For Your Summer Leelanau Dreaming

Summer is a time for dreaming, and for many of us those dreams are of what we like to think (though perhaps mistakenly) were simpler times. What would it have been like to spend your summer vacation on an island in Lake Michigan? You can look into that past reality and dream about it on your own porch swing with Stepping Off the Boat: Stories from North Manitou Island, by Susan Hollister Wasserman. Family photographs treasured for generations were the inspiration and provide the illustrations for this beautiful volume from Leelanau Press, a treasure for future generations as well as today's. 

A somewhat similar book from the same publisher, set here on the Leelanau peninsula (rather than offshore), is "Perfect Omena Day!": Selections from the Summer Diaries of Rebecca L. Richmond, 1907-1920, edited by M. Christine Byron. Diary excerpts from Rebecca's daily summer life over 100 years ago are accompanied by vintage postcards and photographs from the same era. 

Coming back to the present but remaining in beautiful Leelanau County, we have Art of Sleeping Bear Dunes, the perfect summer souvenir and/or keepsake. Edited by Linda Young, with essays by Jerry Dennis and Kathleen Stocking, Art of Sleeping Bear Dunes features work by 108 contemporary artists from a juried show that opened at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City on October 12, 2013, and ran until January 5 of the following year. Yes, David Grath is in the book.

Tuesday is the day, 4 o'clock is the time

 

Poet Jennifer Clark

Jennifer Clark is coming to Northport again from Kalamazoo! This will be her third appearance at Dog Ears Books, and I guarantee a good experience for all who attend. 

Jennifer's saints are not your grandmother's stained glass or plaster or painted wooden icons. They are surprisingly relatable figures—imperfect, flawed, and very much like us. Some are cranky, dour, and humorless, while others are kind, brilliant, and even funny. I think there is a lot of the poet herself in her saints (kind, brilliant and funny, that is, not cranky, dour, and humorless!). You'll know what I mean when you meet her on Tuesday, June 24, at Dog Ears Books.

There are always surprises here.

You never know what you will find on a treasure island of previously owned books. This is only one day's tiny sample.

Friends of Library Guest Author

 

So it really isn't bookstore news that Mary Kay Zuraleff will be in Northport on Saturday, because she will be part of the FOL annual meeting, NOT appearing at the bookstore, but I do have half a dozen copies of her book here, so there's that.

Saturday, June 14

1pm 

@ Leelanau Twp. Library

Business Meeting followed by Author/Mary Kay Zuravleff discussing her book "American Ending"

Free event

All are invited

Next Big Thing: BOOK LAUNCH!

(To make the information from the flier image easier to read, I'll repeat it in a larger font!)

Marilyn J. Zimmerman's novel, In Defense of Good Women, a legal thriller for mature audiences, will officially be released next Tuesday, June 10, and we will mark the occasion with a launch here in Northport. Marilyn will give a short reading, take questions from the audience, and sign books for customers. Light refreshments will be served. The hours is scheduled to run from 5 to 7 p.m. 

So mark your calendar! Put a reminder on your phone! Don't forget! 

We in Northport are very proud of Marilyn's accomplishments (the book being one among many) and are eager to celebrate with her. Please join us!

The book itself!

Holiday Excitement

 If you stopped by, you had fun, too! We sold all the books from my first order, but I've restocked, and she signed all I have.

Sumer is icumen in

First, a reminder: Fleda Brown will be at Dog Ears Books on Friday, May 23, reading from her new chapbook, Doctor of the World, beginning around noon. We are gathering informally, and since it will be lunch time I’m inviting people to bring a sack lunch. (I’ll have some nonalcoholic punch to quench your thirst.) How often do you have a chance to meet a poet laureate? Fleda held that position in Delaware. Poetry and conversation will take place in the newly rearranged gallery next to the bookstore. 

Then, an announcement: On Memorial Day, the following Monday, children’s author and retired elementary school teacher Kathy Groth will be here for an hour or two, beginning around midday, to inscribe her new book for purchasers. Sunken --  Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan takes two young children with a magic map on an underwater adventure into history and mystery. If you’ve only got five minutes, that’s time enough to stop by to have the author write a personal note in a copy of her book for the inquiring and adventurous young people in your life (with lots of information for adults, as well).

 

Finally, a preview: We will be having a book launch on Tuesday, June 10, from 5 to 7 p.m. for Marilyn Zimmerman’s In Defense of Good Women. That will be exciting! There’s another poetry reading in the works, also, with guest poets Teresa Scollon and Jennifer Clark. As soon as I have a date for that, I'll let you know.