nobody to talk to about my feelings. The only thing at that time was to pray that her guardian angel would take care of her and keep her from harm.’ Phyllis Whitsell began the search for her birth mother as a young woman ¨C and although it was many years before she finally met her, their lives had crossed on the journey without their knowledge. When they both eventually sat down together ¨C the circumstances were extraordinary, moving and ultimately life-changing. This is a daughter’s personal account of the remarkable relationship that grew from abandonment into love, understanding and selfless care.

Unplugged


Joe Barrett - 2020
    The only problem is, he doesn't want any of it. And the endless distractions of digitized society give him no head space to figure out what he does want.So, Dan unplugs. He abandons all things digital technology, effectively retreating from society to live an analog lifestyle geared at perfecting the art of avoidance. When a case of mistaken identity launches Dan into a series of bizarro relationships and absurd events, it represents an unexpected path to reconnect him with a world he never knew existed.Dark, offbeat and laugh-out-loud funny, Unplugged is a coming of middle-age story about finding authentic connections and meaning in today's hyper-digitized society.

Streetlights Like Fireworks


David Pandolfe - 2014
    That’s just their first date.Jack has been getting on his parents’ nerves for some time. Bad enough he’s a rock musician, has crappy grades and hangs out with his “loser” friends. But Jack’s ability to predict the future — well, that just annoys the hell out of them.Jack’s classmate, Lauren, is said to have unique abilities too. The town still talks about when she kept badgering her mother about the money in their wall. For the longest time, Lauren’s mother didn’t listen. Finally, she did and she hasn’t had to work since. Jack would really like to connect with Lauren but can’t figure out how. She’s never looked at him twice. But when he experiences a mystifying event involving visions, voices and spectral visits, Jack figures there’s only one person to help him understand who’s calling out to him and why. Before long, Jack and Lauren are off on a road trip of discovery that could provide answers to a mystery left unsolved for twenty years. More importantly, they might even unravel the greatest mystery of all — how every so often someone will accept you for who you are.

Guitar Man: A Six-String Odyssey, or, You Love that Guitar More than You Love Me


Will Hodgkinson - 2006
    It is portable, it has history, and it will always be hip. But why has the guitar become such a classic? Will Hodgkinson, a wannabe guitar player, whose only experience was an afternoon's bashing on a friend's guitar at the age of sixteen, set out to find out. Along the way he hoped to teach himself a few chords too. His goal was to get good enough to play before a live audience in just six months--even if it threatened to drive his wife and family to the point of insanity. His trip becomes an odyssey: He chats with British folk legend Bert Jansch, ex-Smith's guitarist Johnny Marr, and reclusive folk guitar legend Davey Graham, as well as Sufjan Stevens, PJ Harvey, and Cat Power's chanteuse Chan Marshall. He travels to America and with a hurricane brewing visits Roger McGuinn from the Byrds. He travels to the Deep South, looking for the spirit of Robert Johnson, and drops in on T-Model Ford, an old bluesman living in Mississippi. Gloriously readable and highly amusing, Guitar Man is classic obsessional nonfiction for a nation of guitar freaks.

Let Them Eat Cake


Sandra Byrd - 2007
    She’s done with college but still living at home, ready to launch a career but unable to find a job, and solidly stalled between boyfriends. When a lighthearted conversation in French with the manager of her favorite bakery turns into a job offer, Lexi accepts. But the actual glamour is minimal: the pay is less than generous, her co-workers are skeptical, her bank account remains vertically-challenged, and her parents are perpetually disappointed. Her only comfort comes from the flirtatious baker she has her eye–but even may not be who he seems to be!So when a handsome young executive dashes into the bakery to pick up his high profile company’s special order for an important meeting–an order Lexi has flubbed– she loses her compulsion to please. “What am I going to do?” he shouts. “Let them eat cake!” she fires back with equal passion and a nod to Marie Antoinette. And then, something inside Lexi clicks. Laissez la révolution commencer! Let the revolution begin! Instead of trying to fulfill everyone else’s expectations for her life, Lexi embarks on an adventure in trusting God with her future–très bon!This book is written from a lightly, organically, Christian world view.

A Natural Woman


Lori Johnson - 2009
    From the fresh new talent behind "After the Dance" comes a sparkling novel with charm, wit, and a side of Southern hospitality.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone


Stephanie Kuehnert - 2008
    The Clash. Social Distortion. Dead Kennedys. Patti Smith. The Ramones. Punk rock is in Emily Black's blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back. Now Emily's all grown up with a punk band of her own, determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn't it lead her right back to Emily?

The Stork Club


Iris Rainer Dart - 1992
    Rick is famous movie director on the brink of his fiftieth birthday. Despite his wealth and his many conquests, he's floundering until he decides to adopt a baby.Ruthie and Shelly are the hottest comedy writers in Hollywood, and lifelong best friends. But their real partnership begins when they decide to create a baby together, even though Shelly is gay and Ruthie is straight. Lainie and Mitch spent years building a strong marriage and a very exclusive boutique. Although Lainie's health prohibits her from becoming pregnant, Mitch decides that he must father a child.These families find their way to the office of Barbara Singer, child psychologist, with whom they form a unique parenting group they whimsically nickname the Stork Club. Through laugh-out-loud episodes and tearful scenes, Iris Rainer Dart has created a universal story about the transforming power of raising a child. Prepare to lose your heart to the members of the Stork Club, who give new meaning to the term "designer genes."

Joe Café


J.D. Mader - 2011
    It stops the entire universe. For Michael, it tarnishes everything, including his badge. For Chet and his hostage, it is the beginning of a chase that will lead them through dingy motels and the darkest corridors of their minds. Dogan just wants Sara back. Jimmy the Cat wants to make up for all the time he has wasted. Frankie wants to live a 'moral' life, erasing everyone in his path who does not live up to his standards. Conventional notions of good and evil quickly blur as they are all forced to look into the mirrors they have avoided for so long. Chilling and horrifying, whimsical and wretched, Joe Café's cast of broken characters try to find their way in a world they never understood to begin with...for the Chens, it is easy. They are dead.

50 World’s Greatest Short Stories


Various - 2017
    book

I Always Cry at Weddings


Sara Goff - 2015
    At least until she realizes her relationship isn't what it should be. Then, in a move as daring as a red satin dress, she does the unthinkable - she calls it all off and makes a promise to God that from now on, she'll save sex for marriage.She's convinced the future is hers for the taking, especially when an undercover cop promises a new romance...and an unexpected friendship with the homeless guy under her stoop brightens her days.But when her carefully balanced life teeters out of control, weddings aren't the only thing to make her cry. Ava has to figure out what life she really wants to live... and what is the world love really means.

One Pill Makes You Smaller: A Novel


Lisa Dierbeck - 2003
    Gawky, innocent, and tongue-tied, Alice is taller than her teachers, with long, long legs and a voluptuous chest she refers to it as "The Breasts."One Pill Makes You Smaller brings to life the surreal experience of being a girl--stuck in a woman's body. Dierbeck shoots down the rabbit hole of 1970s misbehavior, combining her modern tale with the fantastic universe of Alice in Wonderland, set in the black-lit, drug-infested art world of Andy Warhol's Manhattan. When Alice is shipped off to a freethinking art camp in North Carolina, she encounters J.D., a sweet-talking adult man who engages her in a dangerous flirtation. This deliciously pop, self-assured debut is an inspired paean to lost innocence.

Before You Leap


Keith Houghton - 2016
    But when Scarlett’s killer is released early from prison with a cast-iron alibi, Greg realizes that his past is about to explode into his present, with terrifying consequences.To expose the truth he must open up old wounds. As a talk therapist, Greg knows all about dark secrets, but when a childhood friendship comes to the fore and the police turn their spotlight on him, the thought of analyzing his own psyche is a disturbing prospect. How far can he trust his own memories?With his life coming apart at the seams, and his grip on reality beginning to unravel, Greg must face the ghosts of his past if he hopes to prove his innocence and live to see another day.

Notorious C.O.P.: The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay Investigations from NYPD's First "Hip-Hop Cop"


Derrick Parker - 2000
     Always straddling the fence between "po-po" and NYPD outsider, Derrick threatened police tradition to try to get the cases solved. He was the first detective to interview an informant offering a detailed account of Biggie Smalls's murder. He protected one of the only surviving eyewitnesses to the Jam Master Jay murder and knows the identity of the killers as well as the motivation behind the shooting. "Notorious C.O.P. "reveals hip-hop crimes that never made the paper--like the robbing of Foxy Brown and the first Hot 97 shooting--and answers some lingering questions about murders that have remained unsolved. The book that both the NYPD and the hip-hop community don't want you to read, "Notorious C.O.P. "is the first insider look at the real links between crime and hip-hop and the inefficiencies that have left some of the most widely publicized murders in entertainment history unsolved.