Rating: 
Summary: 5 Star Audio Production - 4 Star Book Review
Review:
This is a review of the Books On Tape Audio version of Cubicles. The book is narrated by full cast (a different person narrating the three main characters). The narration is spectacular. All three characters, Joyce, Margaret and Faulkner have very separate voices, personalities, and ages. The actresses who do the narration are not listed on the jacket but if you can get a copy of the audio version of this book, you will not be dissapointed.
I would not necessarily have taken this book out of the library (as it is a Griot book which is targeted to an African-American audience, which I am not) but picked it up because the premise was one I could relate to. Once I started listening to the story, I couldn't wait to get back into the car to hear more.
The other reviews summarize the plot very well - 3 different women work for a phone company in Texas - all in customer service. Margaret, an older woman in her 50's, is still in the same job she's held her entire career; Joyce has risen the corporate ladder to executive and Faulkner is a rising star and on her way to take over Joyce's job.
Margaret is actually the most interesting character of the three women. She has health problems and children problems and doesn't really put herself first, which does cause even more problems for her.
Faulkner is bright and likeable and ambitious but in a "good" way - she's not too ambitious - she's not cutthroat or devious. She is a good daughter, a good worker, probably every parent's dream.
Joyce is the villian of the novel - she is portrayed as manipulative, evil, and aggressively bitchy - however, she does have a deep dark secret (that actually is relatively easy to figure out earlier in the book). There is one relationship that comes with Joyce's story that did take me by surprise but the wrap up of her ending is why I've given the book only 4 stars instead of 5. Didn't ring quite true.
If you've not been able to get through the written book, try the audio version. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Women 1 Job and Betrayal
Review: *** I DO NOT TELL THE STORY ***This was my first book I've read by Ms. Spencer. It was ok but nothing to write home about. I liked the characters and the story line was not bad. My only problem is the LARGE paragraphs are not so kind to a nearsighted person. It was a little hard for me to get started when the entire first two pages are 1 paragraph. It is just not nice on the eyes at all. I do not see anyone being displeased with the novel. I wil try one of Ms. Spencers other books. She did a ok job but I need more excitement.
Rating: 
Summary: Another hit for Ms Spencer
Review: After a long wait, Ms Spencer is back with another winner in Cubicles. This time she has gone from the comedy of relationships to the seriousness of corporate America. The three women in this book are working for Meridan Southwest phone company. Each has their own agenda about moving up and out of the company. Faulkner is a young go-getter with dreams of being a manager. Joyce is a manager, who has been with the company for years and now has dreams of being an executive. Margaret has been with the company for a long time, seen a lot of things good and bad and now dreams of retirement. But as with corporate America, things don't always go as planned. Ms Spencer deals with the very real issues of sexual harassment in the workplace, illnesses, domestic violence. child neglect and relationships. This was an enjoyable book, one that is hard to put down. It will have you rooting for characters, and shaking your head at the characters and even shedding a few tears. This is a highly recommended book.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Wait
Review: After When All Hell Breaks Loose I could not wait for Camika Spencer's next book. Well the wait is over and I am pleased. Cubicles is about three AA women in coporate America and the decisions that they face. The characters and the office politics in the book felt so real that I felt that I worked at the Meridan phone company! The characters were great. Joyce a perfect example of what can happen when you compromise your principles. Faulkner was young and ambitious. Margaret was a loving and supportive "mother" type. Can't wait for the next book.
Rating:
Summary: Hello, Hello.....
Review: Camika Spencer's new book takes us into the world of Faulkner, Joyce & Margaret. All three women work together at Meridian Southwest phone company. Faulkner is young and ready to climb the corporat ladder, but what price may she have to pay to get to the top? Joyce and Margaret share a secret that takes them back 20 years. What happened to make them barely even acknowledge one another? Camika Spencer gives us a look of the personal and professional lives of these three women. She writes a realistic story and I realy felt like I knew these women. Continued success and blessings to Camika Spencer.
Rating:
Summary: Hello, Hello.....
Review: Camika Spencer's new book takes us into the world of Faulkner, Joyce & Margaret. All three women work together at Meridian Southwest phone company. Faulkner is young and ready to climb the corporat ladder, but what price may she have to pay to get to the top? Joyce and Margaret share a secret that takes them back 20 years. What happened to make them barely even acknowledge one another? Camika Spencer gives us a look of the personal and professional lives of these three women. She writes a realistic story and I realy felt like I knew these women. Continued success and blessings to Camika Spencer.
Rating: 
Summary: Mo Drama Fo Yo Mama!
Review: Cubicles is a novel that has a great premise: drama in the workplace. The book focuses on three women at the Meridian Southwest phone company: Faulkner, an ambitious young manager; Joyce, her hard-nosed, power hungry boss; and Margaret, the motherly employee who has nurtured both women as she watched them rise to power -- while standing still herself. What I enjoyed about the novel is that as women, Faulkner, Joyce and Margaret each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and strive to accomplish their own goals. Camika Spencer illustrates that these ladies have personal lives outside the workplace, which definitely have an effect on their workplace demeanor. Faulkner appears to be a pushover; Joyce is battling demons from her past; and Margaret has a lazy, self-absorbed daughter. Although the book can be a little tedious at times and the dialogue a little stilted, Cubicles is definitely an excellent take on workplace fiction.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT novel full of intricate characters and plotlines
Review: Cubicles is an excellent novel by author, Camika Spencer. In just one novel, the reader is immersed with intricate characters, racism in the workforce, complex family situations, sisters and dating, friendship, and the backbiting that goes on in corporate America, among other intriguing storylines. Cubicles intertwines the lives of three African American women, who on the surface couldn't be more different if they tried, but through their jobs at Meridian Southwest, their lives connect in friendship, backbiting and mystery. Faulkner is a young sister with a go-getter personality, who is working twice as hard to get her due at the company. Joyce is her demanding boss, a sister with a past full of pain, but prefers to cover her past and treat everyone beneath like garbage. Margaret is a 60-year-old that works under Joyce and finds her self having familial problems, health issues, and a past secret that involves her and Joyce. Cubicles spans a few weeks in the lives of these characters that culminates to reveal secrets that were buried decades earlier. I LOVED Cubicles. I was really drawn into the characters and their lives. Spencer deepens her character development by providing characters that make you hate them one minute, love them one minute, and ache to make them see the light, in the next. I HIGHLY recommend this novel to readers for the characters are well drawn out and the storylines push you to keep reading. I am definitely going to pick up Spencer's first novel, and I look forward to her next literary effort. Shon Bacon
Rating:
Summary: Office Space
Review: Faulkner Lorraine is a beautiful, young call center supervisor on the way up at Meridian Southwest Telephone. She is meticulous at her job and supervises sternly, but also with her heart. She cares about the people who work for her and takes the time to get to know them and to lead them on the road to self-improvement in their job performances. Faulkner loves her job and aspires to a higher position with the company; unfortunately there is one very large obstacle that she has to overcome, her boss Joyce Armstrong. Joyce Armstrong is the successful, stylish and aggressive Customer Operations Manager at Meridian Southwest Telephone. She is often viewed by those who work for her as ruthless, conniving and back stabbing. In reality Joyce is not the evil person that people perceive her to be. She is really a woman holding a lot of secrets, pain and insecurity inside. She feels that if she allows her employees to see her as a real person that they will walk all over her. Margaret Eddye is a proud woman, she has been with Meridian Southwest Telephone for over thirty years and should be thinking about retirement. However, life does not always go as planned. Margaret's daughter Lisa and Lisa's two daughters have moved back home with Margaret and her husband Lester. Emotions and pocketbooks are strained. To make matters worse, Margaret has high blood pressure and does not take care of herself. She is more concerned with others and their well being. Faulkner, Joyce and Margaret are three very different women, that are very much the same. All of these women have a common bond and they don't even realize it. They all hold a secret that if shared with one another could have made life much easier for them all. Author Camika Spencer has jumped back into the literary scene with both feet. In her new novel Cubicles she shows us that work is more than just that small doorless space that many of us in the working world would occupy for at least 40 hours a week. I really enjoyed this book and beg Ms. Spencer not to stay away another 2 years before she releases her next novel. Reviewed by Simone A. Hawks
Rating: 
Summary: Alright
Review: I read another one of Spencer's books and I enjoyed the character Ms. Coleman so much that when I saw her in another book, I couldn't get to the register fast enough. But this book was really lame. It started off with a really strong plot with a woman who was working at a job she didn't enjoy, without the recognition she deserved, a devil for a boss, and some really entertaining co-workers. I even enjoyed the subtle ways that the author told women to do monthly checks for cancer and the doctor's visit, etc. It was useful, whether we wanted to know it or not and it needed to be told. But then after one bad thing happened (that was pretty realistic and caught me offguard a little), then the rest turned into LaLa land. I hate it when authors write books about people who become writers. It's so cliche. And then to become a bestseller with a line around the corner, people getting married, people buying houses, people having children out of nowhere, graduating, and all--it would've been cool if it was two or three things, but this author went over the top and almost made this book into a Fairy Tale. I'm not into Fairy Tales. I'm into real life and in real life, this kinda stuff never works out this squeaky clean. Ms. Coleman was real. Margaret was real. Joyce was real. Teresa was a pleasure to read about. But the main character, the most important character in the whole story, was just way too storybook for me. I like that she didn't give in to certain circumstances, but the ending? If it wasn't for the ending, I probably would've liked the book more. Also, the constant Nino Symone references. We get it! You like the woman. It's no need to point it out fifty times. This is supposed to be fiction, right?
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