McHuston Booksellers

Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: Pryor (Page 50 of 105)

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.

informationist

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

Get out der bleistift and make a list!

June 11, 2014 /

When my friend Joe got back from Germany, he had a new vocabulary that he eagerly shared with me. Not a lot of words, but some used universally. We were sixth-graders and the only bi-lingual cussers on the playground. It’s certainly a thing of wonder, the fact that I can remember those phrases after all this time, but have to look up the website password.

Thought about Joe when the Book of EVERYDAY WORDS in German came into the shop today. It’s a safe assumption that my old buddy’s words aren’t included in this book. And I’m sure it’s because I don’t get out enough, but some of the Everyday Words that are included in the book aren’t on my daily list of spoken words. (Joe’s German phrases don’t get used by me either…)

Das Krokodil. Really? Do the rest of you talk about crocodiles every day?

Despite my lack of German language skills, I can translate some of these without the little picture guide. Das Toilettenpapier, for example. Now, there’s an everyday word.

I could have figured that a bikini is a bikini in any language, and I’m not surprised that an orange is an orange and an avocado is just the same, both here and there. And in Hamburg, the hamburgers are cooked on Der Grill, just like in your own backyard.

Couldn’t find the word for book, naturally. But I’ve found plenty of new book titles.

Some of the recent arrivals have already departed. Michael Korda’s new biography of Robert E. Lee – Clouds of Glory – is out of stock, but on order. There are other new titles on the shelves, though.

Diana Gabaldon’s latest in the Outlander series was released this week, and Written in my Own Heart’s Blood catches up with Jamie and Claire shortly after the American Revolution. There is intrigue anew and secrets revealed in the latest installment, which already has a four-star review on Amazon. (Don’t know how folks could have already finished reading the thing – it’s an 848 pager.)

The title that has been flying off the shelf?

The Fault in our Stars, by John Green. Part of the sales have been driven by the release of the movie version, but it has been a steady seller for the past few months. Passionate fans, too. A young lady spotted it as she walked by, picked it up, and gave it a smooch before setting it back on its easel.

We also have a smooch-free copy, if you prefer.

The nice Dickens set has been sent home with a good family. 130-old volumes that were nicely kept and will look great on their bookshelf. You’ll find some new copies of older titles in stock too, like a Lord of the Rings anthology (the complete trilogy in a single book), the Hunger Games, a boxed set of the Ender’s Game series, and others.

They’re forecasting more showers. Makes for good reading.

Come visit!

McHuston

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

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