McHuston Booksellers

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Tag: Bookstore (Page 46 of 117)

A long day. Really. Summer Solstice.

June 21, 2014 /

Too many years ago to count, I moved to Tulsa with a rock and roll band intent on playing the clubs. Yeah. That worked out.

There were some capital-G guitarists back then, but it was the leading edge of the change. Guitar-bangers like me got kicked to the curb in favor of folks that were taking lead guitar playing from a picka-picka style to something approaching virtuosity. We’d heard Plant and Clapton and Zappa. (Yeah. Frank Zappa. YouTube him. He WAS that good.) These guys were the exceptions.

Only, at some point – they weren’t anymore. Sure they had their experience and signature licks and people looked to them to imitate. One day everybody with a Strat woke up and could make their fingers fly and they just needed a singer to front their fretwork.

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It’s the Summer Solstice. Longest day of the year. Maybe the hottest so far, too. There are plenty of folks gathered in the Rose District this evening, sampling food truck provisions and looking over the festival wares: tie-dye tees, craftwork, and jewelry. There’s an old Royal typewriter under a canopy with a tag. $40. A little steep, I think, for a non-starter.

But the guy up on the stage? Kicked off his set with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that mimicked Hendrix in a mighty-fine fashion, then – midway through it – drifted off into some other machinegun musical assault. I’m thinking right off the bat that the guy has picked up a guitar before this evening. Once or twice.

In fact, back in the days when I was doing a sideman bit for DeWayne (a gifted guitarist in his own right: RIP), this guy playing on a flatbed on Main Street could have been knocking them dead at the Fillmore. (You can Google that venue, you whippersnappers.)

It makes me wonder just how many excellent guitar pickers are huddled in their living rooms hacking away and doing it ten times better than all but the cream of the crop did it not so many years ago. (Okay. Okay. So, it was a good while ago. The point is, the state of guitar playing has evolved greatly from back then to now.)

Don’t know how the first Summer Solstice festival in the Rose District will measure up, but between the heat, the hot licks, and the hot dogs, a bunch of folks ought to leave happy when it’s all sung and done.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

The heat of the hunt: Summer style.

June 18, 2014 /

I carried the two small bags out to her car, which was parked at the far end of the block. “I’ll set them in the back seat for you,” I said.

“I’m so excited,” she replied.

The object of her anticipation was at the bottom of the Saks cord-handled bag, but I know it will be the first book she’ll dig out of it. From the titles she had carried up to the register I knew she was a candidate for a Vanessa Michael Munroe story.

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It probably shouldn’t, but I still get a little surprised when a little lady – struggling to keep a grip on three or four paperbacks at a time – has such a firm grasp on espionage and suspense stories. I had intended to suggest author Daniel Silva based on the titles she had already chosen, but when I offered to carry her selections up to the front, I noticed two of Silva’s books were already among them.

“Can you think of someone else I might like?” she asked, after I’d already offered up Lee Child, Nelson DeMille, and Stieg Larsson. (She’d already gone through all those.)

“Do you ever read a hardback?” I asked, and then brought over a copy of The Informationist. “It has a woman character that’s a little like Jason Bourne, James Bond, and Lizbeth Salander rolled into one.”

She decided to give it a try, even though she said hardbacks are tough to read in bed. (I have the same experience. Just as I begin to nod off, the book topples over and bonks me on the forehead.)

Author Taylor Stevens has been up late pounding at the keyboard. She’s the force behind the Monroe series, has a novella just released and a hardback due this summer. THE VESSEL is a great fill-in-the-blanks story. I’m sure you’ve experienced one of those – a book that leaves a character’s outcome unsettled, or a question unanswered. The “vessel” is the ship the bad guy sailed away on in a previous episode.

Needless to say, he’s looking over his shoulder. As Vanessa Michael Munroe notes early on, “He has to be.”

When Count of Monte Cristo is placed on the checkout counter, I always think – now THERE is a revenge story. THE VESSEL is a little like that, except Munroe isn’t so much out to get even, personally, as she is intending to put a stop to the bad guy’s activities. More of stalker story than a tale of retribution, and one that allows the author’s character to flex her muscles – both physically and mentally.

Never thought I’d be pointing anyone toward an eReader, but unfortunately (for a bookseller), that’s the way THE VESSEL has been released. The good news for you Kindle’rs, iPad owners, and Nook-ers, is that the ninety-nine cents you’ll spend for a digital copy will be the best less-than-a-dollar you’ll spend this summer. (Even ice cream cones are more than that, these days…)

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow, OK! 74012

Muchas Smooches, said Hobbes.

June 2, 2014 /

Some books are comfort food for the heart. Just looking at them can transport you to a different time and place, and maybe even inspire a smile.

Calvin and Hobbes have that effect on me.

One of my simple pleasures, way back when, was the Sunday Tulsa World – back when it was a big, big newspaper. Size of a fireplace log. Not that it was important to strain a back picking up from the driveway, but I just remember it that way. These days the paper is considerably smaller. (Carriers probably prefer the current version.)

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There were a couple of features that were always worthwhile, even when it was a slow sports week. Dave Barry’s column and Calvin and Hobbes.

More than once I had trouble getting through Mr. Barry’s column. It got to be a common practice that I would read it aloud so my wife and I could enjoy it at the same time. When Dave was hitting on all cylinders I’d be laughing so hard it was difficult to speak. It made for an uplifting way to start off the Sunday.

We both enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes, but it just wasn’t a read-out-loud feature. The fun was in the artwork. The comic strip was drawn by an artist named Bill Watterson for a ten year period beginning in late 1985. Some of you will have grown up without ever having seen it in a daily paper.

And that’s a shame. Calvin is an ornery six year old, and Hobbes is his Tiger. The trick of the feature is that – while everyone else sees Hobbes as a stuffed toy – Calvin and the readers see the tiger as a living, breathing, fun-loving sidekick.

Just like it made my Sundays, I was really tickled to come across a huge stack of the collected comic strips in paperback. Pristine copies, too.

Even though it has been years since I’ve seen them, when I flipped one over to look at the back, I immediately remembered Spaceman Spiff. You C & H fans will remember Calvin’s trips into deep space, where he assumed his alter ego.

When Mr Watterson first introduced Calvin, I wondered about the economy of his artwork. The kid’s hair is little more than a squiggled line and his mouth is usually a triangle. Working with such a simple form, I was amazed at the range of emotions that were depicted. And the background art?

Stuff worthy of framed canvas.

Mr Watterson was able to fill his Sunday comic strip with outrageous depictions of Calvin’s imagination, from dinosaurs, to space travel, to ingenious snow sculpture. (Calvin’s projects were always more than just snowmen.)

They’re priced individually, but if you’re in need of a twenty-years-later Calvin & Hobbes fix, I’ll make you such a deal on the entire lot.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

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