What should you read next?

Big book that reads fast!

 

Every American should read Robert Reich’s new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America. Every American, from yellow dog Democrats to MAGA Republicans—and also all Independents and disaffected voting dropouts. Every American. Much more than a memoir, the book is American political history from postwar 1950s to the present day. Not from someone running for office or married to a political party or in bed with large corporate interests, either! Robert Reich may be smarter than you and me (he’s certain smarter than I am), but his head is not in the clouds. I have the hardcover book in my shop, and the audiobook is available through libro.fm. If your library doesn’t have it, they need to get it. Read the book! Then share your thoughts with me, please, whatever those thoughts may be.

Naturally, I have many other recommendations, fiction and nonfiction. Or just stop in and look around:

Hours through August

Monday, 11-5

Tuesday, 11-3

Wednesday-Saturday, 11-5

Sunday, CLOSED

Black History Month

 

Do you ever wonder why we need a Black History Month? Or a Women’s History Month? Isn’t it all American history? Indeed it is. Having one month of the year focused on Black American history (and, in my bookstore, literature) is not a denial of more inclusive American history but an acknowledgement that parts of American history have been swept under the rug for too long and that we don’t make a better future by pretending the past didn’t happen. As Isabel Wilkerson has written, those of us alive in America today did not build our national “house,” but we’re here now, living in it, all of us, and it’s up to us to do the necessary repairs and maintenance.

 

Besides, you wouldn’t want to miss some of these fantastic writers!!! Biography, fiction, poetry! The essay collection Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration, compiled by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts, challenges the idea that all of Black life is just hardship and trauma, while Aaliyah Bilal’s Temple Folk, a National Book Award Finalist, brings us masterful and diverse stories about members of the Nation of Islam. And/or, have you read a novel by Jesmyn Ward or Colson Whitehead yet? If not, maybe now is the time. 

Have you asked this question? The author answers it.

 

There’s more already here, and I’ll have additions to the front table next week, too. Come browse!

 

 

Bookish Northport News for July -- TOMORROW!!!

 

Author talk on Tuesday, July 12, 7:30 p.m. at Leelanau Township Library

There are no Thursday Evening author events this summer at Dog Ears Books, but the township library is going forward with its summer author series in July. The first author gave his talk at the Willowbrook, Elizabeth Emerson will speak at the library tomorrow evening, and Greg Nobles will tell us all about Betsey Stockton at the Willowbrook next week, July 19. His talk was originally scheduled to take place at the Northport Arts Association building, so don't be confused. Best plan is to come to the library tomorrow evening, hear Elizabeth, and get the rest of the schedule straight on your calendar. 

Letters from Red Farm is subtitled The Untold Story of the Friendship between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin. Helen Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, was just about my first foray into nonfiction, and I've never forgotten it. Not only did Ms. Keller accomplish more than most sighted and hearing individuals in a lifetime, she also touched many other lives and was an example to the world. Joseph Chamberlin was her mentor for over 40 years, and the author of this book, Elizabeth Emerson, is Chamberlin's great-great-granddaughter, s tomorrow's library talk promises to be fascinating in every respect.

I'm not usually in the bookstore on Mondays but made an exception today, because I was unable to purchase a great number of Emerson's book and wanted to make it available today, as well as tomorrow, so don't miss out! Come on down!

Local Author Is World Citizen

 

Soon-Young Yoon, Citizen of the World: 

Soon-Young Yoon and the UN. 

Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press, 2021. 

Paper, 327pp.

$25

For my complete review, please see my post on Books in Northport.

Food Today; Medicine and Science Over a Century Ago

COVID-19 has changed the bookstore landscape this summer, all over the world. Since my Thursday Evening Author series here in Northport was cancelled, I have been neglected this particularly bookstore-focused blog. Bookstore news? The bookstore is open, and we have books – that’s pretty much my news, one week after the next. 

But there are always surprises from one day to the next, and if you haven’t been here since last year there are probably a lot of surprises. 

New This Season

First I want to highlight what I have christened my “Book of Summer 2020,” Emita Hill’s Northern Harvest: Twenty Women in Food and Farming, that book at the top of today's post. And you don’t even have to be a foodie or a farmer to love it, either. It's enough to want stories of real women, of their dreams, how they made them come true, and how they have made the food landscape healthier and more interesting for all of us Up North.

100 Years Ago

But I always have plenty of old books, too, and today I want to highlight a couple from 100 years ago. Both have to do at least in part with physiology, so that either would make an unusual and fascinating gift for someone in or graduating from medical school.

Beautiful Womanhood: Guide to Mental and Physical Development, with a copyright date of 1904, was written by three physicians: S. Pancoast; C. B. Vanderbeck; and Wm. Wesley Cook. The title page notes that the book is “Superbly Illustrated.” Many of the illustrations, even the photographs, are very romanticized, while others get beneath the skin to a graphic depiction of bodily organs. The chapter on testicles is somewhat surprising, in that women do not possess testicles, but of course the whole purpose of women a century ago (as the authors saw it) was to bear children, which is where those wiggly little spermatozoa came into the picture. 

Going now back to a copyright date of 1895 (my copy, an edition and printing from 1919, still 101 years old), we have Search Lights on Health: Light on Dark Corners. A Complete Sexual Science and a Guide to Purity and Physical Manhood. Advice to Maiden, Wife, and Mother, Love, Courtship, and Marriage. (And you thought subtitles were something our generation invented?) Here I think we have greater truth in advertising: Ladies, you need to know about sex! Here it is! And courtship, too – not just female “development” – so table manners are included, as well as advice on feelings such as jealousy. “Improve your speech by reading,” advises another page. Like Beautiful Womanhood, the book illustrates physiology and family, sexual organs and life lessons -- some of the which are still timely today. You'll have for yourself to decide which ones.

It Doesn’t Get Much More Local Than This

From author Norbert Bufka, we have, from left to right:

North Unity and Bohemian Settlement, $12.95

News from the Neighborhood: Good Harbor Michigan 1875-1931, $9.95

Good Harbor Michigan: The Story and the People, 1850-1931, $14.95

From Bohemia to Good Harbor, $13.95

We Remember Lost Places in Leelanau, $14.95

Re-Opening July 1

Author Robert Giles came in Saturday morning to sign copies of his book, When Truth Mattered: The Kent State Shootings 50 Years Later (see my review here). A couple copies are being held for customers as special orders, but I have more available, so contact me if you're interested.

Emita Hill came in earlier in the week to sign her Northern Harvest: Twenty Michigan Women in Food and Farming, and copies of that book (my review here) have been so much in demand that I'll be ordering another carton for July, but I have a few still available now.


So now, the plan as July looms is THIS: 

The bookstore will re-open officially on Wednesday, July 1 (at present I am only taking deliveries and allowing customers to come in to pick up special orders), with these COVID-19 precautions: 

(1) You must wear a mask. I will not be providing masks, as you should all have your own already to be out in public at all. 

(2) Number of people in the store at once will be limited to six. If you are part of a large group, plan accordingly.

(3) Hand sanitizer will be available, and its use will be encouraged as you enter and again as you leave.

For now, this Saturday, June 27, book-hungry people without special orders to pick up may browse the sidewalk cart, where a wide variety of books are available (as are bags). The price there is $9.43 for three books, which works out to $10 with the sales tax. I will continue the cart throughout the summer for sidewalk perusal and for the special comfort of those not yet ready to go into stores.

I thank you for your loyalty and for your patience and hope we can all manage to have a safe, healthy, fun- and book-filled summer!

Two New Novels I Highly Recommend

I have reviewed these two fine, important, and compellingly written novels on Books in Northport, Moon of the Crusted Snow here, Still Come Home here, so please take a look at those posts if you haven't already. 

Whether you look to fiction for the pleasure of beautiful written language, engaging and memorable characters, armchair travel, a greater knowledge of the world, or deeper understanding of other cultures, both these books fit all those requirements. And both, while new, are available in paper, making them budget- and space-friendly. Easy to mail, too. Think of that as December holidays come closer. 

Dog Ears will be open through Saturday, Nov. 30, and then closed for the winter.

Still Come Home, 

by Katey Schultz

Paper, 250pp

$16.99

Moon of the Crusted Snow, 

by Waubgeshig Rice

Paper, 218pp

$14.95

Here for the Rest of November!

Wednesday, 11/21: OPEN 11-5 (Take a bookstore break from mixing up cranberry relish and bread stuffing and baking pies.)

Thursday, 11/22: CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING

Friday, 11/23: OPEN 11-5 WITH BEGINNING OF HOLIDAY SALE: 20% off everything in stock!

Saturday, 11/24: OPEN 11-5. OPEN HOUSE IN BUSINESSES THROUGHOUT VILLAGE. HOLIDAY SALE CONTINUES. VILLAGE TREE LIGHTING 6 p.m. LIVE MUSIC

Sunday, 11/25 CLOSED

Monday, 11/26: OPEN 11-5 for CIDER MONDAY — YOUR LOCAL ALTERNATIVE BY SHOPPING ONLINE! HOLIDAY SALE CONTINUES.

Tuesday, 11/27: OPEN 11-5 HOLIDAY SALE CONTINUES

Wednesday, 11/28: OPEN 11/5 HOLIDAY SALE CONTINUES

Thursday, 11/29: OPEN 11-5 HOLIDAY SALE CONTINUES

Friday, 11/30: OPEN 11-5 LAST DAY OF THE BOOKSTORE YEAR??? Don't miss us! Many treasures -- new books and old, fine bindings and paperbacks, classics, signed copies, history, how-to, escape, etc., etc.

Saturday, 12/1: Who knows? Not sure yet! Friday, 11/30, may be our last day of the season, so don’t wait for December 1st to do your holiday shopping at Dog Ears Books!

Then, happy winter! We'll see you again in the spring!

Read about the book here. Buy it today at Dog Ears Books in Northport. 

Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

by Maryanne Wolf

Hardcover, 247pp, $24.99

Chickadees Are Stars Again!

Bill O. Smith’s third book starring chickadees lives up to the standard set by his first, Chickadees at Night, and second, The Chickadee Spirit. Like the earlier books, Chickadeeland once again presents the little birds we all love in rhymes that please the ear and captivate the imagination, completing a trilogy of perfect bedtime stories that all ages will enjoy. Traverse City artist Charles R. Murphy’s watercolors, too, could not be better suited to illustrating Smith’s chickadee adventure tales.

Nor will you want to overlook a fourth Bill Smith book (third in chronological order), Four a.m. December 25, illustrated by Glenn Wolff. There is also a lot going on in the pictures that isn’t told in the words in this book. Lots to look for and talk about as the author and illustrator take us around the world, through the time zones, for one hour in the dark of Christmas morning.

The author is donating his profits from Chickadeeland to the National Parks Conservation Association, Historic Sleeping Bear Preservation, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, Groundworks Center, and the National Park Foundation. His profits from Four a.m. December 25th are going to the Air Force Enlisted Village, Air Warriors Courage Foundation, Our Military Kids, Inc., and the Cherryland VWF Post 2780 Relief Fund. 

Books by Bill O. Smith, all hardcover with beautifully illustrated boards:

Chickadees at Night, $18.85

The Chickadee Spirit, $18.85

Chickadeeland, $18.85

Four a.m. December 25 (somewhat larger format than chickadee books), $19.95

You will definitely want to catch the chickadee spirit yourself!

How Brave Are You?

It takes courage to face old age and death, but growing old and nearing the end can also be times of reflection and gratitude, even joy. Consider these two books:

Accenting the rewards of maturity, Joan Chittister in The Gift of Years: Growing Old Gracefully might help you find the courage you wish you had. Sooner or later, after all, we will need it. Paper, $13.95

And then there are the even more difficult end-of-life decisions. To help prepare or to find answers you need right now, Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End offers a thoughtful physician’s perspective. Paper, $16

Visit Montana, Stay in Michigan – or Both?

This little anthology from Elk River Books is called by Pete Fromm “the most important book you’ll buy this year, or maybe any other.” I’ll just say that it’s a collection of essays, fiction, and poetry by a stunning cast of writers. You’ll recognize many of the names, including that of Leelanau County's most famous author, Jim Harrison. Other than showcasing beautiful writing, however, Unearthing Paradise is a call to arms at a time when public natural resources are more than ever in need of protection from destructive private exploitation. You don't want to miss this book.

Unearthing Paradise: Montana Writers

      In Defense of Greater Yellowstone

edited by Marc Beaudin, Seabring Davis,

      And Max Hjortsberg

with Foreword by Terry Tempest Williams

Paper, 179pp, $15

And if staying here to face Michigan cold with Up North courage (not to say sisu and steal a march from the Yoopers), while at the same time catching up with fictional Sheriff Ray Elkins, you’ll want to pick up the latest Aaron Stander novel, Gales of November. What dangers and puzzles will the sheriff meet this time? Read and find out!

Gales of November

by Aaron Stander

Paper, 25pp, $17.95

My advice is to buy and read both books, because by now we've barely gotten started on winter, and there is going to be a lot of good reading weather ahead.

Thursday afternoon excitement: sunshine!