The Loop Holiday Walk is this Saturday, Dec. 1.  We’ll have hot cider, baked goods by Victoria, and gift certificate drawings.  If you buy something on Sat. you’re automatically put into the pot to possibly win a gift certificate.  There will be three $25 certificates. Officially it’s our Grand Reopening festivities.  We never actually closed during [...]

A friend of mine recently got an assistant’s position with James Ellroy’s literary agent. Now Ellroy is one of my favorite writers, but I hadn’t been in the mood for his work in the last year or so. My friend’s news changed that. She wanted a list of his books that she should read first—which I [...]

Danika calls us the clan.  We cried when she left (and immediately started planning a trip to India) but we’re lucky enough to have found an equally as wonderful replacement. Meet Victoria.  Half British and named after three queens, she will greet you warmly and openly and immediately set about deciphering what the perfect book [...]

*Giant 33 1/3 order  including Guided by Voices’ Bee Thousand, Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime (great album), and Use Your Illusion I & II of Guns N’ Roses –I wish they’d done Welcome to the Jungle. ($9.99 and $10.99, paper) *Jabberwocky, a kids’ picture book re-imagined as a basketball story by Christopher Myers.  Wacky [...]

The Elizabeth Little event for Biting the Wax Tadpole is tonight (Mon) at 7pm at the store.   Free. Copies of the book are available for purchase (and autographing.)

It’ll be thirty years ago next week that the jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk passed away. Even though Vintage Vinyl puts his image all over their bags, bumper stickers, and advertising—heck, he’s even on their marquee—Kirk continues to be more well known in Europe and Asia than the United States. And that’s a shame. Kirk [...]

     Hmm, I didn’t think UPS was delivering Friday, but, wow, glad I wasn’t here to deal with that mess.  I only witnessed the aftermath.  Jenni & Jason had a smoothly running ship by the time I got in. *Replenishment of Psychogeography ($34.95, cloth) by Will Self, with illustrations by Ralph Steadman. Two oddballs combine. Crazy [...]

If you haven’t read this week’s Riverfront Times, you should. There’s a nifty cover article on the strong circle of comics creators in River City, which includes heavyweights Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga, and Matt Kindt. (By the way, Zettwoch and Huizenga both have work in the 2007 edition of The Best American Comics, which is [...]

Kelly:  The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas by Davy Rothbart (Simon & Schuster, $12.00, short stories).  We have a customer for whom a major requirement of a book is that it has heart.  These stories have heart in spades.  The characters are open and likeable, wearing their emotions on their sleeves.  The reader becomes a cheering [...]

We’re all festive and stuff.