Some new titles on our featured shelf today - including Dead Man Running, the latest in Steve Hamilton's series; Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis; and Clock Dance by Anne Tyler! Come on by and read a few pages - see if they grab your attention.
Children's book author Michael Leannah at the store on Sept. 1st!
On Saturday, Sept. 1 we will be hosting a special morning event with children's book author Michael Leannah! The event will run from 11am-12pm, and Michael will read his latest book Goodnight Whispers, about the positive effect a father's encouraging words has on his daughter's life and development. Bring your children - the book is an absolute treat that they won't want to miss.
Afterwards, Leannah will be on hand to sell and sign books and chat with people about the book-writing process.
Leannah is also the author of the acclaimed children's book Most People, which explains that even though your town or city contains many different kinds of people, most of them have the same likes and loves as you and me. The book had a very favorable review in the New York Times as part of group of children's books that help teach empathy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/books/review/why-am-i-me-paige-britt-empathy-children.html
A review of Goodnight Whispers from Kirkus.com:
A dad-side complement to Love You Forever. As the book opens, the unnamed dad tucks his wee infant daughter in and whispers, "You are the most wonderful girl in the world," in her ear. He whispers like loving affirmations every night as the baby grows to toddlerhood and beyond, adapting his statements to her developmental stage and her activities. But where Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw's mother's helicopter tendencies achieved pathological status, this dad seems to support his daughter's maturation. When she moves "far away," he is present only as a photo in her apartment and his remembered voice encouraging her through the inevitable difficulties of independence. But when he ails, she returns with her own babe in arms to care for him, whispering affirmations first in his sleeping ear and then her own infant's. Torrent's naïve-style illustrations are suffused with warm hues, visually reinforcing the paternal love the book expresses, though at times compositions are a little hard to decode. The dad presents white while the daughter has East Asian features; there is no other parent in evidence, allowing readers to see a single dad, a transracial adoption, and/or an interracial family with another parent simply out of the frame. Will this book have grown adults breaking down in tears in children's sections as Love You Forever is wont to do? That remains to be seen, but at least it offers a storyline without breaking and entering. (Picture book. 4-7)
Review of Most People from New York Times Book reviewer R. J. Palacio:
There’s a similar big-picture approach to diversity in “Most People,” written by the first-time picture book author Michael Leannah and illustrated by Jennifer E. Morris (“May I Please Have a Cookie?”), but the art wisely introduces repeating characters that weave in and out to form a separate narrative that aligns beautifully with the text. “Most people,” we are told, love to smile and laugh. Most people want to help other people. Most people love the sunshine. Most people are good. There are some people who aren’t good, of course, but if you could line up all the good people and all the bad ones, the line of good people would be much, much longer. That simple reasoning is perfectly pitched for its young audience, who will enjoy piecing together the story-within-a-story of the two main characters as they illustrate the messages of the text within the context of their own lives. “Most People” works especially well because it doesn’t just tell children to “be” good. It shows them how to “do” good.
And just for good measure, a couple of links! One to the publisher's page for Goodnight Whispers: http://familius.com/goodnight-whispers and for the page for Most People https://tilburyhouse.com/book/education-and-teaching/by-subject/multicultural/most-people/
Amazing Race wrap-up
The Amazing Race event, held in support of the Child Advocacy Center in Delta County (https://www.mikids.org/), wrapped up a couple hours ago, and it was amazing! Everyone, both participants and volunteers, looked like they were having a grand time, and we had a lot of fun watching people scramble around the book store looking for clue to their next destination. Hopefully we didn't cost anyone the gold medal :|
For those who were directed elsewhere at the split, here's a little example of what you missed:
We hope to be another stop along the race next year! Major props to all the organizers and volunteers who made the event possible who do the valuable work at the Child Advocacy Center itself.
Construction Junction
Some big changes on our little 900 block of Ludington Street! Our neighboring building, which had been leaning precariously to the right and had been condemned, was torn down over the past weekend!
Now you see it:
Now you don't:
This was all the fine, delicate work of Brunette & Son, Inc. It requires a steady hand to pluck a building out from between two others, and they managed to do it with no damage to our building and only superficial damage to its other neighbor (which it was directly leaning against). Plus, the laid down some topsoil and seeded it with grass!
We don't know what the future plans for the lot are; a lot of people are throwing around the idea of a pocket park, which would be awesome! But, as far as I know, no one is taking concrete steps to make that happen. I'd also be down for another, more structural sound building there too, so who knows?
We made it to the front cover of the Daily Press!
The Daily press just published a great interview with us - many thanks to Jordan Beck for his excellent journalistic skills! The full article can be read here:
http://www.dailypress.net/news/local-news/2018/07/new-owners-take-helm-at-canterbury-book-store/
May you have a spoooooky Friday the 13th!
See below the fold for some cool woodcuts!
Read moreFind a field guide - then find everything else!
We hope everyone is enjoying this amazing weather! Bring along a guide for bird identification, wildflowers, mushrooms, constellations, boats and whatever else is getting you excited about the outdoors. I guarantee that learning names and patterns of the things around you can open your eyes to new joys (and new flavors!)
Try it out - RB
P.S. Cindy Bender has an eye for morels. She is a great person to know.
Fresh from Children's Institute - Books for Beginners
You may have noticed Jesse all alone in the store last week (except for a certain Summer Reading Program companion who dropped in ....). I was in New Orleans at the American Booksellers Association Children's Institute with my mom (we got a scholarship to go) and I tell you what - it was amazing.
Hundreds of booksellers and scores of authors and publishers were there. We had a crash course in finances, exciting new books, some heavy-hitting keynote speakers, an envigorating dose of networking, and all kind of ideas for events we would like to try right here in Delta County.
Keep an eye out for teacher appreciation events, story hours, game nights and author visits starting this fall. In the meantime - get your kids into the Summer Reading Program at the Escanaba Public Library! Your kids and I have so much to learn! - RB
Canterbury Helium-based advertising
We had an old balloon left over from the Grand Opening that was no longer lifting its weight (literally), so we figured we would have some fun with it:
New Shelves
We recently scooped up some of the nice wooden shelves that still remained behind from Book World and replaced the metal shelves with them. The difference is quite dramatic:
We're able to hold about the same number of books, but now our patrons will have little more room to maneuver! Wherever possible, we tried to adhere to 3-foot wide aisles.
Anyhow, come check them out in person when you get a chance! And if you know anyone who might like our old metal shelves, tell them we are giving them away for free.
Madison Doppleganger
So, we were walking in downtown Madison this past weekend (thanks, Brad, for minding the store!), when we looked down a side street and saw this sign:
Someone stole our store! And relocated it to Madison!
But then we investigated a little closer:
Turns out, it was just a coincidentally named B&B next to the fine independent book store A Room of One's Own. We stopped in and talked with the staff, who were funny, pleasant, and knowledgeable. They gave us a few pointers that we are going to try out at the Canterbury (like having a bed and breakfast above it! Just kidding. Maybe.).
The physical space of A Room of One's Own is amazing too! It is well decorated and arranged, with a series of rooms containing different genres niched off from the main entrance hall. If you are ever in the Madison, WI area, you should totally check it out. Becky left with a compilation of Native American oral histories, and I left with the Hugo Award winner Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor.
Thank you for a great start!
We have been recovering from an amazing weekend. The encouragement, participation, and enjoyment from our community was stunning.
It started on Friday with a visit from members of the Delta County Chamber of Commerce. Dennis LaMarche showed us the ropes (or the ribbons, as it were), and we got to meet a number of inspirational characters from the business community.
On Saturday we opened shop to the sounds of the Red House Ramblers, the premier dixieland band in town. Pearson Asbestos graciously halted the demolition of 910 Ludington in order to hear them better.
Throughout the day we enjoyed coffee from UP North Roast and cupcakes from Tiny Kitchen Cupcakes. If you noticed more than icing on the faces of our youngest visitors, that was the work of face-painting-extraordinaire Beth Peterson over in our new children's section.
In the afternoon, Bay de Noc Strings christened our new upstairs space, where we look forward to hosting musical events, children's programs, and book clubs in the future.
We could go on and on about how grateful we are to Dana from Snowbound Books for stopping by to support us, or how amazing Brad and Cindy Bender are for the long hours they put in working on renovations, or how much we love our customers and community, but I think I'll just have to spread that out in the months and years ahead.
In the meantime, enjoy these photos and come visit us at the store! We are glad to be here.
Why, even more books have arrived!
New shipment of books came into today, adding some fresh titles to the mix in anticipation of our grand (keep-) opening on Saturday! Among them are:
Shoot Like a Girl - Autobiography of Mary Jennings Hegar and her harrowing and heroic service as an Air National Guard pilot for three tours in Afghanistan and her fight to open up more roles in our nation's military for women, and for official recognition of the front-line roles female soldiers were already in.
Princesses Behaving Badly - A look at the historical lives of princesses throughout the ages, decidedly less romantic and much more bloody than Disney would have you believe.
Daughters of the Storm - The kicking off point for a new high fantasy series. Drawing inspiration from Norse mythology and fantasy writers like Naomi Novik, Peter V. Brett, and Robin Hobb, here we have a tale of siblings vying for the throne - specifically five sisters against their inept step-sibling currently perched upon it.
The Diamond Setter - And award-winning Israeli novel, it tells of the unexpected connections between a Syrian immigrant and an Israeli soldier - in both present day Tel Aviv and the recent past of Israel and Palestine.
New shipment of books in!
Get'em while they're fresh!
Grand Keep-Opening
On Saturday, June 2nd, we will be throwing a big party to celebrate 50+ years of the Canterbury Book Store and to preview some new developments.
We have much to celebrate... Shirley's retirement, new ownership, a big room full of books and a second floor open for new activities! Jesse has been getting us organized on the first floor, and Rebecca has been getting the upstairs ready for game nights, book clubs, and music making.
We will post a complete schedule of music, face-painting, and food next week - but for now - save the date!
We're famous (locally)!
In case you missed it, TV 6's Mark Cowman did an interview with us about the Canterbury Book Store's new owners (us!). You can see Becky suavely answer questions and me try my best :D at this link:
http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/content/news/Canterbury-Book-Store-remains-open-under-new-ownership-482138301.html
Teacher Appreciation Day!
If there were no teachers, how ever would you learn?
A book would be a paperweight, or something good to burn.
If there weren't any teachers, then math would be a chore,
we'd need to take off socks and shoes to count out 5 times 4.
Without a bunch of teachers, I'd be afraid to drive
or get in planes, and many other things I need just to survive.
So we must thank our teachers, working night and day,
who help us be our better selves. Three cheers! Hip, hip - hooray!
Surprise visit by Nino Green!
Chris Leonard and local Escanaban author Nino Green stopped by the shop today to say hi! Green is currently working on a third novel, but if you haven't read anything by him before, we carry his two previous novels!
You can read more about Green and his novels at https://ninoegreen.com/
Inheritance - understanding a legacy in books
Everyone has a time in their life when they are called upon to sort through the belongings of someone else. When moving to a new house (or moving someone else) we discover what is beloved and what has been forgotten.
In the book store, we have been learning about the long-time owners and the customers they served. The Hivala heritage is fitted in many nooks and crannies, from tall, Scandinavian candles in blue, white, and red, to little glass birds or a guidebook for the perfect sauna experience. I hesitate to move the books during our first days, knowing that I will have to be independent from Shirley's amazing memory and may struggle to find 'just the right book' on my own.
The collection reflects Escanaba as well. There is a wide selection of Bibles, some small enough for pockets and others with proud gold filigree and silk ribbon. There is joy in the children's section, where I find Pat the Bunny or The Berenstain Bears that I grew up with. And I reflect on how expansive the section is surrounding recovery from addiction, divorce and grief.
Yes, we technically 'bought' the bookstore, but it feels like I am taking on a collection from someone familiar. I grew up here and I love this town. Underneath the hubbub of "do we have this already?" or "do you want this anymore?" I will be mourning the loss of Shirley's store and welcoming into the world a book store of my own.
That is the bittersweet taste of inheritance, and it is not lost on me. --- RB
Many thanks to everyone who came out today for Indie Book Store Day!
What a wonderful Saturday we had here at the store! Many thanks and love to all the people who came by the store to welcome us, look around, or buy a book. Escanaba has some of the nicest people I've ever met, and we are so lucky to be a part of this community.
And keep your eyes open for a future announcement: we plan on having an official grand opening event later this spring - maybe early June. We will definitely let everyone know once we get the details ironed out. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!