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. 

LOCAL AUTHOR -- NORTHPORT!

 

Jennifer Sager of Northport, MI

Jennifer Sager and her husband made Northport their retirement home, so it was not surprising that when Jennifer wrote a book, she and her best friend would make their first call on Dog Ears Books. "We don't know what we're doing," one of them told me. Jennifer even said, "I don't consider myself an author." But they told me about Jenny's book, Steph's Story, and when I looked it over and read a few pages, I told her, "You are the author of this book, even if you never write another!"

Jennifer's book is a very personal story. Her older sister, Stephanie, their parents' first child, was born with Down syndrome. The challenges Steph and her family face in trying to balance care for Steph with as much independence as possible change over the years, and some are occasionally heartbreaking, but love and devotion see them through, and the baby not expected to live past her second birthday reaches age 63, experiencing many triumphs in the course of her life. This is basically a happy, upbeat book.

Author Jenny Sager sees her sister's story as being helpful to other families where some kind of disability is an issue, and I'm sure that's true. It's always good to learn how others have dealt with situations we are facing ourselves. But my view is that Steph's Story is a book for anyone with a family, of whatever kind, and that is pretty much all of us, isn't it? Jenny is never preachy. The factual information she passes along about help for those with disabilities is woven into her memories in such a way that the story reads seamlessly from start to finish. 

She is a delightful person, too! 

So please join us at Dog Ears Books (in the David Grath gallery next door, actually) on Thursday afternoon, August 13, at 4 p.m. You will be glad you made the time for this event.

More complete biographical information on the author has come in now: 

Jennifer Sager is the author of Steph’s Story, an honest account of her family’s joys, challenges, and creative strategies for helping Steph, born with Down syndrome, to flourish. Although Steph died a few years ago, Jennifer continues to support friends in the Downs family community as they navigate changes in their needs and in the policies regulating benefits.

Over a span of 30 years, Jennifer earned degrees from multiple universities in general education and special education. She received licenses for both teaching and administration, has taught across all grade levels, and worked for a county-wide non-profit organization to develop educational programming for families. She has been a school principal, a supervisor for special education cooperative, and a district-level special education administrator; however, she may tell you that the most rewarding work of her life was as her sister’s legal guardian.

Jennifer assumed co-guardianship with her mother for her older sister, Stephanie, who lived with Down syndrome, and she and her family were instrumental in challenging the accepted “quality of life” standards for people with disabilities. Her family navigated support for Stephanie when she found a boyfriend. Steph was able to move to her own apartment with supported living on the Medicare waiver, and Jennifer worked with the supporting agencies to navigate changes in state and federal systems and to advocate for the couple’s continuing relationship.

For her entire life Jennifer has advocated support for all people with disabilities. She served on the ADEC  Board of Directors in Elkhart and the ARC of Indiana Board of Directors. Most importantly for educators, service providers, and policy makers, Jennifer also has an incredible gift of story-telling that allows her to engage listeners and to illustrate profound lessonswith anecdotes from her professional and personal life. She is a passionate advocate for those with disabilities and for their families. 

Jennifer can often be found in the peaceful woods of Michigan’s Leelanau peninsula with her husband, Jim.

Weekend Spotlight: One New, One a Little Less So

📚📓📔📕📗📘📙📚

I’m shining the metaphorical bookshop spotlight today on one new book and one from 2008. Both this week are nonfiction.

The cover tells the story,
as you discover when reading the book.

The new book comes from a Northport author, Jennifer Sager, and tells the story of her older sister, Stephanie, born with Down syndrome and not expected to live more than two years. Steph’s parents, however, could not bring themselves to heed the doctor’s advice to institutionalize their first-born daughter (and “try again”) and instead kept her at home and had two more girls. Naturally, accommodations had to be made for the eldest. Yet this is basically the story of a happy family, with parents and sisters responding to and interacting with their slowest member with love and humor.

Of course, not all is smooth sailing. The parents’ eventual divorce is probably the rudest shock (and I guess that’s a partial spoiler, isn’t it?), but it isn’t the end of the story or even crisis precipitating tragedy. Life goes on for all of them.

One of Steph’s recurrent frustrations is her feeling that, because she is oldest, she should do everything first: go to school, have a boyfriend, get a job. Her mother feels sadness through the years over the many things Steph will never be able to do. But she does so much! I’ll leave you to discover all that by reading the book, which I predict will hold your interest, as it did mine, to the last page. Although Jennifer Sager includes in her sister’s story many details about the law and various organizations and groups involved with Americans with disabilities, these facts do not stand awkwardly apart from the narrative but are smoothly woven into it. 

I usually have from three to five books going at once, depending on whether I’m at work or at home, what room I’m in at home, or what time of day it is, but when I started Steph’s Story all the others had to wait. And I'm glad to announce that Jenny will give a book talk for me in August, so read the book now and come meet her then!

***

Traditional Boats of Ireland: History, Folklore and Construction is a dream book, whether or not you're Irish. 

Published in Cork 18 years ago, the volume was years in the making, and it shows. How often have you seen a book with four introductions, each written by a different person? We are introduced, in turn, to “Irish Vernacular Boats”; “Irish Fisheries”; “The Great Spring Mackerel Fishery”; and finally “Boats, Boatmen and the Oral Tradition,” these introductions followed by sections on different regions of the island nation, the entirety illustrated with photographs, plans, drawings of details, and maps. Place names are given in both Irish and English, as is only proper. To turn the pages is enough to fall in love.

See what I mean? 

Steph's Story, paper, 464pp, retails for $29.95.

Traditional Boats of Ireland, hardcover with dust jacket, 658pp with dust jacket and index, is priced at $75.

P.S. The shop will be closed Sunday and Monday, July 5-6, and on Tuesday, July 7, I'll be opening late--not until mid afternoon. After that, back to regular Tuesday-Saturday, 11-5 hours.

New on the Shelves

 

New books are always showing up in Northport. Here are a few recent additions at Dog Ears Books.

And don't forget this coming Thursday, Bob Downes is giving a slide show on pre-European Native American history, 4 p.m., right here on Waukazoo Street. 

Next Big Thing: BOOK LAUNCH!

(To make the information from the flier image easier to read, I'll repeat it in a larger font!)

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!

The book itself!

Mr. Rochester Came Back!

Not that he ever left Northport or Dog Ears Books since our big launch in May of 2017, but Sarah Shoemaker’s novel, Mr. Rochester, my bestseller of 2017, is now out in paperback. And I have signed copies available! So attention book clubs: Read both Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre and double your discussion fun!

Here I must digress to share a story someone told me in the bookstore last week. A customer browsing the dog books read aloud the title, Bad Dogs Have More Fun, and I couldn’t let it pass without a remark. I said I was skeptical. After all, there aren’t many places you can expect a welcome for a badly behaved dog, while a well-behaved dog can enjoy many more aspects of life with its resident human beings. The woman agreed. Then she told me that her family had once had such a bad dog that they spoke of the dog to each other as — not, I think, its given name — Mrs. Rochester. “Because,” she went on to explain, “whenever we had company, we had to lock her upstairs.” 

Sarah Shoemaker, what do you think of that?

Mr. Rochester

by Sarah Shoemaker

Paper, $14.99