There are always surprises here.

You never know what you will find on a treasure island of previously owned books. This is only one day's tiny sample.

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.

Seasonal Closing

 

October is the last month of business for Dog Ears this year!

The bookstore closing is only seasonal, not permanent. I will be back before next Memorial Day to celebrate my 30th year in business (1993-2023), but at the end of this October 2022 I'll be closing until May 2023 for my seasonal retirement. I plan to remain in contact over the winter through my main blog, Books in Northport.

Because not everything on my to-do list can be accomplished on Sundays and Mondays, starting next week the bookstore and gallery will only be open Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. That is, Wednesday, Oct. 19, through Saturday, Oct. 22, and then Wednesday, Oct. 26, through Saturday, Oct. 29.

Thank you for 29 years of bookselling and a gratifying 2022 season. I look forward to celebrating three decades next summer in Northport. 

Some Change Is for the Better

Motorized things on wheels

This change has been begging to be made for a while, and yesterday a batch of consignment items brought it on at last. The automotive section -- motorcycles and cars -- has now been moved over one aisle. It's below planes and boats, where it belongs! 

Transportation: a concept!

Another advantage to the new arrangement is that books on home improvement and decoration, woodworking, furniture, as well as sewing, knitting, quilt books, and books on antiques now have room to breathe. I think this is going to work out well.

Home crafts

We Are Back!

We have some wonderful new books for our 2019 season, with more to come soon. One I don't want you to miss -- whether you're a parent yourself or just somebody's child (and aren't we all?) is Hillary Danaher's hilarious Curse of the Purse. Not only is it full of therapeutic laughs for the stressed-out parent, but it also a relaxing coloring book. Really!

See the right-hand column for this season's Thursday Evening Author guests, one every other week beginning in late June.

And don't forget, we always have a tempting selection of previously owned volumes to suit every pocket, with a special sale at present on mystery novels. 

It Doesn't Have to be Fancy to be Exciting

This is not a fancy book at all. It doesn’t even have a dust jacket. Really, I plucked this particular hardcover story-version of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors (“This narrative adaptation by Frances Frost preserves the exact dialogue of the opera”) out of a box with interest only because the illustrator, Roger Duvoisin, has been a favorite of mine since my son was little and we discovered and enjoyed his Petunia books together. Illustrations in Amahl are not as loosey-goosey as other work by Duvoisin, but the bright colors are definitely his. Anyway, a nice little Christmas book, right?

Musing over what would be a reasonable price, I turned the first leaves almost idly. Publication date was 1952. It was the half-title page, though, that stopped me in my tracks. What were all those names? Each in a different handwriting? None was Menotti’s signature or Frost’s or Duvoisin’s….

I’m not an opera aficionado. I had to look up the names. David Aiken: operatic baritone. Andrew McKinley: operatic tenor. Rosemary Kuhlman: mezzo-soprano. All three were in the original 1951 cast of Menotti’s opera, which was also (written in English) the first opera written for television, commissioned by NBC and broadcast as the first production of the television’s Hallmark Hall of Fame. First Hallmark, first television opera, original cast members — well, now I am very excited! In fact, I can hardly believe what I’m holding in my hands! Since the publication date was 1952, maybe the other names were in the cast of that year’s production? Thrills like this are part of the adventure of dealing in used books. I haven’t decided on an asking price yet. This is a one-of-a-kind item, not something with a lot of “comparables,” but I know the right buyer would be over the moon to have it. What a Christmas present it would make, eh?