Shortcut to Mushrooms

After some delay, it looks like mushroom season is in full swing here in Escanaba! Come get a mushroom guide book so you can tell your amanitas from your morels, and live to collect another day!

Independent Book Store Day, April 27th (and all year long)

Everyone has special days of the year they treasure, and for many independent, locally owned book stores around the country, that day is April 27th. The small “indie” book store community is very closely knit, having weathered the storms of the internet era, the rise and fall of “big box” stores, the 2008 recession, and the numerous and various obstacles that every small business faces.

On a day like today, indies celebrate the unique relationship we have with local authors, local schools, and a global community of writers and readers of all stripes. We take pride in the unique flavor we absorb from our customers and the personal energy we invest in relationships built on careful words and beautiful art.

Is Canterbury Book Store good at celebrating holidays? Not really, but we have coffee cake from across the street, fresh coffee from down the road, and the soft sounds of our local National Public Radio filling the air. For us, it is just another great day to be in Escanaba.

"So, You Want to Be a Writer" presenation for young audiences, May 4th at the Canterbury!

Join us here at the Canterbury for a local author Meet & Greet on Saturday, May 4th at 1:00pm. We will be closing out Children’s Book Week and kicking-off Reading Month with U.P. author Gretchen Preston. Her hour-long presentation” So, You Want to Be a Writer” is suitable for wanna-be writers of all ages. If you have a story idea, half written book in a drawer, song in your heart or fashion yourself the next poet laureate, join Gretchen for her inspiring presentation. An accidental author herself, Preston was inspired by her love of our U.P. backyard as the setting for her popular Valley Cat series of children’s chapter books. Her hard cover books are beautifully illustrated by Karin Neumann.

Gretchen, being visually impaired since age eleven, composes her stories on a talking computer. When the stories are complete, Gretchen and Karin design the illustrations and horizon book covers.  The Valley Cat books are not just for kids. Adults will enjoy the humor, life lessons and fun-filled adventures of the neighborhood cats.

Not just for cat lovers! Gretchen is always escorted by her seven-year old black lab named Floyd. He is a working Leader Dog for the Blind. Floyd has been socialized to accept petting when he is not actively guiding Gretchen. Together they volunteer for local Lions clubs, give presentations about Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, Michigan and promote local literature by sharing her Valley Cat books. Her books are available at the Canterbury Book Store and she will be happy to personalize your purchased books at the event.

Preston golfing while her Leader dog Floyd enjoys a rest.

Gretchen’s presentation style is interactive. Attendees will have the opportunity to type on her talking computer, pet Floyd and hear a tale about her Valley Cats. She is sure to get your creative juices flowing and to inspire you to start writing as soon as you get home. You will leave with the tricks of the trade, the tools to keep you writing and the inspiration to complete your work.

Don’t miss this high-spirited presentation the first Saturday in May at the Canterbury Book Store at 1:00pm. Share our love of cats, dogs and the creative process. Fun is guaranteed for the entire family!

I am way too proud of this

Major props to our friend Stephanie for giving us this old stamp set she found in the backroom of her office.

New Releases in Store!

Come down to the store and check out these two extremely new releases about teens and for teens. It doesn’t get any fresher than this!

Independent Book Store Day April 27th - free digital audiobook giveaway

Any excuse is a good excuse to visit your local book store, am I right? If I am right, come on down to the Canterbury and say hi on Saturday, April 27th!

And thanks to our partnership with Libro.fm, we have a few digital audiobooks that we will be giving away for free! Visit https://libro.fm/ibd for more information. Basically, we get a few more people through our doors, Libro.fm spreads awareness of their service, and you get a few free audiobooks, so it is a pretty good deal all around.

Book Signing with local author Ken Bloom on April 13th

Come on down to the Canterbury on Saturday, April 13th from 11am-1pm to join us in a book signing by local author Ken Bloom! He will be signing and selling copies of his latest mystery novel The Codes of Classic Rock Come pick one up, and check out some of his previous works too, including the Harper series and the Four Knights series.

The latest and greatest on our featured shelves - March 2019

In case you haven’t been by recently, check out the above pictures to see the latest books we have on our featured shelves! Of especially note is that we are now carrying the full in-print works of Graeme Base: he is not only one of my favorite children’s authors, he is one my favorite authors of any kind.

March is National Reading Month

As presented by the National Education Association, March is National Reading Month! If it’s been a while since you’ve read a book cover to cover, this month is the perfect one to carve some time out to finish that book you started last month.

Or maybe you finished one yesterday? In which case, congrats to you! Maybe you’d like to spread the joy of reading to others? Especially the wee little ones? Well head on over to the homepage for National Reading month for resources you can use to promote literacy!

Happy reading, everyone!

Canterbury Book Store closed today, Sat. Feb. 23 on account of SNOW!!!!

The Canterbury will be closed today, Sat. Feb. 23, on account of heavy snow and unplowed roads. I Road is still pretty sketchy, but they might plow it later in the day. Still, by the time they get around to it, I’m not sure that would leave us much time to sell books, so we’re calling it now.

So stay inside today and work on reading the backlog of books you already have on your nightstand! With a little luck, we’ll be back on Monday!

Brrr - Canterbury is closed for today, Jan 30

Michigan Tech is closed, Michigan State is closed, the State of Michigan is closed. Stay home with your loved ones and read your book piles, for the Canterbury is closed today. We’ll probably be open tomorrow, but give a call to the book store just in case if you’re making a trip out just for us.

Stay warm, friends!

Winter craft projects - fingerless gloves

Some say I should just turn up the heat in the store, but I took this as an opportunity to get crafty. I present to you, instructions for making fingerless gloves:

Step 1: Gather scissors, chalk, and a pair of gloves from the breeding population in the back of your closet:

Step 2: Put on gloves, use chalk to mark them just below your last knuckle for each finger of the glove

Step 3: Use scissors to cut fingers on the chalk line you marked on them. And I can’t stress this enough, remove gloves before cutting them with scissors.

And voila! Enjoy your functional and stylish new garment.

'Sense of Place' Introductory Meeting Dec. 11 at 7pm at the Canterbury's 2nd floor

Clear Lake Education Center and Escanaba’s Canterbury Bookstore invite you to a “Sense of Place” program series for 2019.  Beginning in January, the monthly series will focus on exploring Delta County’s rich natural and cultural heritage, our watersheds, weather, businesses, history, geography and more in an effort to enrich our understand of and connection to the place we live.  It will help us understand “what makes this place tick.”

The monthly series will feature a mid-week one-hour study session at the bookstore with subject materials provided that prepares participants for the following Saturday field trip to sites around the county.  Saturday tours will be an in-depth experience at the venue for that month.

Mark your calendar!  You are invited to an informational and registration meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 11 at 7 pm at Canterbury Bookstore.  A short Sense of Place video will be shown.  Refreshments will be provided.

A registration/materials fee of $45 will be charged each participant for the first six programs, Jan-June.  Single session walk-ins are also encouraged at $10 per session.  Registration for the second half of the 2019 series will occur in June.

Some of the proposed venues may include water quality studies via remotely operated aquatic vehicles aboard the Inland Seas Education Assn. schooner Utopia, the Delta Historical Society Museum and lighthouse, Upper Hand Brewery, Besse veneer mill, geology and butterflies on Peninsula Point, nature journaling on the Days River Trail, Hannaville tribal history, Northern Sun Winery tour to learn the ins and outs of excellent wine making, birding at Portage Point, and an introduction to the MSU Extension’s Field Research Station, among others.  Participants will vote on the various venues you’d like to visit through the year as the program is developed. 

For more information, stop by the bookstore, see the Clear Lake Education Center and Canterbury Bookstore’s Facebook pages, www.clearlakeinfo.org, www.canterburybookstore.com websites, or call 906-786-0751.

See you December 11!

Book signing with local author Richard P. Smith Dec. 12

From the Press Release written by event organizer Lucy LaFaive:

Veteran Michigan outdoor writer Richard P. Smith from Marquette will be at Canterbury Books in Escanaba on Wednesday, December 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., autographing his many deer and bear hunting books and DVDs, including his latest title published this year. Book 7 of Great Michigan Deer Tales is the latest addition to his collection of books for hunters. It’s the 28th book he’s written. Like the other six books in the Deer Tales series, which will also be available at the signing, Book 7 has a new collection of short stories about some of the biggest bucks bagged by hunters in the state.

Besides chapters that cover how, where, when and by whom whitetails of state record proportions were taken, there’s a chapter about the first albino buck tagged in the state that qualified for state records, the biggest 6-pointers taken in the state and a 91-year-old hunter from the UP who bagged more than 100 deer. The new book contains short stories about bucks that reached the ripe old age of 8 ½ before finally being shot and a father, daughter team who bagged four trophy bucks between them during a memorable year.

There are stories about big bucks bagged with centerfire rifles, shotguns, handguns, muzzleloaders, compound bows and crossbows all across the state from north to south. Big bucks bagged by women are covered as well as those taken by the guys. If you are interested in shooting a big buck yourself, reading the stories of how other hunters have accomplished the feat will help make it happen.

If you don’t yet have copies of Books 3 and 4 of Great Michigan Deer Tales, you might want to consider getting them now. Those two titles contain in depth information about a huge 12-point buck that Mitch Rompola from Traverse City claimed with bow and arrow in Grand Traverse County during November of 1998. That buck had antlers that score more than any other typical whitetail in North America. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the taking of that one-of-a-kind deer.

Other deer hunting titles that will available at the signing are the 3rd edition of Tracking Wounded Deer and Stand Hunting For Whitetails. The 3rd edition of Tracking Wounded Deer was published during 2017 and includes far more information than the 2nd edition along with all color photos. Stand Hunting For Whitetails is about the most popular deer hunting method and includes tips and tricks about how to hunt most effectively from both tree stands and ground blinds.

Smith also produced a 90-minute DVD with his wife’s help titled Walking With Whitetails that should appeal to anyone interested in deer, not just hunters. The DVD covers deer behavior year round and was filmed while the videographer actually walked with a group of deer, including bucks up to 4 ½ years old and older does, that learned to trust him. The video shows some unique deer behavior that few people have witnessed along with does nursing their fawns, bucks rubbing their antlers on trees and fighting.

If you’re into black bear hunting or know someone who is that you want to buy a Christmas gift for, the 2nd edition of Black Bear Hunting may be what you are looking for. This 368-page volume with hundreds of color photos is the most comprehensive book on the subject on the market today. The UP author also wrote Understanding Michigan Black Bear, an excellent reference for anyone who wants to learn about Michigan bears and how to avoid problems from them when outdoors hiking, camping, fishing or hunting.

Smith’s 46-minute DVD about Field Judging Black Bears is also an excellent reference for bear hunters. It provides simple techniques that anyone can use to help determine the size and sex of bears that they see. The size of black bears can be extremely difficult to judge under hunting conditions, especially for hunters who have not seen many of the animals in the wild.

For those who are not able to make it to the signing, Smith’s books and DVDs will still be available in the stores. Autographed copies can also be ordered from him through his web site: www.RichardPSmith.com. His mailing address to send orders is 814 Clark St. Marquette, MI 49855.

Book signings by Richard P. Smith

City: Escanaba

Store: Canterbury Books

Location: 908 Ludington St.

Dates:     Wednesday, Dec. 12

Time: 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Songs and Wisdom of Mr. Rogers - Tues. Dec. 4 at 6:30pm at Escanaba Public Library

Come join us this coming Tuesday, December 4th at 6:30pm at the Escanaba Public Library for a free event inspired by the work of Mr. Rogers! Local musician and educator Phil Lynch and our own Rebecca Bender of the Canterbury Book Store (this is Jesse writing this because Rebecca is too humble to promote herself) have put together a program of songs and spoken words adapted from the show.

Both Phil and Rebecca deeply appreciate the both the positive, reinforcing message woven through Mr. Roger’s work as well as the teaching methods he used to convey that message.

So bring the whole family! Light refreshments will be served at the event as well!

Hear here! Audiobooks are now an option

We are delighted to have found a great way to connect our customers with inexpensive, download-friendly audiobooks.

There is a company called Libro.fm which partners with small book stores like ours to offer a wide array of audiobooks individually or with a membership subscription. You can find us there, or our friends at Snowbound Books, and a number of other bricks and mortar shops around the country. Check it out: https://libro.fm/canterbury

Perhaps you have tried Audible but do not care for the aftertaste of Amazon, or if you just want to make purchases from small businesses and local taxpayers - well, try it and let us know what you think.

(PS - If you would still prefer an audiobook on CD, we do have a small selection at the store and the Escanaba Public Library keeps plenty in stock. Easy listening!)

Author Ken Bloom at the Canterbury Nov. 3 for the Bonifas Art Walk

Author Ken Bloom will be in residence here at the Canterbury Book Store tomorrow, Saturday Nov. 3, as part of the Bonifas Art Center’s Holiday Art Walk! We will be opening at 10am tomorrow in honor of the event, so please do stop in and chat with Bloom and buy his latest novel. Then visit the many other downtown businesses and artists taking part in the event, as well as the Bonifas Center itself for a bake sale and art raffle!

More information can be found at the Bonifas’s website.

Halloween!

Neigbhorhood Talk on Wednesday, Oct 31 at 4:30pm

Hello all! Despite the spooky Halloween happenings, we are still holding the scariest of all events at the bookstore tomorrow: open discussion! Come join us at 4:30pm tomorrow at the Canterbury for a discussion open to the public. The loose topic for discussion will be fear - what scares us, what fear prevents us from doing, and what it spurs us onward to do.

Feel free to come dressed in costume. :)

Smattering of new books around

New books in! Among them are these four from especially popular authors: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult, and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.