Local and Signed Books Make Special Gifts

From Traverse City -- chickadees!

When restocking Bill O. Smith's latest book, A Chickadee Year, I also restocked Chickadees in December. Doesn't that make sense? So glad to have Bill's beautiful, educational, and very entertaining -- fun! -- books in my shop!
 

From Cathead Bay -- new perspective --

"Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger," the angel told the shepherds. But where was that manger? Author Gary Ross brought imagination to add to the research he did into the Bible story to offer a new perspective on the birth of Jesus.

From Leland, magic and the moon for kids --

Artist, musician, and writer Tobin Sprout has redesigned and reissued two of his lovely children's books in time for the holidays. Elliott is a story about magic and where we find it, while little Tinky works hard to figure out how to "put the moon to bed." 

Why fight crowds in Traverse City when you can shop in your own little village? No traffic snarls, plenty of parking...

(See? Plenty of on-street parking available!)

...and on Saturday the horses will return! 

Horses in the snow

Horses in the window

Newly arrived in the shop!

New, Restocked, and Looking Forward

 

Not only is it late September, but this coming Saturday is Leelanau UnCaged, Northport's big, beautiful annual street fair. This year BATA (Bay Area Transit Authority) is offering FREE BUS RIDES to Northport from Traverse City! And at 4 p.m. on Saturday, poets Fleda Brown and Michael Delp will give readings at the bookstore (a free event, as is the day's music and entrance to UnCaged itself), so please plan to stop by. The weather forecast is for yet another gorgeous Northern Michigan fall day.

Dog Ears Books will be open all afternoon on Saturday until at least 6 p.m. Our dedicated fall hours, remember, are Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with Monday and Tuesday as "by chance or appointment" days), closed on Sundays. And with each passing week, I am ordering new books for the store, restocking popular local offerings as well as bringing in the sometimes unexpected. 

 Definitely here through October. Winter is still up in the air....

It Isn’t Rocket Science

Here until the rest of the month

Bookselling, my calling in life, doesn’t require knowledge of higher mathematics, let alone astrophysics, but there are crucial numbers involved in the survival of any bookstore, numbers that can also be called simply “the bottom line.” A recent article in the weekly Northern Express relayed the sad news that Traverse City’s 50-year-old Bookie Joint on Union Street is closing – not due to the owner’s desire for retirement but because the dreaded bottom line figure wasn’t panning out. 

Sad news!

“I was robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said the current owner, who bought the business fifteen years ago. “And Peter was going broke.”

 

The 50-year mark is one I don’t expect to see for myself (as a bookstore owner), but the 30-year mark is only two years away and very do-able, I think. At times in the past I’ve attributed my business success (survival, I suppose would be the more modest word) to stubbornness, but stubbornness alone wouldn’t have kept the door open for the past 28 years. 

People buying books in the bookstore – that is the essential ingredient for keeping a bookstore alive. Not mere compliments or wishes of “good luck” from browsers as they walk out the door. People buying books. That keeps a bookstore in business. 

The end of October is coming up fast, and Saturday, October 30, will be the last day of my 2021 season – but we will be back again in May of 2022 because of all our dear, wonderful, loyal book-buying customers! So please, all of you, know that I am grateful beyond my puny words for your patronage. Still --

 

Thank you 

from the bottom of my heart 

for a wonderful 2021 bookstore season!!!

What's sweeter than a small town in Michigan?

How about 99 more small Michigan towns?

Northport is small, but the author may be saving us for a future volume, because only Empire represents Leelanau County in the new book, Little Michigan: A Nostalgic Look at Michigan’s Smallest Towns, a book featuring 100 towns with population of 600 or fewer full-time residents, from Ahmeek in the Upper Peninsula to Zeba, also in the U.P. But never fear — lower Michigan holds 84 of the book’s little Michigan towns.

An introductory map of the state shows all 100 alphabetically and geographically. Each book is then given a double-page spread, opening with a rectangle of color photographs, history of the town, additional noteworthy information, and a paragraph on the town as you will find it today. 

Little Michigan is an invitation to venture off the main roads and into Michigan’s past. How many of these small towns were born in the lumbering era? 

Following the Lake Michigan shoreline south from Empire, a reader quickly finds Bear Lake and Beulah. Perhaps a sequel will include Cedar and Maple City? We can hope! 

Little Michigan: A Nostalgic Look at 

Michigan’s Smallest Towns

by Kathryn Houghton

Paper, 239pp with information source notes

$16.95