Newly Arrived: THE SOUL OF SLEEPING BEAR

 

This beautiful new book of photographs of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore has text to match the images' beauty. The covered bridge on the book cover invites you in! 

Both text and photography are by Mark Lindsay, and books in the shop now are signed by Mark. Perfect for Fathers Day, coming up next month. 

Jim's Only Children's Book

Jim Harrison wrote only one book for children, and he wrote it for his grandson, but anyone who wants to understand this outstanding Michigan poet’s background and inspiration will learn a lot from The Boy Who Ran to the Woods.

At the age of seven, a fight with a little girl put Jimmy in the hospital for a month. He was tied to the bed at night. Both eyes were bandaged for a full week, but the sight in his injured eye could not be saved.

It took months for the blind eye to heal and by the time he entered second grade he was sure that all the other boys and girls were staring at him. His father bought him a young dog and Jimmy would hide in the thickets with his dog for days at a time. He became a wild and unruly boy....

He does not want to learn to read – does not want to be in school at all -- but finally, thanks to a father's understanding, a love for the birds and other wildlife he encounters in nature begin to cure the boy’s unhappiness and give him a hunger for learning.

The Boy Who Ran to the Woods,

by Jim Harrison; illustrated by Jim Pohrt

Harcover with dust jacket, $18.95

Two Famous American Naturalists

Henry David Thoreau lived from 1817 to 1862. The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years covers the period of his life following the publication of Walden, when Thoreau found himself more and more drawn to Concord’s three rivers (Sudbury, Assabet, & Concord), “the only wild and unfenced part of the world hereabouts,” as he wrote, explaining his preference for river scenery.

John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman follows Audubon (1785 -1851) throughout his life--down rivers American rivers, into the woods, and to cities in the United States and Europe—as he pursued his art and science along with woodsman survival skills. Note: The author of this book, Gregory Nobles, will make a presentation at Dog Ears Books on Thursday, August 3, at 7 p.m.

The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years

by Robert M. Thorson

Hardcover, 315pp w/ notes, references, index

Illustrated

$29.95

John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman

by Gregory Nobles

Hardcover, 330pp w/ notes & index

Illustrated

$34.95

New Book From Tom Hooker

You’ll remember Tom Hooker from his two previous books, The Last Ice Age and the Leelanau Peninsula: Pleistocene and Lake Michigan and his first book of poetry, Silent Woods: Beyond the Blue Door.

Tom’s new book of poetry, The Catcher: Shadows to Light, once again offers reflections on the natural world and our life in it.

The Catcher: Shadows to Light

by Thomas H. Hooker

Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing (no connection to Dog Ears Books)

Paper, 143pp, $14.95

Trees, Mushrooms, and Books (Again)

Today's post features items found in but hardly unique to Michigan.

First, do trees communicate with each other? Peter Wohllenben thinks they do, and he explains their diverse methods in this fascinating book, an investigation in the spirit of French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, one of my all-time nature heroes.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World

by Peter Wohllenben

Greystone Books, 2015

Hardcover, 272pp w/ index, $29.95

Next, moving from spores to seeds --

It’s fall mushroom time again, time to get out the field guide. What one friend calls “dead man’s fingers,” Audubon calls “elegant stinkhorn,” but there’s no mistaking it, thanks to the color photograph. Audubon! Don't leave home without it!

National Audubon Society Field Guide to Mushrooms, North America

Flexible cover, fully illustrated, over 900pp, cross-referenced and indexed, $22.95

Finally, on to one of my all-time favorite subjects, do your children have any idea what goes into making a book? “Based on a true story,” Mac Barnett and Adam Rex undertake to explain the entire process to young people, from start to finish, clearly and engagingly. (Older people will be equally engaged.) How could I not love this book?

How This Book Was Made

by Mac Barnett & Adam Rex

Hardcover, $17.99

Leelanau Nature Real CLOSE UP!

Here's a new book that exemplifies, magnificently, what you can find in your own back yard, given patience, interest, and talent. My nature-loving book friends are going to be beside themselves over these photographs! Come in and see it -- you may not believe it even then! Amazing!

Nature's Unseen World: Leelanau County's Backyard
photographs by Bob Jones
Traverse City: Mission Point Press
Hardcover, $29.95

Thoreau and Wildflowers

May 20, 1852 All flowers are beautiful. The Salix alba (white willow) is about out of bloom. Pads begin to appear though the river is high over the meadows. A caterpillar’s nest on a wild cherry. Some apple trees in blossom. Most are just ready to burst forth, the leaves being half-formed. I find the feverbush in bloom but apparently its blossoms are now stale. I must observe it next year. They were fresh perhaps a week ago. Currants in bloom by Conant’s Spring – are they natives of America? A lady’s slipper well budded and now white. The Viola ovata is of a deep purple blue – is darkest and has most of the red in it. The V. pedata is smooth and pale blue delicately tinged with purple reflections. The cucullata is more decidedly blue, slaty blue and darkly striated.  

-      Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau’s Wildflowers

Edited by Geoff Wisner

Drawings by Barry Moser

Hardcover $30

Because one wildflower book is never enough, and it’s impossible to have too many. This one also has heavy literary and historical interest, wherever in the country you and your wildflowers live.