They are HERE NOW!!!

 

Canvas book bags commemorating our over 30 years in business (30 in July 2023, so over 200 dog years, my friends) are available now at the bookstore in Northport. They are $12 each, plus sales tax, so $12.72 per bag. 

I am very happy to have the bags in time for this coming Monday's Earth Day, as they are in keeping with the 2024 Earth Day theme, "Planet vs. Plastics." They will be equally appropriate on Saturday, April 27, Independent Bookstore Day, and every day thereafter! 

(If you absolutely cannot come to the bookstore but want one or more book bags, please do NOT send me your credit card #! Instead, a check or money order mailed to Dog Ears Books, P.O. Box 272, Northport, MI 49670 will reach me. Please include $3 for an order of 1-3 bags, $5 for 4-6. Thank you. -- And don't forget your mailing address!)

Please note: If you come in person and clip out and bring with you my ad in this week's Enterprise, you are entitled to a $1 discount per bag. Open Wednesday through Saturday, 11-3 and usually longer on Saturdays. OPEN MONDAY, APRIL 22, 11-3, FOR EARTH DAY!!!

Coming Soon --and I'm Excited!

Monday, April 22 - Earth Day

 

Saturday, April 27 - Indie Bookstore Day

Mon., 4/22. Not usually open on Mondays, the bookstore in Northport will be open for Earth Day 2024, with beautiful new canvas book bags ($12) in honor of this year's Earth Day theme, "Planet vs. Plastics." 

Sat., 4/27. The new book bags will be equally appropriate on the following Saturday, Indie Bookstore Day (which I've missed by being out-of-state the past few years, but this year I'll be here), and every day into the future!  

Plan to celebrate these happy days with us, please. And thank you!

What Do You Think? Suggestions Welcome

It's time for new book bags and t-shirts at Dog Ears Books. I'm thinking a soft cream color with sage green letters. What do you think?

 

 

Dog Ears Books

Since 1993 – 

 

Disproving the skeptics

for over 200 dog years

and counting!

 

On Waukazoo Street 

in Northport, Michigan

Because, Because

 

Because Kathryn Grody recommended it.

Because a friend told me about the author.

Because it's now in paperback.

Because we all need nature and comfort.

Because the author will be in Northport in July!

Because who can resist otters?

Because -- oh, boy! My kind of story! Yours, too?

Stocked and Restocked

 

 

Black History Month

 

Do you ever wonder why we need a Black History Month? Or a Women’s History Month? Isn’t it all American history? Indeed it is. Having one month of the year focused on Black American history (and, in my bookstore, literature) is not a denial of more inclusive American history but an acknowledgement that parts of American history have been swept under the rug for too long and that we don’t make a better future by pretending the past didn’t happen. As Isabel Wilkerson has written, those of us alive in America today did not build our national “house,” but we’re here now, living in it, all of us, and it’s up to us to do the necessary repairs and maintenance.

 

Besides, you wouldn’t want to miss some of these fantastic writers!!! Biography, fiction, poetry! The essay collection Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration, compiled by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts, challenges the idea that all of Black life is just hardship and trauma, while Aaliyah Bilal’s Temple Folk, a National Book Award Finalist, brings us masterful and diverse stories about members of the Nation of Islam. And/or, have you read a novel by Jesmyn Ward or Colson Whitehead yet? If not, maybe now is the time. 

Have you asked this question? The author answers it.

 

There’s more already here, and I’ll have additions to the front table next week, too. Come browse!

 

 

Winter Days in the Bookstore: Important Special Offerings

The quiet days of January give me time (while a visitor quietly browses nearby) to take stock of special treasures on hand and introduce you to a few items that may have escaped notice when last you visited Dog Ears Books on Waukazoo Street. Today’s virtual display case highlights some very local out-of-print books, along with a couple of high-end periodicals.

First Protestant Mission in the Grand Traverse Region, by Ruth Craker, is a signed second edition from 1935. (The first printing of this local history was in 1932.) Some of the presentation would be questioned and probably modified today, but basic names, dates, and photographs will always be important.

 

Hans W. Anderson: His Life and Art, produced by the Leelanau Historical Museum in Leland in 1988, chronicles a man who is arguably the county’s foremost folk artist – and he lived right here on Waukazoo Street. The softcover book is illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs of his paintings and carved wood models. 

Fred Petroskey: A Leelanau Portrait, by G.R. Kastys, is a limited edition hardcover book with dust jacket, my copy signed by the author. The subject, Fred Petroskey, who grew up in Lake Leelanau and returned in his later years, was the most important portrait painter in our region, and this collection shows many well-known local people, including a section of other local artists – among them David Grath, Suzanne Wilson, and Gene Rantz.

 

The Double Gun Journal was published in this region from 1989 through the spring of 2022, when it was unfortunately forced out of business for financial reasons. One cause of its demise, the publishers noted, was that younger generations were no longer interested in beautiful classic guns. I have all four issues from the year 1996 and one from 1995, and they are beautiful. Local note: This is the only periodical in which noted flyrod maker Bob Summers ever advertised.

 

Finally, for students and aficionados of fine art history, there is the FMR Magazine, created by Franco Maria Ricci and published from 1982 to 2009. History and beauty are never out of date, and when FMR himself calls this “the most beautiful magazine in the world,” it’s hard to dispute his claim. Section of issues from 1981 to 1985 available, each one lovelier than the last.

Winter hours: Wed.- Sat., 11-3