Oak Tree Books

New arrivals from OU Press.

Happy Kate Barnard Day!

Oklahoma's Good Angel, Kate Barnard was the first woman elected to state office in Oklahoma and fought tirelessly to ban child labor, improve prison conditions, enact compulsory education, and advocate on behalf of Indian wards being cheated out of their land as a result of grafting.

85 years ago this month a couple of employees at the newly rebuilt Dreamland Theatre (nicknamed S***k and Punk) opened the Down Beat Ballroom above the Dixie Theatre off Archer and Greenwood. While open less than 3 years, the Down Beat hosted some of the biggest and what were to become the biggest names in Jazz and Pop including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter and more.

For more on the Down Beat Ballroom https://thepickup.com/this-greenwood-jazz-club-hosted-louis-armstrong-and-ella-fitzgerald-then-it-disappeared

"The truth is 'what is.' ... 'what should be' is a fantasy, a terrible, terrible lie that someone gave the people long ago" - Lenny Bruce, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! We remember those bookstores no longer with us and celebrate those still going strong.

Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day this weekend with the first NE Okie Indie Bookstore Crawl! Flyers and punch cards available in store.

Originally published in 1961, Where the Red Fern Grows has been adapted to film twice with filming locations in and around Tahlequah, OK. Each year, at the end of April, the city of Tahlequah hosts the Red Fern Festival celebrating the classic story.

Nominated 5 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Yukio Mishima was considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the post-war era before forming a private militia and leading an attempted coup (known as the "Mishima Incident") which resulted in his death by seppuku.

Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with the first NE Okie Indie Bookstore Crawl!

Who: 14 Independent Bookstores in NE Oklahoma
When: Friday, April 24 — Sunday, April 26
Why: In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day!

How it works:
1. Start at any participating store and pick up your FREE punch card
2. Visit as many stores as possible over the three days and collect your punches as you go (no purchase required)
3. If you complete the entire crawl of 14 stores, you’ll receive a coupon that you can re-use at every location as well as a Thank You! box full of literary goodies from all our participating stores!

Published in 1949 and originally titled "The Last Man in Europe", the title of Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984 has largely been debated. Theories range from 1984 being the inverse of the year Orwell finished writing the book (1948) to 1984 being a reference to The Iron Heel by Jack London (in which a political movement comes to power in 1984) or G.K. Chesterton's, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (Chesterton being one of Orwell's favorite authors) of which the novel is a political satire also set in 1984.

Originally written taking place in the year 1980 then 1982 and lastly 1984, the titles also changed in correspondence with the years until Orwell finally chose 1984.

In a letter to his literary agent 8 months before the book was published, Orwell seemed to show more ambivalence than later scholars concerning the title:

"...I have not definitely decided on a title. I am inclined to call it either Nineteen Eighty-Four or The Last Man in Europe, but I might just possibly think of something else in the next week or two."