Böcker utgivna av Michael Johnston

Michael Johnston's unruly and hysterical novel follows a cast of characters from the '90s rock band, Texas Flip: their story told through various concerts during the band's two-plus-decade career, each leap in time connected by a fine thread of rushed quarter notes, broken strings, and free drink tickets. Amongst them is Zach Long, guitarist and overseer of their dogged pursuit of musical excellence. Luke Strange, lead singer and bass player whose sex addiction has ruined more than one performance. A manager, Todd Shift, clutching at the group's frayed coattails for as long as their ride will last.Collected, these musicians deliver the playbook of what life in a band used to be like--navigating a world without GPS, social media, or legal marijuana, with a thirst for only the next gig or riff, with amusement and passion and simplicity. Regarded as an early classic, Why Does Everyone Steal My Lighter? is right away comical and entertaining, wholly funny and justly memorable.

Fight, Kid! is a novella told through the eyes of Benny Schultz; an old trainer living in a new world that left him behind. Expressed in humorous language and contemporary tone, it is a story of goals missed inside—and out—of the ring.Keith Way, Benny’s young and impressionable fighter, is moving up weight classes to fight heavyweight Buster Davis. During training sessions, diner-cooked meals, and bouts of tough love, we learn early on that Keith is an optimist; and that Benny is not.The reader, brought on a journey of low-level, low-reward boxing in northern New Jersey, and shown how both try to avoid the daily struggles with the devices of our new social world, Fight, Kid! travels to the heart of what it is to be a fighter, and what it means to be human.