The Plan for Friday, February 28, 2025

In solidarity with the 24-hour national economic blackout this Friday, Dog Ears Books will be open for business from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. but only accepting cash as payment for purchases on that day. Thursday and Saturday will be regular days, with all forms of payment accepted. 

 

On my first reading of the plan for a “buy-nothing” day, which also urged buying nothing online and not using forms of digital payment, I wondered why I would have my business open at all on Friday. If not buying was the aim, why wouldn’t I just keep the doors closed that day. Wouldn’t that show solidarity? 

 

Further down the line of do’s and don’t’s, however, people were told to buy at small local businesses, if they were going to shop at all, 
and my bookshop is not only local, it is definitely small, so after mulling the question over for a few days, I decided I will have the doors open that day. 

 

As is true any day of the year, there is no obligation to buy. Anyone who wants to stop in to visit without buying is welcome. Please, however, as Peg Bracken so memorably said in a book title back in 1969, I didn’t come here to argue! So no arguments, please, on Friday! Come or don’t come, buy or don’t buy. Those choices are yours. I’ve told you the choices I’ve made for the day.

 

If you do plan to support the boycott, plan ahead. Put gas in the bank on Thursday. Stop by the bank for cash if you’re going to be doing some local shopping or local dining or coffee sipping. Tip your servers with cash, too, at those local cafes and restaurants! 

 

One friend suggested I tell customers on Friday that my credit card machine isn’t working, but no – it would work fine, but I won’t be using it that day. Whatever anyone else thinks of the efficacy or strength of this protest, for me it is a matter of principle and a question of solidarity.

 

Thank you for your support. 

BOOKSTORE PLAN for the week of Feb. 24 – March 1, 2025

Dog Ears Books will be OPEN on Monday (usually, in winter, a day we’re closed), from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

CLOSED on Tuesday (probably!)

 

OPEN Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

OPEN Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

OPEN Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., BUT NOT TAKING CREDIT OR DEBIT CARDS OR APPLE PAY OR ANY OF THAT. IT WILL BE A CASH-ONLY DAY. We welcome your support of local business on a day we hope you will be joining the boycott of big box stores, online shopping, and credit card use. CASH IN LOCAL BUSINESSES! THANK YOU!!!

 

OPEN Saturday, March 1, from 11 a.m. until perhaps as late as 5 p.m., depending on weather and whether or not people are shopping in Northport.

Into the New Year's Second Month

Reminder: Dog Ears Books in Northport, Michigan, is open four days a week this winter, Wednesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

Reminder: you can order audio
books through Libro.fm and choose Dog Ears Books as your bookstore on the Libro.fm site, and we will earn a little something from each audiobook you buy that way. It will help us get through the winter. Thank you!

 

Blog note 1: My main blog, Books in Northport, the one I post to most frequently, has been around since September of 2007. It has always been free and will be free as long as it survives. I make my living as a bookseller, not as a blogger. Neither will I be moving to a Substack account, although many professional writers and independent journalists are there now, and I encourage you to follow a few, upgrading to a paid subscription if you can afford it, especially those whose work is crucial to giving us real news, e.g., Dan Rather, Heather Cox Richardson, and others. The importance of these sources will increase sooner than you might imagine.

 

Blog note 2: Call Books in Northport a “labor of love” or call me a graphomaniac – however you want to characterize it and/or me, I’ve stuck to this project for over 17 years. Some of you have been with me from the beginning, while others are brand-new readers, but I appreciate every single one of you, however long you have been reading. My morale this year, however, could use a little extra support (I’ll be trying to provide support for the morale of my readers, too), so I encourage you to (1) sign on as a follower, (2) comment on posts, and (3) send links to your family and friends for posts you find particularly meaningful. There is no financial advantage to me in this, only personal satisfaction.

If you haven't seen the latest post yet, because I just put it up a few minutes ago, check it out now! Thank you!

 

Wrapping Up the Year

 

These photos show only new books. There are many times more used books, of all vintages and on many subjects.

Hours from now through end of the year: 

Friday, 12/27: 11-3

Saturday, 12/28: 11-3 or later (we'll see!)

Sunday, 12/29: Haven't decided yet.

Monday, 12/30: 11-3

Tuesday, 12/31: 11-3

Wednesday, 1/1/2025: CLOSED! Happy new year!

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!

I Wasn't Kidding (About Perfect Gifts)

When I post a photograph of a table of new books in my shop, with other tables and shelves in the background showing more books (new and used), beautiful notecards, and cool Michigan jigsaw puzzles, and my caption for the photo reads, “The gifts you need to find are here,” I’m not kidding. Be more specific? Okay, I can do that, too.

 

Robin Kimmerer’s third book, Serviceberry, is THE book of the season, bar none. If you loved Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss, you will love Serviceberry. 

Readers in Michigan and around the world have fallen in love with Bonnie Jo Campbell’s latest novel, The Waters, a luxuriously immersive reading experience, out in paper in time for the holidays.

 

James, by Percival Everett, the well-known Huckleberry Finn story told by Jim, the man who ran away from slavery, is on everyone’s lists for best books of 2024. (I love these reworkings of familiar novels, with the “same” events seen through another’s eyes. Sarah Shoemaker’s Mr. Rochester and Jo Baker’s Longbourn are other novels that give us new perspectives on old classics.) Other novels big novels of the year include Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, the latter set in Traverse City’s cherry-growing country.

North Woods, by Daniel Mason, one of my stepdaughter’s favorites this year, is a book I may give myself as a gift. It is the story of a house through successive owners, which must be more exciting than that capsule summary makes it sound, because my stepdaughter said when she finished the last page, she was ready to turn back to the beginning and start reading it again immediately.

Poetry! How about poetry by Jim Harrison, Fleda Brown, John Kropf, Michael Delp, and others, and also some new, tempting collections? You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited and introduced by Ada Limon; Dog Songs, by Mary Oliver; and Eat the World, by Marina Diamandis, all invite you to take the plunge. Another book of poems, entitled The Smell of Wet Dogs (see top image again) is one for the whole family to enjoy together.

The foregoing are only a very few selections from my new book section, with lots, lots more available in the shop. Also, as you know, used books here range from signed first editions and matched sets of beautifully bound volumes to all manner of surprises in a wide variety of categories. (Hint: If you aren’t sure what your friend or family member would choose, a gift certificate is a good idea for locals or regular Northport visitors.) 

You can't go wrong with Jerry Dennis

or signed Jim Harrison

or classic Dickens tin beautiful bindings.

Also, whether you are a year-round local or far from northern Michigan in winter, remember you can follow me not only on this blog (where I don’t post as often as I should), but also on Books in Northport, my discursive, free-form blog that covers books and a whole lot more. 

Thank you for visiting today!

Rainy Days Are Good Reading Days

Great new Michigan books!

Of course, sunny days are good ones for books, too, but since today is wet I’m finding time to put something up on this blog, the one I too often neglect (posting more frequently to Books in Northport and A Shot in the Light). As you see in today's top image, right now I am featuring Michigan writers and water, a call to all you Piscean fishers and dreamers. I’ve restocked books by Jerry Dennis yet again (reordering his books is necessary quite often!), and one of the latest new books on the round table up front now is Linda Nemec Foster and Anne-Marie Oomen’s The Lake Huron Mermaid, companion book to their earlier The Lake Michigan Mermaid. Artist Glenn Wolff is the illustrator for Jerry Dennis’s books (theirs long-established collaboration), and Meridith Ridl provided the dreamy, watery, sometimes abstract images for Linda and Anne-Marie’s mermaid books. 

Mermaids in the Great Lakes!

Leaving water behind but staying on the topic of words and images, fans of Bill O. Smith’s chickadee books will be thrilled with his latest, The Chickadee Year, which takes our favorite little year-round Michigan resident bird from spring nest-making through summer, fall, and winter, and back again to spring. Grandparents, this is a book you will love reading to your little ones, over and over, and Thomas Ford’s illustrations, simple and charming but also realistic, are the perfect accompaniment to the text. Learning is fun with this new chickadee title – and the copies I have in the shop are signed by the author.

Dogs and cats? I usually focus on the dogs, but the cat book here looked irresistible. Cat friends, don’t you just itch to get your hands on it? 

This is Dog Ears Books, though, so old books deserve some attention. How about a complete Shakespeare from 1876? A cookbook from 1889 or a set of natural history books with beautiful color plates? We currently have in stock some lovely modern editions of old classics from Roman times (I must put in a plug for my favorite, the Eclogues of Virgil, which I was delighted to find exploring agricultural topics), as well as (coming up to the 20th century) a nice selection of signed Jim Harrison titles and many books from the “Rivers of America” series, brainchild of Constance Lindsay Skinner, most with dust jackets.

The Dog Ears Books book bag was a big hit this year, and now, down to the last one available, I’m wondering whether I should re-order before the holidays or wait until spring. 

If I hear from enough people who want to give the bags as holiday gifts (you could put “stocking stuffers” in a book bag!), I’ll see about getting more before snow flies. (That is, of course, unless we get snow on Halloween, as we did last year.) As for the new bookmarks, there are plenty of those on hand, never fear. Bookmarks are free, of course, with any purchase.

Postscript: Oh, oh, oh! I am just in love with the cover of this edition of Anne of Green Gables, which just arrived today in my shipment of new books! 

And here's an idea: classic scary stuff for Halloween! Come visit us and explore outside your day-to-day box!