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Monday, December 3, 2018

Not All Lights Are Out!

Not frozen yet
Kathie &Barbara
The last day of our 2018 season, Friday, November 30, was a good day at Dog Ears Books. Many friends stopped in to enjoy cookies, shop the sale, and exchange wishes for a good winter and happy holidays. Serendipitous encounters occurred, also, such as this one between a local reader and this year’s bestselling local author. And about those bestsellers, here are the top-selling titles for the past three years at Dog Ears Books:

Bestsellers, 2016-18

2016 was a tie between Kathleen Stocking’s The Long Arc of the Universe and Jim DuFresne’s Trails of M-22

In 2017 Sarah Shoemaker’s Mr. Rochester came out on top early in the season and stayed there all year.

And for 2018, the #1 book in Northport was easily Barbara Stark-Nemon’s Hard Cider

Congratulations to these hard-working and very deserving authors!

As Friday drew to a close and quiet descended over the village of Northport, holiday lights shining against the dark were an irresistible temptation. Though we will not be on hand this year for Christmas and New Year’s, I’m glad we’ve had a chance to enjoy the beginning of the holiday season with local friends. And I also want all my readers to know that there are still  several pockets of lively activity in Northport. One of them (featured in the novel Hard Cider, by the way) is Sally Coohon’s shop, Dolls and More. Stopping in on Friday morning while Bruce took charge of sales at the bookstore, I found Sally providing guidance and support to a local man making a memorial quilt with his beloved late dog’s scarves. 
Working on the backing

Memorial quilt top
Twinkling holiday lights rest on poinsettia quilt

One small corner of Sally's treasure island of materials!
So much going on everywhere!
Sally offers instruction in quilting, knitting, stamping, and holiday crafts, and her shop is warm and cozy and welcoming, a most cheery place to spend time when the weather outside is frightful.

The Artist and I will be spending our winter in a place even quieter than Northport, out in that Arizona ghost town I chronicled in 2015 and again in early 2018. What will winter be like in Cochise County this time around? How will our friends at home in Leelanau fare in terms of snow, ice, and cold? And what exciting books, new and old, will come our way in the months ahead? There again I trust to serendipity and wish a sleighful of it to all of you!



1 comment:

Dawn said...

Safe travels to you as you head to the SW. I will enjoy your posts from there as well. The fabric shop looks beautiful, as does your store this late in the season. Enjoy your time off, I know you will!