Labor Day and Beyond

Books in honor of Labor Day

 My plan for the holiday is to open the shop by 10 or 11 a.m. and to stay through until 2 or 3 p.m. The following day, Tuesday, September 2, will be my holiday. Bookshop closed that day.

After my one-day break, I'll be back on deck Wednesday through Saturday but probably closing up by 4 p.m.

Then -- beginning the second week in September:

September Hours

Tuesday, 11-3

Wednesday-Friday, 11-4

Saturday, 11-5

Closed Sunday & Monday

October hours will probably be about the same, but it's too soon to say. 

Something New All the Time

 

Besides a bunch of new Michigen-themed board books, we also have two new picture books for children. One of them, as you can see, is set on Mackinac Island. Both are engagingly illustrated. 

While National Poetry Month (April) may be over, every month is poetry month at Dog Ears Books. When Anne-Marie Oomen stopped by recently, she signed her two mermaid books for me, and just today Teresa Scollon's new book of poems arrived. 

And that's only the tip of the new book iceberg. As for used books, you know there's always something "new" in those big departments. This week it's World War II that received so many new additions that I had to rearrange the whole section.

EVERY Month is Poetry Month at Dog Ears Books

  

But April is National Poetry Month,

and we kicked it off this week

at Dog Ears Books.

Our poet of the year will be Fleda Brown,

former poet laureate of Delaware,

who will be here to read from her new chapbook,

Doctor of the World,

on Friday, May 23rd, at noon.

Feel free to bring a sack lunch

and join us in David Grath's gallery

next door to the bookshop.

Fleda Brown

Friday, May 23, 2025

Noon

Plan for Spring Break: Winging It

 

Spring break for Northport school is March 24 through the 28. It's usually a very quiet week in the village. Since, however, I decided not to travel away from home myself, I'll be in and out of the bookstore. I'll be in on Monday, normally a day the shop is closed, since I expect a UPS delivery. Tuesday, closed. Wednesday through Saturday I'll probably come in around noon or 1 p.m. and stay until 3 or 4. Maybe. We'll see!!!

 

In other words, I'll be winging it for the week of 3.24-3/29. Maybe people from other places on spring break will wander up to Northport. Hope to see some of you!

P.S. 3/26: It's here! Fleda Brown's new chapbook arrived today! That was worth being here for!

Into the New Year's Second Month

Reminder: Dog Ears Books in Northport, Michigan, is open four days a week this winter, Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

Reminder: you can order audio
books through Libro.fm and choose Dog Ears Books as your bookstore on the Libro.fm site, and we will earn a little something from each audiobook you buy that way. It will help us get through the winter. Thank you!

 

Blog note 1: My main blog, Books in Northport, the one I post to most frequently, has been around since September of 2007. It has always been free and will be free as long as it survives. I make my living as a bookseller, not as a blogger. Neither will I be moving to a Substack account, although many professional writers and independent journalists are there now, and I encourage you to follow a few, upgrading to a paid subscription if you can afford it, especially those whose work is crucial to giving us real news, e.g., Dan Rather, Heather Cox Richardson, and others. The importance of these sources will increase sooner than you might imagine.

 

Blog note 2: Call Books in Northport a “labor of love” or call me a graphomaniac – however you want to characterize it and/or me, I’ve stuck to this project for over 17 years. Some of you have been with me from the beginning, while others are brand-new readers, but I appreciate every single one of you, however long you have been reading. My morale this year, however, could use a little extra support (I’ll be trying to provide support for the morale of my readers, too), so I encourage you to (1) sign on as a follower, (2) comment on posts, and (3) send links to your family and friends for posts you find particularly meaningful. There is no financial advantage to me in this, only personal satisfaction.

If you haven't seen the latest post yet, because I just put it up a few minutes ago, check it out now! Thank you!

 

New Bookmarks, New Books, Old Books Newly Arrived

Ask me about any of these books. I wrote an entire post and somehow lost it. 

This coming Saturday, October 19, Dog Ears Books will close early, at 3 p.m., but will be open again, as usual, the following Tuesday, October 22, at 11 a.m. Come see us! We are your best excuse for a beautiful drive!

The Book Program for July in Northport

Beginning Tuesday, July 9, Dog Ears Books will be closing at 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons for the month of July. Your bookseller will be found those evenings (with books to sell) at the Willowbrook Inn, where the Leelanau Township Friends of the Library Summer Author Series will take place. 

 

All Summer Author Series events at the Willowbrook begin at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 and cash bar. On the first evening, I will be interviewing author Don Lystra. We will discuss fiction writing in general, and I’ll ask him some questions about his latest book, Searching for Van Gogh, a coming-of-age story set in Michigan in the 1960s. 

Please join us!

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!!!

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

Need Ideas?

 Nostalgia:

Food:

'

Fiction:

Time! 

(These also work for people who don't read books.)

History:

Kids:

Leelanau:

Beautiful notecards

by Minnie Wabanimkee

also available --

You can't miss!!!

 

Holiday and Winter Hours

 

It seems the word has not reached everyone yet, so here it is again. Dog Ears Books will be OPEN ALL WINTER this year! Winter hours, already underway in November, are shorter than summer hours, and the week is shorter, too, but here they are: 

 

Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. 

Sunday, CLOSED

Monday & Tuesday, by chance or appointment only

 

A first-time customer recently told me that no reader should ever leave my shop empty-handed. Whether you come to shop for yourself or are looking for books to give as gifts, we have something here for just about anyone, which is part of the reason we celebrated our 30^th anniversary in July. Another reason is that the bookseller here is just plain stubborn and doesn’t give up easily!

Happy holidays!

New Arrivals -- because there will always be "horse girls" and poets and explorers --

Reminder #1: Fall hours extend through October: 

 

      Monday-Tuesday, By chance or appointment

      Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

      Sunday, CLOSED

 

Beginning in November, we will shift to winter hours:

 

      Monday-Tuesday, By chance or appointment

      Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

      Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

      Sunday, CLOSED

 

Note that Saturday will still be a full day, but Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be shorter.

Reminder#2: about audiobooks --

 

If you are a listener, please do not go to the online behemoth. Instead, use libro.fm, a platform that supports independent bookstores. You will find Dog Ears Books in the list. Prices are the same as the behemoth’s! Thanks for choosing us! 

You can even send gift audiobooks through the site – how cool is that?

Coming soon to Northport: Winter!

Bookstore Schedule, Fall/Winter 2023-2024

Fall hours for Dog Ears Books extend through October as follows:

 

      Monday-Tuesday, By chance or appointment

      Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

      Sunday, CLOSED

 

Beginning in November, we will shift to winter hours:

 

      Monday-Tuesday, By chance or appointment

      Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

      Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

      Sunday, CLOSED

 

Note that Saturday will still be a full day, but Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be shorter. And "hours" are always "weather permitting" during Northern Michigan winter.

New, Restocked, and Looking Forward

 

Not only is it late September, but this coming Saturday is Leelanau UnCaged, Northport's big, beautiful annual street fair. This year BATA (Bay Area Transit Authority) is offering FREE BUS RIDES to Northport from Traverse City! And at 4 p.m. on Saturday, poets Fleda Brown and Michael Delp will give readings at the bookstore (a free event, as is the day's music and entrance to UnCaged itself), so please plan to stop by. The weather forecast is for yet another gorgeous Northern Michigan fall day.

Dog Ears Books will be open all afternoon on Saturday until at least 6 p.m. Our dedicated fall hours, remember, are Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with Monday and Tuesday as "by chance or appointment" days), closed on Sundays. And with each passing week, I am ordering new books for the store, restocking popular local offerings as well as bringing in the sometimes unexpected. 

 Definitely here through October. Winter is still up in the air....

Bookstore Fall Hours, 2023

 

 

Dog Ears Books

FALL HOURS

September-October 2023

 

Monday-Tuesday: by chance or appointment

Wednesday – Saturday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday: Closed

This is the story for September and October. A winter plan is not yet in view.

Bookstore Highlights: Sure-Fire Summer Hits

A couple books have been bestsellers ever since they first appeared. Trails of M-22 is one such (I’m glad to note that the author doesn’t stop at the top of the M-22 loop but comes through Northport and clear up to the lighthouse), and another is the Lake Michigan Rock Picker’s Guide.

Suttons Bay, Peshawbestown, and Bingham Shores, the second of Kathleen Firestone’s monumental “Meet Me at the Dock” trilogy, is here now, and you won’t want to miss it.  Perfect for the local coffee table to get visitors reading about the area's history.

The public clamoring for another Robert Underhill murder mystery is in luck this summer: Bob's new novel, One Cold Coffee, is here now!

Anne-Marie Oomen’s Michigan Notable As Long As I Know You: The Mom Book, is her latest memoir, and I have a few signed copies on hand, along with two signed copies of an older Oomen memoir, Pulling Down the Barn. 

The first speaker in this year’s Summer Author Series sponsored by the Leelanau Township Friends of the Library is Dave Dempsey, and I have his Great Lakes for Sale now, ahead of his presentation at the Willowbrook, which will be July 11 at 7 p.m.

Dr. Bill Blair, of the Johns Hopkins University Space Telescope Science Institute, Department of Physics & Astronomy, is this year’s speaker in the Belko Peace Lecture series at Trinity Church. Dr. Blair, whose presentation will take place on Saturday, July 29, at 7 p.m. at Trinity, recommends Dacher Keltner’s Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.  

Finally, just in time for July 4^th, I have Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem, The Hill We Climb. Not banned in Northport!!!

These are but a small taste of the treasures, new and used, awaiting you at Dog Ears Books, 106 Waukazoo Street in Northport, celebrating its 30^th anniversary this July. I’ll be sharing more book news throughout the season. For meandering thoughts on books, language, and my Up North world, see “Books in Northport”; for images that catch my eye, “A Shot in the Light”; and for random rants and musings from your Up North bookseller, “Lacking a Clear Focus.”

 

Summer bookstore hours are posted here on this blog. 

Happy 4^th, everyone! There will be a reading of the Declaration of Independence on the post office steps in Northport at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the 4th of July.