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Saturday, May 28, 2016

Up and Down -- and Beyond -- the M-22 Shoreline




Vintage Views Along M-22
Including Sleeping Bear Dunes
M. Christine Byron &
Thomas R. Wilson
Hardcover, $40

Another dream book from Byron & Wilson, a memory lane of images from old photographs, vintage postcards, and vintage advertising posters. How long have you been traveling M-22? How much do you recognize still today from the old pictures? You’ll laugh and learn and love your way through these pages.

Omena!
I have to emphasize that it includes not only the National Lakeshore but, dear to my heart, scenes north of the top of M-22, along M-201 and up along the lake- and bayshores of Leelanau Township. Yes, Northport is here, along with Raff's Fish Camp, the old girls' camp, and so much more between Northport and the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Northport!
Many pages are in full color. 

Sleeping Bear Dunes in the old days

If you don't already have this book, you know you want it!

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Leelanau in Music and Stories


"Leelanau Nights," a CD of beautiful, haunting yet peaceful solo piano music by Tristan Eckerson, is now available at Dog Ears Books. I'm listening to it right now. The price is $16, and $2 from every CD sold will go to Leelanau Parenting Communities. This is the perfect music to play in your car as you are slowly cruising the lovely back roads of Leelanau County.

A book with a bonus will also give you Leelanau listening pleasure. Scott Craig's The Story Next Door (paper, $19.95) now comes with a free CD of additional stories of Leelanau residents. If you live here, you're sure to know people in the book, and if you're visiting, the book and CD together will give you intimate glimpses into the people who call Leelanau County home.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Read to the Grandkids


Lovers of dogs, meet the Traverse City Cherry Festival! Fun for the whole family! Dick Kennedy of Omena has partnered with illustrator Jenifer Thomas to produce a new Up North read-aloud favorite for generations to come.



Dogs love fun. People love dogs. People love fun with dogs. How can you miss?

Paper
$9.50

Friday, May 20, 2016

Thoreau and Wildflowers




May 20, 1852 All flowers are beautiful. The Salix alba (white willow) is about out of bloom. Pads begin to appear though the river is high over the meadows. A caterpillar’s nest on a wild cherry. Some apple trees in blossom. Most are just ready to burst forth, the leaves being half-formed. I find the feverbush in bloom but apparently its blossoms are now stale. I must observe it next year. They were fresh perhaps a week ago. Currants in bloom by Conant’s Spring – are they natives of America? A lady’s slipper well budded and now white. The Viola ovata is of a deep purple blue – is darkest and has most of the red in it. The V. pedata is smooth and pale blue delicately tinged with purple reflections. The cucullata is more decidedly blue, slaty blue and darkly striated.  
-      Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau’s Wildflowers
Edited by Geoff Wisner
Drawings by Barry Moser
Hardcover $30



Because one wildflower book is never enough, and it’s impossible to have too many. This one also has heavy literary and historical interest, wherever in the country you and your wildflowers live.


Thursday, May 12, 2016

Chickadees Back by Popular Demand


Chickadees at Night, written by Bill O. Smith and Charles R. Murphy, both of Traverse City, was a regional bestseller when it first came out, back in 2012. There is no one who didn't love the chickadees! So now, by popular demand, we have restocked the popular title for the current season -- though the author will have a new book later this year, and you'll want that one, too, when it's available.

Continue to watch this site for new book news from Dog Ears Books in Northport.

Chickadees at Night,
by Bill O. Smith
Hardcover
$18.85

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Take a Trip (or More than One) with Robert Downes




Biking Northern Michigan:
The Best & Safest Routes
in the Lower Peninsula,
2nd edition,
by Robert Downes
Paper, $14.95

Travels with My Wife:
7 Months Around the World
by Robert Downes with Jeanette Wildman
Paper, $14.95

This season is seeing a lot of maps in books from northern Michigan authors. Kind of makes a reader’s feet itch for the road. Bob Downes has updated his Biking Northern Michigan Book and also takes us overseas in a new book, Travels with My Wife.



You’ll wonder how much time Bob and Jeanette spend at home in Traverse City, but you may also find yourself inspired by their ambitious trip from Australia through Asia and the Near East to Europe. Yes, there is a map showing the route, with each chapter giving rich details of their foreign experiences. And if you can’t take the trips yourself, enjoy them vicariously in the pages of Bob’s books.



Thursday, May 5, 2016

Poetry from Michael Delp


Book cover


Lying in the River’s Dark Bed:
The Confluence of the Deadman and the Mad Angler,
poems by Michael Delp
Detroit: Way State University
  Press, 2016
Paper, $15.99

The cover is hard to photograph, but the book is here at last, and I’m excited. Those who have followed poetry in Michigan for a while already will remember Delp’s “Deadman” character, while those new to the work will have the good fortune to meet a modern Michigan icon. You’ll want to explore northern Michigan with the Deadman in all your years to come, I promise!

Cover detail


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

New Book on Michigan Waterfalls


Waterfalls of Michigan: The Definitive Guide to the Waterfalls of Michigan, by photographer Phil Stagg, when complete, will be a four-volume work, but Book 1 is at Dog Ears Books now. It covers four counties in the Upper Peninsula (Alger, Chippewa, Delta and Luce) and two in the lower (Manistee and Presque Isle). The color photographs are beautiful, and information clearly and beautifully laid out.







For each waterfall included, Stagg provides what he calls a data table full of vital information for hikes wanting to explore. How difficult is the climb? Is it dangerous? Do you need boots? What about access? And more. There are also detailed maps to get you there.

136 pp., paper, $19.95