Improvements, Mysteries, Plans, Excitement

If you haven’t been to Northport in a while, you might not know about all the renovations and additions to the marina park. After driving by and gawking for weeks on my way to errands and work, I finally walked down with Sarah one day to see the improvements up close. Northport's sheltered harbor and easy walking distance to bank, library, post office, shops, galleries, restaurants, and grocery store make it a popular stayover for boaters, who also enjoy Music in the Park concerts throughout the summer on Friday evenings.

Beautiful, big new bathhouse at marina

One other boating note: See new link in my blog list for Northporter Kevin's solo Atlantic sail. Follow him! The word "intrepid" definitely applies.

A local team working with a hired consultant has been exploring how our community, Northport and Leelanau Township, can come together on “Designing and Achieving Our Potential” in the near future. Property owners in the township will receive notice in the mail along with their summer property tax bill, and I’ll have more information, too, as the first public meeting, July 29, comes closer. The entire process is intended to be community driven, fluid, and transparent.

Mystery Poem #3 Arrives

On a more personal note, a third Mystery Poem appeared in my post office box last week. (In principle, it should not have been put in the box, since it bore only a street address and no p.o. box number, but our local post office went the extra mile, and I thank them.) This one does not say on the back “This is a poem,” and it lacks the sender’s initial--H., you’ll recall--but otherwise Mystery Poem #3 follows the pattern set by the first two. It was typed on a manual typewriter on lined paper, paper folded with poem inside and address typed outside, adorned with a variety of interesting postage stamps, and postmarked “Metro” (i.e., Detroit). The poem this time is short and sweet, and I’m no closer to identifying the poet than when I received the first one, but it’s a charming mystery, isn’t it? And I love the poem:

My summer calendar has pretty much come together, in a very exciting way, with the following bookstore events planned:

AUTHOR EVENTS at DOG EARS BOOKS

July-August 2012

Thursday, July 12, 11 a.m.

Bill O. Smith – recitation & signing

Chickadees at Night

Wednesday, July 18, 4 p.m.

Laurie Kay Sommers - signing

Fishtown, Leland

Sunday, August 19, time TBA

Bonnie Jo Campbell – reading & signing

Once Upon a River

AUGUST DATE & TIME TBA

Lynne Rae Perkins (illustrator)

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY!!!

Seed to Seed: The Legend & Legacy

of John “Appleseed” Chapman

Am I thrilled that Lynne Rae Perkins wants to have her book launch party in Northport? You bet! After all, as a Newbery winner for her YA novel Criss Cross, Lynne has a place in the children’s literature Pantheon. The new book she has illustrated, Seed by Seed, by Esme Raji Codell, about Johnny Appleseed, will be released on August 21, and I’m already thinking of how to involve local apple growers, cider makers, and history folks, so keep a watch here on “Books in Northport” for details concerning that late summer book party. Maybe a Caldicott is next for Perkins?

Before then, however, only a couple of weeks from now, we will have the author of another beautiful and fun illustrated children’s book, Bill O. Smith, coming to do a recitation from his lovely Chickadees at Night. Birders and grandparents, mark your calendar for Bill’s appearance on Thursday, July 12, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and if your grandchildren are visiting, bring them along, so they can sign Bill’s petition to have the chickadee replace the robin as Michigan’s state bird. Bill will convince everyone, I'm sure! He is a passionate chickadee advocate.

In an upcoming post (as soon as my copies arrive) I’ll tell you more about the Fishtown, Leland book and Bonnie Jo Campbell’s return visit to Dog Ears Books (Once Upon a River, now in paperback, available here now). You’ll also want to check out the summer author series sponsored by Leelanau Township Friends of the Library, because they've got a great lineup this year.

For today I want to showcase a new 500-piece jigsaw puzzle from Avery Color Studios in the U.P.  because all Avery products are “proudly printed” in the U.S.A., and nothing says “Vacation!” and “Summer cottage!” like a good Michigan jigsaw puzzle.

New from Avery Color Studios

Coming from a very different angle, Avery’s new book this season is I Talk/You Walk: 40 Years of Winning Defense Strategies, by U.P. lawyer Thomas P. Casselman, and if you’re wondering why you would want to read such a book if you’re not a lawyer, I’ll tell you that it will fascinate you for the same reasons it fascinates me: Casselman is a terrific story-teller, and his stories provide an insider’s view on Michigan’s criminal justice system. Okay, okay, I am also fascinated because all the cases come from my beloved U.P.

Can you believe it’s almost the 4^th of July? Around Memorial Day it seems that the 4th will "never" get here, then in late June we're amazed that it's "almost here," and suddenly it's past, and we're shocked that Independence Day is "already over!" for another year. Would you like to invent another holiday to add to the summer calendar? What would it be and when, and how would you celebrate it?

Evening light through walnut tree branches

Puzzling a Dog

David thought we should get Sarah to pose at the jigsaw puzzle table.

Puzzlers at the Super Bowl Escape Party got two of the six puzzles put together. Would Sarah be able to make any progress on a third?

She is a willing little poseuse, notre charmante cherie!

That's it, girl! You're starting to get the idea!

Sarah will probably need a bit more help, so stop by Dog Ears Books soon during our winter hours, 11-3, Wednesday through Saturday. There are still more puzzles to be put together.

And Charles Dickens? Yes, we have him, too--and much more besides!

Demands on the Brain

“Have you read this one yet?” a browser asks, indicating one of the new books on the counter. I must confess: I have not read them all and will never be “caught up.” How would it be possible to keep up with new releases, with the seductive siren song of so many tempting old books calling my name? Some people read only new books, some only old; some find value only in nonfiction, while others read nothing but novels. I’m a book omnivore. The one genre I don’t read is science fiction, but there’s nothing supercilious in this neglect: as is the case with raw oysters, I just don’t get it. Other people get it and love it, and that’s fine.

The book that’s been holding me hostage this week is a novel by James Ramsey Ullman, published back in 1958. THE DAY ON FIRE is “loosely based” on the life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and last night I rivaled our grandson’s reading intensity, devouring 100 pages. The author names his main character Claude Morel, and without knowing the details of Rimbaud’s life it’s impossible to know how much is invented, but even where it may not be factual, the story feels true. The loneliness of the gifted boy, understood by no one in his small town, is heart-breaking, even as the boy--not understanding much himself about himself and not much interested in understanding others, whom he sees as dull, small-minded and hypocritical--does everything possible to make sure he will be rejected and reviled. It is the pride of Nietzsche, the pride of the unhappy adolescent: “No one can possibly understand or appreciate me!” And yet the genius is real, along with the pain.

The demands of philosophy and art (doing the former, reading about the latter) got me to thinking today that other people besides myself might need some mental R&R. I remembered an old friend who always, this time of year, when sales got slow in her bookstore, put out a big jigsaw puzzle to amuse herself and friends and browsers. The brain is still working, but not in the same way, not (probably) in the same areas. So if you need a break, come on down tomorrow, Saturday, and try to fit a few pieces together. (It’s a farm scene.) I’ll put on the coffee pot when I get here at 10 o’clock.