Bothering the Coffee Drinkers [Paperback]

Doug Hoekstra (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0972860444 | ISBN-13: 978-0972860444

Awarded a Bronze Medal in the Short Fiction category in the 2007 IPPY Awards, Bothering the Coffee Drinkers is a collection of short stories (and two essays) culled from the experiences of a musical troubadour rolling down the highways and playing gigs at dozens of the world's most renown music clubs and at hundreds upon hundreds of neighborhood pubs and coffee houses.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Personal experience shapes many of the stories in Bothering the Coffee Drinkers, Hoekstra's first book after eight well-reviewed albums and several pieces published in literary journals. The Pushcart Prize-nominated first story, The Blarney Stone (a true story), turns a brief tour stop in Ireland into a wistful consideration of fatherhood, wishes and the ceaseless flowing of time. --The Nashville Scene

Hoesktra's stories are generous to the reader in the amount he's prepared to give of his own life whether he's conveying that in the first person or through fictional characters, the stories always feel real and honest and because of that, without recourse to any big dramas, engaging in themselves. --AmericanaUK

Hoekstra has written songs about soul singers, old movies, favorite books, and fragments of American history, all delivered in a reedy, almost conversational whisper. Now he's carrying the conversation into print with Bothering The Coffee Drinkers, a collection of essays and musical fiction. --The Onion

About the Author

Doug Hoekstra, a native of Chicago, currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. As a singer-songwriter with several CDs out on indie labels, Hoekstra has earned a reputation as a man with an ear for a phrase and an eye for detail. An accomplished scholar with degrees from DePaul University in Chicago and Belmont University in Nashville, Hoekstra is not exactly the prototypical Music Row song-slinger, and he is certainly not merely a musician trying his hand at another genre. His literary roots are every bit as deep as his musical gifts, a point validated by the fact that his essays and short stories have appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines in the US and Europe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Canopic Publishing (March 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972860444
• ISBN-13: 978-0972860444
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,192,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am living vicariously through Doug Hoekstra, July 31, 2006

By 

John M. Mccullough - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bothering the Coffee Drinkers (Paperback)

I once had an elementary school teacher who told me the best way to make it on stage, was to make it big backstage. I am near fifty and I am still working back stage.
Being a big fan of the singer-songwriter genre, it warms the cockles of my heart to see someone doing so successfully at my chosen profession that they have to write a book about it. Okay, maybe just a tad bit covetous, but if Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are involved in the movie I am really going to be seething with envy.
I was surprised when I found out how long many successful artist had been pounding the pavement before success came a knocking. Doug takes you down the road of the working musician, the band-in-a-van guys, who are opening up for the guys with the tour bus with a trailer, who are opening up for the guys who fly in while the crew rides a tour bus and the gear is packed into 18 wheelers. When success or failure hinges upon whether or not your fan belt holds out.
Broken glass, broken hearts, broken dreams, but somehow the band-in-a-van keeps rolling. A true inspiration.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very readable, very enjoyable, and very highly recommended to consumers of good music and well crafted literature, August 11, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bothering the Coffee Drinkers (Paperback)

"Bothering the Coffee Drinkers: Musical Fiction and Essays" is a delicious collection of story essays by Nashville-based singer and songwriter Doug Hoekstra that could be set to music as songs, or perhaps vice versa. Hoekstra is a talented independent performer and gifted songwriter, so it comes as no surprise that he can also write creative fiction. What makes "Bothering the Coffee Drinkers" so easy to absorb must be the 'blarney' effect. Each detail segue compactly into the next and before you know it, the book has hooked you in a distinctly quirky and entertaining way. Like all great music, it sounds easy to do. As all great musicians know, this is a deceptive effect that is only maintained through constant work and practice. Hoekstra's writes in a style that could safely be called eclectic, but that doesn't do his either his music or his literary genius true justice. He is like a quirky art collector, putting together odd bits and ends, and then making them into something with an effect so much more than the mere sum of their collective oddities. Hoekstra sandwiches his story essays with a biographical beginning and end piece that is also very effective. It grounds the reading with an even more pronounced flavor of the author's presence and outlook. "Bothering the Coffee Drinkers" is very readable, very enjoyable, and very highly recommended to consumers of good music and well crafted literature.