May Schedule

In general, hours for May will be Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; however, the shop will be closed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, May 19, 20, 21 while I’m out of town, then open again Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. 

Bookseller Recommendation for Spring: A new Northwoods Mystery

 

 

Karen Casebeer’s third book, the latest in her Northwoods Mystery series, is a sure-fire winner. Set in northwest lower Michigan, with action stretching from the Platte River in the south to Cathead Bay in the north, and featuring various parts of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Wayfinding is a tight, cohesive story of a few months in the life of forensic detective Quinn Macarthy. 

On medical leave following a traumatic incident with career criminals, Quinn rents an A-frame cottage on Sleeping Bear Bay, planning to rest, hike with her dog, and take time to heal, but her plan is interrupted when her dog, Ruby, trained in search and rescue as well as drug detection, discovers a human hand in the dunes, uncovered by an overnight storm. Will Quinn be able to remain uninvolved as the mystery of the skeleton’s identity and cause of death are investigated? (What do you think?)

Wayfinding has several plot lines: the investigation following the finding of the skeleton; Quinn’s therapy sessions dealing with multiple past traumas; the gentle beginnings of a new romantic relationship; and quite a lot of recent developments in genealogical research. All are masterfully woven together by the author. Case never drops a single thread in her story, and eventually everything comes together in surprising ways not at all apparent beforehand. 

As with every good mystery series, it isn’t necessary to have read the preceding two books before diving right into this third novel. An added enticement for locals and annual visitors is that anyone familiar with Benzie, Grand Traverse, and Leelanau counties will recognize the territory and its landmarks, which is always fun. 

Poetry at an Indie!

 

What better way to celebrate Indie Bookstore Day (always the last Saturday in April--and April is National Poetry Month!) than with a Michigan poet as my bookstore guest? We will convene at noon and sit in a congenial circle, which worked so well for Fleda's last visit to Dog Ears Books that I'm doing it again. Please join us!

Mark Your Calendar: Saturday, April 25

 

Fleda Brown, former poet laureate of the state of Delaware, back home in Michigan now for several years, will give a reading of her new work in person in Northport on Indie Bookstore Day, Saturday, April 25! We will convene at noon, but anyone is welcome to come as early as my 11 a.m. bookshop opening to be sure of a good seat and/or to spend time browsing.

And here's another idea: A few months ago a group of women in my shop told me they had decided to make a switch from wine tasting to book shopping. They came north for a weekend to visit every bookshop in Traverse City and Leelanau County, each of them buying at least one book in each shop. Road trip with friends! What a great way to celebrate Indie Day!

Leelanau Indies: Photos by Karen Mulvahill

The last Saturday in April is always Indie Bookstore Day. For several years, I was away from my shop on that day, and the last couple of years I just didn't get on the ball soon enough to do anything special. This year, for once, I'm ahead of the curve--and pleased as punch, too, about my literary guest for the day.

Fleda Brown was my guest last May, also.

Beautiful Bargains

 

So gently used, they look and feel like new!

Closed This Friday

 

My life is taking me away from Northport on Friday. I plan to be back in the shop on Saturday for regular 11 to 3 winter hours.

Am I Crazy? Not Freezing Indoors (with John and Yoko)

 It's a cold, snowy, blowy January Friday, with below-zero temperatures that should creep up to 3 above later this afternoon. I layered up. My car started. My driveway was plowed yesterday. I made it to Northport and will be here until 3 p.m. and plan to be here on Saturday, also, 11-3. 

Latest used books to come to my shop feature a collection of books by and about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Read them for nostalgia if you remember, for history if you're too young to know already. See my other blog for more rambling narrative.

Bookstore Winter Saturday

 

What will a winter Saturday in January bring to a village bookseller in Northern Michigan? Who might walk in the door, and what books might she sell? There is no way to forecast bookshop weather, but at 12:30 p.m. on January 17 I can already say I've had a wonderful day!

It was a balmy 28 degrees this morning at dog-walk time, and that was a good start. The first person through my shop door was a good friend from a third-generation township farm, and we always have a lot to talk about. More people, more good conversation, good books sold--including a copy of Liberty Hyde Bailey's Hortus. LHB is one of my Michigan heroes, so that made me happy, and the horticultural theme of the day continued when the new owners--or, as they put it, the parents of the "real" new owner--of Peninsula Perennials came shopping for books, and I reminded John that I'd been on Swede Road in the fall and talked to him about mountain ash. 

It's because of these coincidences that today's post begins with a new book I'm carrying, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden, a reprint of the original 1917 edition, "a classic account of Hidatsa American Indian gardening techniques," and I'll have another interesting book on flora by next Saturday.

Winter Is Here

 

Winter hours have arrived. (Winter arrived earlier, but winter hours began with the new year.)

Wednesday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Thursday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Friday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

I will probably not be ordering new books every week, but when I do the order will go in on Monday so that books arrive by the end of the week (if in stock at the distributor's warehouse), which means Saturday is the last day to let me know in person that you want to order a book.

The shop has lots of new books on hand already, though, both fiction and nonfiction. For example, here are some memoirs and biographies to start off your 2026 reading.

 

Update, January 14: Today was a snow day for Northport School, but I made it to town easily. What will happen by the end of the day and overnight, however, is anyone's guess. Will I get here on Thursday? If possible, yes. If not possible, no! So call first, and if I'm here between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., I'll answer the phone.

Don't worry -- I've got you covered.

 

Is time pressuring you? Don't stress out. I'll be here Monday (today), Tuesday, Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with wrapping paper, scissors and tape on hand. 👍

It's Not Too Late

 

Let me explain. It's too late to ask me to order a book you want to have by Christmas or by the end of Hanukkah, but it is not too late to come shopping for books. There are great ones in the store all the time--classics, local authors and subjects, and wonderful titles you didn't even know existed. One of my customers this week told me she has a formula for buying gifts for her children. Each child receives for the holiday:

Something they want;

Something they need;

Something to wear;

and

Something to READ!

That mother certainly had her shopping figured out.

Whether it's young ones or a partner you are looking to surprise, there's no going wrong with classics.

New books aren't the only treasures available on Waukazoo Street.

Lovingly worn...

or very gently used

or take your pick -- new or old.

There are exciting newer releases, too, nonfiction and fiction:

Finally, if the idea of sending out holiday cards has you overwhelmed and feeling too late to catch up, think postcards. "Greetings from Northport" are appropriate for New Year's and beyond.

Today is Jim Harrison's birthday.

 

Jim Harrison was born December 11, 1937, in Grayling, Michigan, and spent his boyhood in Reed City before the family moved south to Haslett. Online searches turn up a wealth of writing about Harrison's life and work, often by people who knew Jim only through his work--but then, that is the way Jim wanted to be known, and it makes sense. 

Here is an example I found this morning from a literary journal. Another thoughtful reflection turned up in a blog post. I especially appreciate the latter admirer advising people to forget the myth and read the work. 

I'll add, if you really want to know Jim Harrison, read the poetry. Todd Goddard, however, did an excellent job writing a biography of Harrison, Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, A Writer's Life.

Nothing is easier to wrap than a book!

 

Leelanau treasures

Here are just a few ideas

of the many possibilities available

at your local bookstore in Northport.

A couple books here on the table are just newly published titles from Leelanau Press. Edward Beebe’s Historic Leelanau Photographs: Leland, Suttons Bay, and North Manitou Island 1909-1915, by Jack Hobey, is much more than a coffee table picture book. The history of our county is here, along with the life of the photographer and details of his work. And the photographs themselves are magnificent! There is plenty here to lose yourself in on long winter evenings.

Frederick W. Dickinson: Sleeping Bear Dunes Pioneer Photographer, compiled by Grace Dickinson Johnson (and the copies I have are signed by her), takes us from Leland down to Glen Arbor and gives a history of our county newspaper, The Leelanau Enterprise, Leland’s Fishtown, and Glen Arbor’s Studio Art Galleries on Glen Lake—all that before the hauntingly beautiful photographs of the dunes themselves. 

Both these new books, as well as every other book on the round table, belong in every Up North home. Or, if Up North is vacationland for you, you’ll want the books wherever you live the rest of the year to learn more about your “home away from home.”

Focus on DOGS!

How it came to be --

To whet children's anticipation --

Here and Now

 

I'll lead off today with Todd Goddard's long-anticipated Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, a Writer's Life. Yes, it's here, and yes, it's fascinating, whether or not you ever met Jim Harrison in person. 

So there is my front table, with a new arrangement, featuring Harrison and a couple of his buddies. I also have other Harrison books in stock, both new paperback novels and older signed hardcovers. 

Next --

By popular demand, I have stocked Joyce Vance's timely new book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping Our Democracy. In her introduction she writes, 

Putting these words down on paper makes me feel hopeful. I have always gained strength from being in community....

For any kind of writer, even the solitary blogger sitting alone in a room, putting down words is a way to connect. I can begin a morning feeling quite blue, begin writing, and after a while find I have written myself out of the funk and into a mood of gratitude, hope, and anticipation, so Vance's sentence about “putting words down on paper” struck a chord with me.

Another recent request was for Jill Lepore's We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, so here it is.

Now, for a complete change of focus, look out! Dav Pilkey's new book is here! And you know Dav Pilkey is a phenomenon. No other word for it.

Dogs? Did someone say dogs? Here is This Dog Will Change Your Life, by Elias Weiss Friedman, the “Dogist.” Doesn't every dog change the life of the person lucky enough to share life with that dog? That is the beauty and the wonder of dogs.

From biography to serious politics to goofy stories to dogs, you never know what you will find at Dog Ears Books on any given day. It's always potluck. But treasures always await, that much is certain, so stop in soon.