Michigan for the Little Ones

This board book makes a good introduction to Michigan for the youngest visiting grandchildren. Good Night Michigan coast to coast and from the Mackinac Bridge to Ann Arbor. Sturdy pages and bright, colorful pictures. You can't go wrong.

Good Night Michigan

by Adam Gamble & Mark Jasper

Illustrated board book

$9.95

Fishtown and Beyond!

For fifteen years, there has been the Leland Report online. Now there is The Leland Report -- a book! Those who have been faithful followers of Keith Burnham's daily bulletins will be enchanted by the book, as will those newly discovering the magic.

I was pleasantly surprised to find in these pages not only photographs of Fishtown but many other lovely scenes of the area, including aerial views, scenes from Lake Leelanau, and even a photograph of St. Wenceslaus Church, in my Gills Pier neighborhood, seen through branches of blossoming cherry trees.

Susan Ager of Northport wrote the foreword for the book, too, which marks it as belonging to Leelanau Township as well as to Leland.

The Leland Report: 15 Years in the Leelanau Peninsula,
by Keith & Jim Burnham
Hardcover, 120 pp, illustrated, full color
Signed copies
$39

Local Native American Images

Local photographer Minnie Wavanimkee's notecards are a featured item this year at Dog Ears Books. Individual cards such as the two shown above are priced at $4 each, but a boxed sets of all eight images in the series in the series retails for only $18. A new series of smaller cards, with full-color images and Anishnabe themes, are available for $3.50 each.

In Focus on Waukazoo Street

This year the posters in my window are focusing on BOOKS!

The mostly white flier in the window has Friday, July 22, circled, because tomorrow is the date of L. E. Kimball's bookstore appearance (1-3 p.m.) with her book of fiction, Seasonal Roads. I don't have a poster for Lynne Rae Perkins, but she will be here on Saturday (3-5 p.m.) to read from and sign Frank and Lucky Get Schooled. Hint to parents and grandparents: The latter will definitely be a kid-friendly event!

New From Avery Color Studios: BOATS!

Nothing goes with water like boats, and a state with shoreline on three of the five Great Lakes must be forgiven for being a trifle boat-obsessed. Forgiven? How about indulged?

Avery Color Studies up in Gwinn caters to lovers of Michigan history with a couple of new titles this year. Whalebacks: Wrecked, Scrapped, Lost & Forgotten, by Neel R. Zoss, tells the story of Great Lakes boats so “deeply laden with cargo, the boats reminded folks of the curved backs of whales pushing out of the water.” These freighters were designed and built by Alexander McDougall – but you can find out much, much more by reading the book.

Sailors and landlubbers who can’t get enough of shipwrecks will want the new book by Wes Oleszewski, Wooden Ships and Deadly Seas: True Shipwrecks and the Deadly Great Lakes, a book that promises no fiction and no concocted events. It’s all just good, clean disaster!

Whalebacks: Wrecked, Scrapped, Lost & Forgotten,

by Neel R. Zoss

Paper, 261 pp, $17.95

Wooden Ships and Deadly Seas: True Shipwrecks and the Deadly Great Lakes,

by Wes Oleszewski

Paper, 185pp, $16.95

And, as always, Avery Color Studios books are “Proudly Printed in Michigan, U.S.A.” We like that, don’t you?

Everything Old Is New Again

Ed Ketterer came in from Omena this morning wearing a vintage Dog Ears Books t-shirt, so I had to snap a photo. Should have gotten one of the back of the shirt, too, though. Back shows the building at 102 Nagonaba, home now for many years of Dolls and More. Lest I confuse anyone, note that the bookstore has been at 106 Waukazoo for almost a decade.

New Murder Mysteries From Favorite Michigan Writers

Elizabeth Buzzelli won the hearts of readers with Dead Dancing Women, set in northcentral Michigan. Following the conclusion of that series with Dead Little Dolly, Buzzelli published a new series set in East Texas under the name Elizabeth Lee. Now, writing under her own name once more, she brings us the first in a new Texas series, A Most Curious Murder (A Little Library Mystery). Little libraries being all the rage – not only in Texas but all over northern Michigan -- and Elizabeth being the lively writer she is, this book and those yet to come are sure to be great reading fun.

A Most Curious Murder

by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli

NY: Crooked Lane, 2015

Hardcover, 325pp, $25.99

Note: Elizabeth Lee’s Nuts and Buried and Snoop to Nuts are available in new paperback editions for $7.99 each. 

Two-time Edgar award winner Steve Hamilton won fans with his Alex McKnight series, set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With The Second Life of Nick Mason, he won praises from all the biggies, from Stephen King and Michael Connelly to Lee Child and Harlan Coben. Coben says, “A game changer. Nick Mason is one of the best main characters I’ve read in years.”

The Second Life of Nick Mason

By Steve Hamilton

NY: Putnam, 2016

Hardcover, 288pp, $26

Note: Hamilton’s Alex McKnight novels are available in new paperback editions for $14.99 to $16.99.