Local and Signed Books Make Special Gifts

From Traverse City -- chickadees!

When restocking Bill O. Smith's latest book, A Chickadee Year, I also restocked Chickadees in December. Doesn't that make sense? So glad to have Bill's beautiful, educational, and very entertaining -- fun! -- books in my shop!
 

From Cathead Bay -- new perspective --

"Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger," the angel told the shepherds. But where was that manger? Author Gary Ross brought imagination to add to the research he did into the Bible story to offer a new perspective on the birth of Jesus.

From Leland, magic and the moon for kids --

Artist, musician, and writer Tobin Sprout has redesigned and reissued two of his lovely children's books in time for the holidays. Elliott is a story about magic and where we find it, while little Tinky works hard to figure out how to "put the moon to bed." 

Why fight crowds in Traverse City when you can shop in your own little village? No traffic snarls, plenty of parking...

(See? Plenty of on-street parking available!)

...and on Saturday the horses will return! 

Horses in the snow

Horses in the window

Newly arrived in the shop!

I Wasn't Kidding (About Perfect Gifts)

When I post a photograph of a table of new books in my shop, with other tables and shelves in the background showing more books (new and used), beautiful notecards, and cool Michigan jigsaw puzzles, and my caption for the photo reads, “The gifts you need to find are here,” I’m not kidding. Be more specific? Okay, I can do that, too.

 

Robin Kimmerer’s third book, Serviceberry, is THE book of the season, bar none. If you loved Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss, you will love Serviceberry. 

Readers in Michigan and around the world have fallen in love with Bonnie Jo Campbell’s latest novel, The Waters, a luxuriously immersive reading experience, out in paper in time for the holidays.

 

James, by Percival Everett, the well-known Huckleberry Finn story told by Jim, the man who ran away from slavery, is on everyone’s lists for best books of 2024. (I love these reworkings of familiar novels, with the “same” events seen through another’s eyes. Sarah Shoemaker’s Mr. Rochester and Jo Baker’s Longbourn are other novels that give us new perspectives on old classics.) Other novels big novels of the year include Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, the latter set in Traverse City’s cherry-growing country.

North Woods, by Daniel Mason, one of my stepdaughter’s favorites this year, is a book I may give myself as a gift. It is the story of a house through successive owners, which must be more exciting than that capsule summary makes it sound, because my stepdaughter said when she finished the last page, she was ready to turn back to the beginning and start reading it again immediately.

Poetry! How about poetry by Jim Harrison, Fleda Brown, John Kropf, Michael Delp, and others, and also some new, tempting collections? You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited and introduced by Ada Limon; Dog Songs, by Mary Oliver; and Eat the World, by Marina Diamandis, all invite you to take the plunge. Another book of poems, entitled The Smell of Wet Dogs (see top image again) is one for the whole family to enjoy together.

The foregoing are only a very few selections from my new book section, with lots, lots more available in the shop. Also, as you know, used books here range from signed first editions and matched sets of beautifully bound volumes to all manner of surprises in a wide variety of categories. (Hint: If you aren’t sure what your friend or family member would choose, a gift certificate is a good idea for locals or regular Northport visitors.) 

You can't go wrong with Jerry Dennis

or signed Jim Harrison

or classic Dickens tin beautiful bindings.

Also, whether you are a year-round local or far from northern Michigan in winter, remember you can follow me not only on this blog (where I don’t post as often as I should), but also on Books in Northport, my discursive, free-form blog that covers books and a whole lot more. 

Thank you for visiting today!

Rainy Days Are Good Reading Days

Great new Michigan books!

Of course, sunny days are good ones for books, too, but since today is wet I’m finding time to put something up on this blog, the one I too often neglect (posting more frequently to Books in Northport and A Shot in the Light). As you see in today's top image, right now I am featuring Michigan writers and water, a call to all you Piscean fishers and dreamers. I’ve restocked books by Jerry Dennis yet again (reordering his books is necessary quite often!), and one of the latest new books on the round table up front now is Linda Nemec Foster and Anne-Marie Oomen’s The Lake Huron Mermaid, companion book to their earlier The Lake Michigan Mermaid. Artist Glenn Wolff is the illustrator for Jerry Dennis’s books (theirs long-established collaboration), and Meridith Ridl provided the dreamy, watery, sometimes abstract images for Linda and Anne-Marie’s mermaid books. 

Mermaids in the Great Lakes!

Leaving water behind but staying on the topic of words and images, fans of Bill O. Smith’s chickadee books will be thrilled with his latest, The Chickadee Year, which takes our favorite little year-round Michigan resident bird from spring nest-making through summer, fall, and winter, and back again to spring. Grandparents, this is a book you will love reading to your little ones, over and over, and Thomas Ford’s illustrations, simple and charming but also realistic, are the perfect accompaniment to the text. Learning is fun with this new chickadee title – and the copies I have in the shop are signed by the author.

Dogs and cats? I usually focus on the dogs, but the cat book here looked irresistible. Cat friends, don’t you just itch to get your hands on it? 

This is Dog Ears Books, though, so old books deserve some attention. How about a complete Shakespeare from 1876? A cookbook from 1889 or a set of natural history books with beautiful color plates? We currently have in stock some lovely modern editions of old classics from Roman times (I must put in a plug for my favorite, the Eclogues of Virgil, which I was delighted to find exploring agricultural topics), as well as (coming up to the 20th century) a nice selection of signed Jim Harrison titles and many books from the “Rivers of America” series, brainchild of Constance Lindsay Skinner, most with dust jackets.

The Dog Ears Books book bag was a big hit this year, and now, down to the last one available, I’m wondering whether I should re-order before the holidays or wait until spring. 

If I hear from enough people who want to give the bags as holiday gifts (you could put “stocking stuffers” in a book bag!), I’ll see about getting more before snow flies. (That is, of course, unless we get snow on Halloween, as we did last year.) As for the new bookmarks, there are plenty of those on hand, never fear. Bookmarks are free, of course, with any purchase.

Postscript: Oh, oh, oh! I am just in love with the cover of this edition of Anne of Green Gables, which just arrived today in my shipment of new books! 

And here's an idea: classic scary stuff for Halloween! Come visit us and explore outside your day-to-day box!

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!

End of Summer Sale Cart and Other New and "New" Old Books

 

Bargain cart book prices reduced again!

I have a rolling cart of books that have been priced at three dollars each, four for $10, but the cart is getting too full, so starting TODAY, books on the cart are only a dollar each ($1/book). There are all kinds -- very old and nearly new, cookbooks, novels, etc., etc. This is a fun way to shop, so come on down!

Note, however, that the bookstore will be closed on Friday, August 30, but I'll be back for Saturday and Sunday of that Labor Day weekend. Can you believe it will be Labor Day weekend so soon?

This has been my bookiest summer ever, with boxes of printed treasures arriving and departing daily. Below is a tiny sample of my current new and newly restocked and newly arrived old books, all ready to go to good, loving homes.

Restocked

New to my shop

Old one from storage

Newly arrived OLD book

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!!!