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Big book that reads fast! |
We don't want your data -- just your business and your satisfied smiles! Winter hours: Wed.-Sat., 11-3
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Big book that reads fast! |
It’s next Wednesday, August 13, that Tim Mulherin will be at Dog Ears Books with his presentation on This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan. See my Books in Northport post for July 11 to learn more about the book between now and next week.
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Thanks to David R. Godine for this reprint. |
Other books newly arrived in my order from David R. Godine:
Sorry to have to tell you that both copies of a reprinted Donald Hall memoir, String Too Short to be Saved, sold right off the stack on my desk before I could figure out a "better" display. (Apparently, the displayed stack was all it took.) If people knew Clémentine as I know Clémentine--and ditto with Rosie--those books would be gone already, too. As for The Last of the Hill Farms, if I have more time to spend with that before it flies to a new home, you'll hear no complaints from me. Eventually, however, it should go to a photographer or at least someone who loves photography.
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Friday visit from gentleman dog Brady |
I've been cagy about hours this year and haven't posted any since Memorial Day, but now I'm ready to commit.
Monday, 11-5
Tuesday, 11-3
Wednesday-Saturday, 11-5
Sunday - CLOSED
The reason for shorter hours on Tuesdays is that in July, beginning on the 8th, I'll be selling books in the evening at the Friends of Leelanau Township Library Summer Author Series events, and I need to go home and give my dog a break before heading back to Northport.
Summer FOLTL guest authors are as follows:
July 8 - Karen Mulvahill, The Lost Woman
July 15 - Hayward Draper, The Colony
July 22 - Jenny Robertson, Hoist House
July 29 - Aaron Stander, Smoke and Mirrors
All these events will be held at the Willowbrook, 201 Mill Street, and will begin at 7 p.m.
See more discursive book ramblings here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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The book itself! |
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.
In addition to the usual new postcards and a box of old $1 postcards, I also have a small collection of other vintage cards in the $2-6 range. The two Orson Peck cards above, $5 each, show unpaved road leading from Traverse City up along West Bay into Leelanau County (top) and then east and north along East Bay, and I don't imagine these cards will be here long.
You don't have to have a specific title in mind to visit a bookstore. In fact, it's much better if you come with an open mind and a willingness to explore, because often you don't know what you want until you and it find each other.
Reminder: Poet Fleda Brown will be here to read from her new chapbook, Doctor of the World, and to answer questions and generally visit with audience at noon on Friday, May 23. This will be a casual (free) event, so feel free to bring a sack lunch. Hope to see you here!
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.
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!
In solidarity with the 24-hour national economic blackout this Friday, Dog Ears Books will be open for business from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. but only accepting cash as payment for purchases on that day. Thursday and Saturday will be regular days, with all forms of payment accepted.
On my first reading of the plan for a “buy-nothing” day, which also urged buying nothing online and not using forms of digital payment, I wondered why I would have my business open at all on Friday. If not buying was the aim, why wouldn’t I just keep the doors closed that day. Wouldn’t that show solidarity?
Further down the line of do’s and don’t’s, however, people were told to buy at small local businesses, if they were going to shop at all,
and my bookshop is not only local, it is definitely small, so after mulling the question over for a few days, I decided I will have the doors open that day.
As is true any day of the year, there is no obligation to buy. Anyone who wants to stop in to visit without buying is welcome. Please, however, as Peg Bracken so memorably said in a book title back in 1969, I didn’t come here to argue! So no arguments, please, on Friday! Come or don’t come, buy or don’t buy. Those choices are yours. I’ve told you the choices I’ve made for the day.
If you do plan to support the boycott, plan ahead. Put gas in the bank on Thursday. Stop by the bank for cash if you’re going to be doing some local shopping or local dining or coffee sipping. Tip your servers with cash, too, at those local cafes and restaurants!
One friend suggested I tell customers on Friday that my credit card machine isn’t working, but no – it would work fine, but I won’t be using it that day. Whatever anyone else thinks of the efficacy or strength of this protest, for me it is a matter of principle and a question of solidarity.
Thank you for your support.
Dog Ears Books will be OPEN on Monday (usually, in winter, a day we’re closed), from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
CLOSED on Tuesday (probably!)
OPEN Wednesday,
OPEN Thursday,
OPEN Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., BUT NOT TAKING CREDIT OR DEBIT CARDS OR APPLE PAY OR ANY OF THAT. IT WILL BE A CASH-ONLY DAY. We welcome your support of local business on a day we hope you will be joining the boycott of big box stores, online shopping, and credit card use. CASH IN LOCAL BUSINESSES! THANK YOU!!!
OPEN Saturday, March 1, from 11 a.m. until perhaps as late as 5 p.m., depending on weather and whether or not people are shopping in Northport.