My Bookish Life and the Great Outdoors

On the shelf? Answer to question below?

Where Do We Belong?

 

When I posted a couple of photos of my yard and gardens, and a similarly inclined friend commented, I replied to her comment, “Isn’t our real life outdoors?” and she replied, “It’s where we belong.” Ah, but this friend also has a bookstore, so this morning I was thinking, But our books belong indoors – most of the time, at least, except when we’re reading one under a tree or by the edge of the lake or something. It's a booklover’s/outdoor woman's conundrum! And then there is bedtime reading and winter reading, cozy indoors. But right now it’s still summer….

 

 

Library Friends: FOLTL and Me, 2023

 

The last two events of the Friends of the Leelanau Township Library Summer Author Series kept up the standard set by earlier presenters, Dave Dempsey, author of Great Lakes for Sale,* and Jacob Wheeler, author of Angel of the Garbage Dump. Sarah Shoemaker and Soon-young Yoon enlightened and educated their assembled audiences as they entertained. Discussion following was deep in both cases, history with Sarah, policy with Soon-Young.

Below, from left to right, are (first) Sarah Shoemaker, author of Children of the Catastrophe; Silvia Gans, FOLTL president; and Suzanne Landes, past president. In the second photo, again left to right, are Soon-young Yoon, author of Citizen of the World; Beth Verhey, her interviewer for the evening; Julie Alpers-Preneta, Leelanau Township Librarian; and Pamela Grath of Dog Ears Books. Mimi and Joel Heberlein provided the venue this summer, the Willowbrook Mill on Mill Street.

FOLTL is Friends of the Leelanau Township Library. After losing my long-time volunteer to retirement this year, as well as the more global and permanent loss of my husband last year, I have not hosted author events in the bookstore/gallery myself, content to promote and attend FOLTL events and offer those authors’ books for sale following their presentations. I do, however, have two poets scheduled for the day of Leelanau UnCaged, last Saturday in September – scheduled on the day, that is, with reading time not yet set. Fleda Brown and Michael Delp will be here that Saturday, and you won’t want to miss them.

 

 

Bookish Temptations

 

I have not yet let myself even open Horse, by Geraldine Brooks, because if I do, I won’t be able to stop reading, and all the books I’m halfway through will feel justifiably slighted. That’s what happened when I picked up The Hearts of Horses, by Molly Gloss, a book I highly recommend. I mean, horses!!! But also, her writing so impressed me that I not only ordered paperback copies of that title but two others of hers, as well, confident that they will also be wonderful. 

Wonderful also is Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian, which I had never attempted until recently and am now about halfway through. She published that literary tour de force (historical fiction) in France at the age of 48 but had been writing it off and on for a decade. Never having been a great reader of historical fiction in general or an amateur of the Roman Empire, I am surprised at how involved I have become in the life and times of Hadrian, fictionally imagined by a 20^th-century woman. Yourcenar was admitted to the Académie française in 1980, the first woman to receive that honor. She deserved it!

 

 

My Nonliterate Sidekick

 

Sunny Juliet has no interest whatsoever in books but is excelling at agility. This week she did not only jumps and tunnels but teeter-totter (“Teeter!”) and the bridge (“Walk it!”). By summer’s end she will probably be introduced to the weave poles, though proficiency at weaving is the most difficult agility challenge, as it’s nothing dogs would have any reason to do ordinarily. But I can't photograph her at work because we are working the course together....

Don't let the sleepy act fool you. She is ready to go on a moment's notice!

I asked our instructor (Sunny and I work as a team, and I have as much to learn as she does) if the idea of the dog agility course came from equestrian events, and he said one trainer he worked with started out as a horse trainer but found over the years that he had fewer and fewer students, so when he observed that everyone has dogs, he turned his attention to working with people and their canine companions. 

Ready!

What’s in a Phrase? “It's the Berries!”

 

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Black raspberries were so plentiful this year that they threatened to bury me alive. (They are winding down now at last.) Sunny liked to “pick” them right off the canes with her dog lips, and I encouraged the help. Get those low berries, girl, so the momma won’t have to! Recently I noticed blackberry canes at one end of one of my raspberry patches, and that’s encouraging, because the main wild blackberry patch – enormous in extent, prolific in fruiting – is too close to orchard trees for me to risk gathering sprayed fruit. Even closer to the house red raspberries and red gooseberries are appearing, and I’ve been ridding them of competition in hopes they will multiply. 

“It’s the berries” is slang that was outdated when I was young, along with “the cat’s meow” or "the bee's knees," but really, don’t those expressions sound kinder and gentler than saying something is “the bomb” or that so-and-so “killed it” with a performance? And then, of course, there is the song. Take a listen: it will make you smile.

No books here -- what gives?

Recent Bookish Losses 

 

One “old Leland” friend who died recently was Barb Nowinsky, the first Leelanau County librarian I ever knew by name and could call a friend. That made me sad. 

 

*Another loss was Bob Giles, former editor and publisher of the Detroit News, a journalist many of my friends knew as a beloved boss, and the author (most recently) of When Truth Mattered: The Kent State Shootings 50 Years Later, published in 2020 and very much still worth reading. Bob was in Northport only five weeks ago, when he interviewed Dave Dempsey, author of Great Lakes for Sale, in the first of four FOLTL Summer Author Series events and one Bob dedicated to his late wife, Nancy, a strong library supporter. His body was failing, but his mind was strong and sharp. I'm glad that my last memory of him will be that one.

 

 

Another Point of View on Death and Loss

 

My experience of encountering memories along every mile of every county road is hardly unique to me. Sometimes it breaks my heart, other times I find it comforting. A friend reported another friend’s young child observing the phenomenon thusly: “First you’re here, then you’re everywhere.” I like that thought. For me, Leelanau County is crowded with friends, some still living, others departed but not gone from my memory. I'm glad they are still "everywhere," though no longer here at my side.

It's time for WHAT?

Mid-county scene, looking north

Looking south

 On the home front

Cucumber vines climbing screen

Parsley going crazy!

Chimichurri on pasta

Cucumber vines have blossomed, and parsley was so bushy and plentiful that I made a batch of chimichurri, tried it on pasta, and recommend the combination. Mixed in avocado the next evening for a tortilla chip dip, and that's good, too.

 

Although daisies are taking their sweet time, I have hopes they will be blooming soon, and meanwhile, I pore over catalogs and books on perennials and dream of paths winding through yard-sized gardens.

 

By the way, have you ever heard of ‘pour-over coffee’? Apparently, it’s a thing. New to me!

 

(That’s the pore/pour lesson. I’ll let sleeping dogs lie for today on lie/lay.)

As for Sunny Juliet, we are varying the tennis ball retrieval game, starting today, so stay tuned!

Always ready...

Now, "Jump!"

My recent, albeit modest stroke of genius

 

You know how you have a brilliant thought while driving or before falling asleep – sometime when it’s too much trouble to stop to write it down – and you think, I’ll remember that. And then so often you don’t? One of those thoughts visited me one evening, like a brightly colored bird that quickly flitted away before my eyes closed, and somehow (this is the miracle) I remembered it the next morning!

 

…I was thinking of the years when Northport was in the doldrums and people who accidently wandered off the M-22 loop would ask in whiny, put-upon voices, “What’s the matter with Northport?” I was sure it was just a matter of hanging on before Northport would turn around, and in the meantime I subbed at the school, picked apples, worked on a garden crew, etc. – all to keep my bookstore afloat.

 

…I was thinking about all the times people had said to me (as if contradiction were unthinkable), “No one reads books any more.” One young father, his toddler riding piggy-back on his shoulders, waved his hands to indicate my array of volumes and told the boy, “Someday all this will be gone.”

 

...I was thinking of when Borders came to Traverse City and what a fabulous bookstore it was (then) and how someone said to me mournfully (as if I had been trying to do something like Borders, when my bookstore idea was so very, very different), “Oh, you just can’t compete with Borders!”

 

Now in 2023 Borders is no more, everyone loves Northport, and people are still reading books. Lots of people! Many even buy books! Hence -- my anniversary motto for Dog Ears Books: 

 

“Disproving the skeptics for 30 years”

 

What do you think? “Three decades” or “30 years”?

(My personal life motto)

 

Authors in Northport

 

Tuesday, July 11, is the first of four evenings in the Friends of the Library (Leelanau Township) Summer Series, with Dave Dempsey kicking off the series this year with Great Lakes for Sale. Remainder of the 2023 series will feature the following authors and books:

 

July 18, Jacob Wheeler, Angel of the Garbage Dump: How Hanley Denning Changed the World One Child at a Time

 

July 25, Sarah Shoemaker, Children of the Catastrophe

 

August 1, Soon-Young Yoon, Citizen of the World: Soon-Young and the UN

 

All four summer author events this year will be held at the Willowbrook on Mill St., each one beginning at 7 p.m. The events are free, and no reservations are required. Books will be available for purchase.

 

Reminders

 

Join Northport booklovers for these events, visit Dog Ears Books Tuesdays through Saturdays this summer, follow “Books in Northport” and share it with friends. Thanks, all! Thirty years!!!

Northport Loves Books

Virginia Johnson, my most recent TEA guest

[In which some old photographs appear....]

Summer of 2018 has seen two landmark literary anniversaries in the village of Northport: the 50th anniversary of the Leelanau Township Library on Nagonaba Street and the 25th anniversary of Dog Ears Books, born on Waukazoo Street and now back on Waukazoo again. A half-century and a quarter-century — noteworthy milestones in the life of our village, our township, and our county.

Volunteer-maintained library garden

Although the current Leelanau Township Library building opened to the public on May 20, 1968, Northport residents were investing in their library as early as 1856, when Rev. George Smith noted in his diary that books were to be purchased in Chicago for use by the “Town Library.”  Before moving to its present home in 1968, the library’s collection was housed at various times in an earlier Township Hall; in different homes and businesses; on the second floor of a local store; and in a house on Waukazoo Street.

Original Dog Ears Books

Dog Ears Books first appeared much later, opening for business on July 4, 1993 on Waukazoo Street in a little shed next door to the old Woody’s Settling Inn. (Who remembers?) Both shed and restaurant have since disappeared, replaced by Tucker’s, but after a stretch of several years in different buildings on Nagonaba Street, I am content to be back on Waukazoo Street, near the modest beginnings of my bookstore and next door to the studio and gallery of my husband, artist David Grath. 

Both library and bookstore have seen support for their endeavors increase over the years. The two book venues have loyal followers among summer residents, as well as the love of year-round residents.

One library fan, Pauline McClure, summed up her experiences as a former long-time volunteer at the Leelanau Township Library over the years by saying, “One of my greatest joys was patrons coming in and gushing over their favorite library or, at this time of year, returning from wherever and expressing how much they missed and loved this library, asking what would ‘we’ do without you, and so forth. The ‘we,’ of course, is a community of loyal patrons and visitors who realize what a treasured resource we enjoy in this small, award-winning library."

Appreciative library audience

A bookstore customer friend and Northport resident who also happens to be a nationally known writer, Sarah Shoemaker (author of Mr. Rochester, the biggest book launch I ever hosted), when asked about her favorite book find at Dog Ears Books, responded instead in general terms: “What I have found at Dog Ears is a warm welcome, an open mind and heart, good and wise advice on books and life in general. I love the author visits, the chance to sit and listen to an author read, and to ask questions and buy the books and get them signed. I love that there are so many books at Dog Ears that have a local connection.” The bookstore has a wide-ranging collection, in terms of both content and price, but naturally focuses as much as possible on Michigan history and fiction. When book-lovers like Sarah take the time to peruse and appreciate my collection, I am richly rewarded.

The late Mac Thomas launches his life story at Dog Ears Books

In the course of its history, the Leelanau Township Library has invited a wide array of guest authors for its Summer Writers Series in July and its Poetry Month events in April. Dog Ears Books has brought many writers to Northport over the years, as well, and has hosted its own author events. In fact, library and bookstore guests have overlapped more than once. One such was the late Al Bona, a good friend and a marvelous local poet. Here he is reading at the library:

Al Bona at library poetry evening

And so, while the general public may see libraries and bookstores as competitors, librarians and booksellers don’t see their work in that light. Our aims are complementary, and we often work together. Librarian Nellie Danke agrees with me. "We share many of the same goals and both want to promote reading, writing and learning,” says Danke. “The community really benefits from having more than one resource.”

(As a side note, I'll add that bookstore owners in various Leelanau County villages have generally regarded one another as colleagues, rather than as competitors. We call each other to inquire about things our customers have that we don't have in stock often send each other customers on general principle. That collegiality is a wonderful aspect for me of bookselling here Up North.)

The Leelanau Township Library has been presenting its  annual Summer Writers Series on Tuesday evenings this summer, and Dog Ears Books (as readers of this blog are already well aware) has been hosting a summer-long literary season called  "Thursday Evening Authors," TEA for short, to celebrate our quarter-century mark. See my sidebar for remaining events and visit the library website for theirs.

Under a beach umbrella, in a gently swinging hammock, or in front of a cozy fire while a blizzard rages outdoors, we in Northport count books -- and writers -- as valued neighbors. Northport loves books, and the Leelanau Township Library and Dog Ears Books are happy to welcome locals and visitors alike to indulge that love. As you can see from this sampling of images, we are making literary memories to last a lifetime.

Many writer friends pictured here

Postscript: The story of my bookstore would not be complete without mention of my loyal volunteer of many years, Bruce Bales. Without Bruce, I would never have had a day off in the summer! Bruce, Dog Ears Books salutes you and thanks you!

My volunteer "contingent," Bruce Bales

And I should not omit mention of Sarah, since so many bookstore visitors adore our darling doggie. Here she is a few years younger, charming summer visitors. And for those who were concerned, I'll tell you that she came through her surgery on Thursday with flying colors. The girl is good! Thanks to everyone who's been asking!

Sarah and friends