A Lot Has Been Happening Around Here

From across Waukazoo Street (in my doorway) --

If you haven’t been to Northport in a while, you’ll notice some changes the next time you visit. The “big store,” current home of the Northport Inn, the restaurant called Faro, and a stylish new antique shop that goes by the name of Pernette’s, is getting an exterior makeover. Everyone is eager to see their new look.

Back of the building houses Pernette's.

The new look at Barb’s Bakery on Mill Street is already here. Pink! Also new at Barb’s is frozen custard, a very welcome treat on some of the hot days we’ve had recently. 

 

Does this color make you think of ice cream? At Barb's, it's frozen custard!

The New Bohemian Café folks have expanded their hours and are now open until 5 p.m. Good news! And while artist Deborah Ebbers, one of my neighbors here at 106, is away from her studio for a few days (gone to explore further the exciting world of carving sculpture from marble), she will be back early in July, never fear. Over on Mill Street, the Wright Gallery is open for the season on Wednesday through Saturday, 10 to 5, Sundays by chance.

Reflections of window letters with painting as backdrop --

In the nearby unincorporated village of Lake Leelanau, NJ's Grocery (since 1912!) remains closed at present while owners and crew clean up after a fire. No one was injured, and they hope to be back in business in about a month. I hope so! I miss my morning trips to NJ's.

Hope NJ's can re-open before too long!

What was happening at my bookshop on Tuesday was a visit from Kalamazoo poet Jennifer Clark, and, as is always the case with Jennifer, we had a great time and a lot of laughs. Those who do not associate either poetry or saints with happy hoots need to make the acquaintance of Jennifer Clark. I had her sign extra copies of her latest collection of poems, Intercede: Saints for Concerning Occasions, and will be stocking her volume of memoir essays next week when I do another new book order. Kissing the World Goodbye might not sound like a humorous title, but I was laughing out loud reading it. What a delight!

Jennifer Clark is a wonderful bookstore guest! 

To satisfy popular demand, I have restocked Mary Kay Zuravleff’s American Ending (I wrote about it here) and also have a new Michigan novel, My Pirate Summer, by C. J. Hagstrom of Traverse City. Hagstrom’s story, from the old days of the “tall ships,” was inspired by the “nefarious activities” of Captain Seavey, a name familiar to Great Lakes history readers.

 

Here's more new fiction from Michigan writers:

 

Viola Shipman, you ask? Yes, several titles from Viola Shipman, nom de plume of Michigan writer Wade Rouse, who writes gentle romance stories under his grandmother’s name. 

If mysteries are your thing, I have books by Leelanau author Aaron Stander (he calls our home ground “Cedar County”), U.P. mysteries from Joseph Heywood and Steve Hamilton, and exciting stories featuring fictional Sheriff Jules Clement of Blue Deer, Montana, by Michigan-native-gone-to-Montana Jamie Harrison. Karen Mulvahill’s historical fiction novel, The Lost Woman, continues to leap off the table, along with Marilyn Zimmerman’s legal suspense novel, In Defense of Good Women (review here). 

 

Under new nonfiction offerings, This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan is guaranteed to start many more conversations since it seems that everyone wants to be here! Climate change, migration, and tourism (I would add growing world population) are affecting places Up North, as they have elsewhere. Is northern Michigan’s tourism industry “too robust”? Poet Michael Delp, co-editor emeritus of the Made in Michigan Writers Series, calls this book “essential reading for anyone who claims to love northern Michigan for its beauty.”

What changes will we see in years to come?

Also for locals and visitors alike,“Perfect Omena Day!”: Selections from the Summer Diaries of Rebecca L. Richmond, 1907-1920 is going to be a sure-fire winner. What was daily life in Omena like over 100 years ago? Marsha Buehler, Omena's Putnam-Cloud Tower House Museum Director, calls the diary entries Christine Byron chose and transcribed “gentle lessons in cultural anthropology blended with a bit of archeology.” The book is also generously illustrated with old photographs and postcards – a perfect recipe for summer dreaming and time travel.

Sometimes it's comforting to look backward, isn't it?

Field guides to birds, board books for pre-readers, 100 Things to Do in Michigan [and in the Upper Peninsula] Before You Die (always, I think, the best time to do anything), and other books you didn’t know you needed until you saw them in Dog Ears Books – all are here for your summer reading pleasure, along with, always, an ever-changing inventory of used books, some quite recent and others from very long ago.

There are always lots of pre-loved volumes on my shelves.

The summer solstice has come and gone, St. John’s Eve has come and gone, and the 4^th of July is coming at us fast. Along the roadsides and in the meadows, milkweed prepares to bloom, and St. Johnswort is just getting underway. It is also the week of the strawberry – and strawberry pie – and strawberry-rhubarb pie – and maybe rhubarb chutney, if I can squeeze in that project….

Milkweed

Cinquefoil

St. Johnswort

Goatsbeard

"Can I help, momma?" (I just couldn't leave her out entirely!)