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

More Historic Leelanau, Hot Off the Presses

Logging, shipping, early homes and roads and more – it’s all here in the new book from Leelanau Press, Edward Beebe’s Historic Leelanau Photographs: Leland, Suttons Bay, and North Manitou, 1909 – 1915, with text is by Jack Hobey. The story begins with “North Manitou Arrival” and ends with “North Manitou Departure.” My beloved little Lake Leelanau, then Provemont, is part of the story, as is Empire.

For those always curious about Rock, the famous hermit, yes, he makes the book, too. 

Edward Beebe’s Historic Leelanau Photographs: Leland, Suttons Bay, and North Manitou, 1909 – 1915

by Jack Hobey

Glen Arbor: Leelanau Press, 2016

Hardcover, fully illustrated, 154pp with index

$39.95

Noteworthy Survivals

As well as new books, Dog Ears Books stocks many volumes that have stood the test of time. That, after all, is what books do. Given proper treatment, a physical library is near-forever. Here, then, are some recent additions to our eclectic collection of old and rare titles:

(HISTORY; CIVIL WAR; MEMOIR)

MY STORY OF THE WAR: A WOMAN'S NARRATIVE OF FOUR YEARS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AS NURSE IN THE UNION ARMY, AND IN RELIEF WORK AT HOME, IN HOSPITALS, CAMPS, AND AT THE FRONT, DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION, WITH ANECDOTES, PATHETIC INCIDENTS, AND THRILLING REMINISCENCES PORTRAYING THE LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF HOSPITAL LIFE AND THE SANITARY SERVICE OF THE WAR, by Mary A. Livermore. Superbly illustrated. Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington & Company, 1889. Full leather. Light wear, as is to be expected. Very good condition. $80

(OUTDOOR; CAMPING; SURVIVAL)

HOW TO GET OUT OF THE RAT RACE AND LIVE ON $10 A MONTH, by George Leonard Herter & Berthe E. Herter. Revised 7th edition, 1975. Hardcover, silver covered boards, front board illustrated. Many illustrations within. 656pp. Excellent copy. $80

(Hint: Porcupines make good eating.)

(LITERATURE; FICTION)

DOCTOR DOGBODY'S LEG, by James Norman Hall. Boston: Little, Brown, 1940, 2nd printing. This is a very rare edition of an uncommon title by the co-author of the famous MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. There is mild bumping to spine ends and one small nick to top of front board, with some code numbers ffep; otherwise, a very clean, tight copy. $400

PORGY, by Du Bose Heyward. Grosset & Dunlap reprint by arrangement with George H. Doran Co., in same year as original printing: 1925. Illustrated with woodcuts by Theodore Nadejen. This is the novel that became the stage play that became the musical.  Black cloth/no dj. Near VG. $50

(ARCHITECTURE; TECHNICAL)

WOODWARD'S COUNTRY HOMES, by Geo. E. Woodward, architect and civil engineer. NY: Geo. E. Woodward, 1865. Dark green cloth, gilt title on spine. 188pp, generously illustrated with floor plans, details, and views of finished homes. Light wear. Nice copy. $45

Kilcherman Apple Book Coming Very Soon!

Antique Apples from Kilcherman’s Christmas Cove Farm explores a very special farm the rolling hills of Leelanau Township. Phyllis and John Kilcherman grow 250 varieties of heirloom apples, varieties in danger of disappearing from our modern food supply. The book, coming soon from Arbutus Press, features Kilcherman family and farm history dating from the land's public offering by the U.S. Government in 1851. Color photos of the orchard in three seasons, photographed by Dianne Carroll Burdick, capture the living apple community from the bee’s pollination to apple harvest. Phyllis also shares recipes both traditional and creative uses of apples in meatloaf, coleslaw, and baked beans, as well as her most prized and sought-after recipe for apple pie from her grandmother. You’ll find folklore, poems, and the apple histories in these colorful pages.

We will launch this book at Dog Ears Books in Northport on Saturday evening, September 3, with a signing beginning at 7 p.m. The public is cordially invited.

Antique Apples from Kilcherman’s Christmas Cove Farm

by Phyllis and John P. Kilcherman

Photography by Dianne Carroll Burdick

Traverse City, MI: Arbutus Press

144pp/color

$25.00

Going Fast!

I thought everyone would have a copy of Ken Scott's Back Pages by now, but after more than one request I knew I had to restock. Now there's one left for the first lucky customer to get here and claim it.

Back Pages of Leelanau County
from Ken Scott & the Leelanau Enterprise
Hardcover, $40


Another book that seemed far from Northport to me was Storm Struck: When Supercharged Winds Slammed Northwest Michigan, by Robert Campbell and photographs by residents and visitors.

Most of the August 2015 storm was concentrated in and around Glen Arbor, but the book was requested this far north, too, so I arranged to stock it, and now there is a single copy of that available, too.

Storm Struck: When Supercharged Winds Slammed Northwest Michigan
by Robert Campbell
Softcover, 107 pp/illustrated, $22.50

Perkins, Scott, Krapohl -- All On Hand Today

They are not alone on the front table, but signed copies of Leelanau Trek: One Shoreline, Two Visions and Nuts to You now available in paperback are a couple of very attractive offerings this weekend at Dog Ears Books.

The colors even go together!

Take Wing Over Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore

Here’s another lively, colorful page-turner for children. Whether on vacation or back home again, kids and their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles will be cheering for Herschel, the little near-sighted hawk, as he overcomes a troublesome challenge to see clearly, at last, the beautiful dunes and lakes and farms below. Adults will recognize many of the iconic sights pictured, and maybe you will be able to identify another bird species or two, also.

Author Rob Ford is a writer for the Traverse City Record-Eagle, and his brother, Tom Ford, a well-known area wildlife artist. The story is lively, the illustrations appealing, and I’m happy to add that the book was printed in Michigan, too.

Hershel Takes Flight: A Hawk’s Tale

by Rob Ford, with illustrations by Tom Ford

(Signed copies available now at Dog Ears Books)

Hardcover, $16.95

An idea: I recommend pairing the Herschel book with Karen Trolenberg’s Flight of Megizzewas, the story of a Leelanau County eagle (first introduced here). 

Karen Trolenberg's story was inspired by a real eagle once resident in Omena, Michigan, and Christopher Smith beautifully captures Trolenberg's story, as the eagle flies from his nest over deer meadows, dunes, and apple orchards, all the way to the Mackinac Bridge, finally returning to the nest high above a northern Michigan's lake. Rivers and lakes, fishing and playing -- we see land and people  from the eagle's eyes, as the author's text evokes the peaceful beauty of Michigan. 

We are very proud of this Northport author!

Flight of Megizzewas

by Karen Trolenberg

(Copies signed by author available now at Dog Ears Books)

Illustrations by Christopher Smith

Hardcover, $18.85