Today is the day! 8/13/26, 4 p.m.

 

Are you thinking of writing and self-publishing a memoir? Have you ever thought about it? Wondered how to interest other people in your family story? 

Jennifer Sager never thought she would become an “author,” but she had a lot she wanted to share about her older sister’s life, and those stories turned into a book. Come to Dog Ears Books today at 4 o’clock and enjoy an opportunity to learn about Steph’s life and Jenny’s writing journey. 

What's Going On Here and Now

Michigan Notable author Carlos Fuentes

Friends of the Leelanau Township Library (the FOLTL group) will hold their last author event of the summer series on Tuesday, July 28, at 7 p.m. at the Willowbrook Inn on Mill Street. The author is Robert "Carlos" Fuentes, with his book The Vacation, telling the true story of coming north as a teenager to pick cherries one summer with his family. Carlos and I will have a conversation "onstage," after which he will take questions from the audience, and there will be an opportunity following the event for audience members to buy books and have them signed by the author. I'm really looking forward to it. Carlos is a very enthusiastic writer and human being, and I know we will all have a good time. 

At the beautiful Willowbrook Inn on Mill St.

Before long I'll schedule an August event here at my own place (in the adjacent gallery, that is) with Northport author Jennifer Sager. Her memoir--her first book!--is the story of her older sister, born with Down syndrome, but it is really a story of the whole family, and for the most part it is a happy story. Jenny still misses her sister, Steph, who died at age 63. "We had so much fun together!" she says, an indication for you of what I mean by a happy story. And since we all have families, this is a story for everyone, not only for families that include a member with disabilities. Once I started the book, all the other things I was reading had to wait until I reached the last page of Steph's Story.

Unput-downable family story!

Besides new books, just about every day there are old books newly arrived here at Dog Ears, so stop in often to see what's "new" in the shop.

Only one example of treasures that await!

Another!

Another! 

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. 

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.

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.  

For Those Who Plan Ahead

Postcards from the village you love!

Available now! Send a couple or a dozen or more with your personal holiday greetings. Stamp not included. Does not require batteries.

Also, don't forget next Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Author Chuck Collins will be here!

Also, please note that the new Harrison biography, Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, a Writer's Life, by Todd Goddard, is available now in my shop.

Hours until the end of the year: 

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 11-3

Friday & Saturday, 11-5

Our Special November Guest Author

 

Author Chuck Collins

Chuck Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive organization based in Washington, D.C., will present his new new book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet, at Dog Ears Books in Northport (Michigan!) on Wednesday, November 12, at 4 p.m.

His new book

Collins is Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the IPS and has authored and co-authored over ten books and dozens of reports about inequality, climate disruption, philanthropy, the racial wealth divide, affordable housing, and billionaire wealth dynasties. 

It was his 2016 book, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, that caught my attention. (You can read my review of that Born on Third Base here.) I was also intrigued by the fact that Chuck's late father, Ed Collins, and his wife, Bobbie, were founders of the Leelanau Conservancy, so Chuck has a strong connection to Leelanau County.

I am trying out the 4 p.m. time slot to avoid conflicts with evening meetings and dinner plans, and I'll be posting more about this event on my "Books in Northport" blog soon, but mark your calendar now so you won't miss Chuck on Nov. 12. I predict a very lively discussion! And if you want to familiarize yourself somewhat with the speaker ahead of his appearance in Northport, check out some of what he's written on Substack.

Once again, that's 4 p.m., Wednesday, November 12 (the day after Veterans Day) in the David Grath Gallery at Dog Ears Books, 106 Waukazoo Street in Northport.

Labor Day and Beyond

Books in honor of Labor Day

 My plan for the holiday is to open the shop by 10 or 11 a.m. and to stay through until 2 or 3 p.m. The following day, Tuesday, September 2, will be my holiday. Bookshop closed that day.

After my one-day break, I'll be back on deck Wednesday through Saturday but probably closing up by 4 p.m.

Then -- beginning the second week in September:

September Hours

Tuesday, 11-3

Wednesday-Friday, 11-4

Saturday, 11-5

Closed Sunday & Monday

October hours will probably be about the same, but it's too soon to say. 

Something New All the Time

 

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. 

While National Poetry Month (April) may be over, every month is poetry month at Dog Ears Books. When Anne-Marie Oomen stopped by recently, she signed her two mermaid books for me, and just today Teresa Scollon's new book of poems arrived. 

And that's only the tip of the new book iceberg. As for used books, you know there's always something "new" in those big departments. This week it's World War II that received so many new additions that I had to rearrange the whole section.

EVERY Month is Poetry Month at Dog Ears Books

  

But April is National Poetry Month,

and we kicked it off this week

at Dog Ears Books.

Our poet of the year will be Fleda Brown,

former poet laureate of Delaware,

who will be here to read from her new chapbook,

Doctor of the World,

on Friday, May 23rd, at noon.

Feel free to bring a sack lunch

and join us in David Grath's gallery

next door to the bookshop.

Fleda Brown

Friday, May 23, 2025

Noon

Plan for Spring Break: Winging It

 

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!

Into the New Year's Second Month

Reminder: Dog Ears Books in Northport, Michigan, is open four days a week this winter, Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

Reminder: you can order audio
books through Libro.fm and choose Dog Ears Books as your bookstore on the Libro.fm site, and we will earn a little something from each audiobook you buy that way. It will help us get through the winter. Thank you!

 

Blog note 1: My main blog, Books in Northport, the one I post to most frequently, has been around since September of 2007. It has always been free and will be free as long as it survives. I make my living as a bookseller, not as a blogger. Neither will I be moving to a Substack account, although many professional writers and independent journalists are there now, and I encourage you to follow a few, upgrading to a paid subscription if you can afford it, especially those whose work is crucial to giving us real news, e.g., Dan Rather, Heather Cox Richardson, and others. The importance of these sources will increase sooner than you might imagine.

 

Blog note 2: Call Books in Northport a “labor of love” or call me a graphomaniac – however you want to characterize it and/or me, I’ve stuck to this project for over 17 years. Some of you have been with me from the beginning, while others are brand-new readers, but I appreciate every single one of you, however long you have been reading. My morale this year, however, could use a little extra support (I’ll be trying to provide support for the morale of my readers, too), so I encourage you to (1) sign on as a follower, (2) comment on posts, and (3) send links to your family and friends for posts you find particularly meaningful. There is no financial advantage to me in this, only personal satisfaction.

If you haven't seen the latest post yet, because I just put it up a few minutes ago, check it out now! Thank you!

 

New Bookmarks, New Books, Old Books Newly Arrived

Ask me about any of these books. I wrote an entire post and somehow lost it. 

This coming Saturday, October 19, Dog Ears Books will close early, at 3 p.m., but will be open again, as usual, the following Tuesday, October 22, at 11 a.m. Come see us! We are your best excuse for a beautiful drive!