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Print and audio books,
music, video, and more!
PLUS, e-books
downloadable to most e-readers!
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Summer Store Hours
8am-9pm
7days/week!
Hours change
Monday, September 3rd:
9am-7pm
7 days/week
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Featured Title
Yes, Chef
by Marcus Samuelsson
Price: $27.00
Marcus Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia, adopted by Swedish parents at the age of three and now owns and operates a "soulful" restaurant in Harlem, New York City. Just those three facts alone should interest you in this book. Yes, Chef is an autobiography of a man who learned his "place" in the kitchen at a very young age. It started with his Swedish grandmother teaching him how to, "kill a chicken old-school style." He continued to learn from chefs of all sorts who taught him the universal rule of the kitchen, "Stay invisible unless you're going to shine." He fought against the odds and made plenty of mistakes along the way. The fact that he survived Tuberculosis as a toddler should be a sign of what a fighter he is. Samuelsson illustrates how he was able to combine his incredibly diverse culinary tastes into masterpieces. One wouldn't think to combine Ethiopian fare with Swedish, but he does it, and he does it well.
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Featured Title
The Time In Between
Maria Duenas
Price: $15.00
If the cold and calculating non-fiction rendering of the great spy game is not to your liking (as in Double Cross), you might try the lighter fare of this thoroughly enjoyable spy novel by the Spanish academic Maria Duenas. It has all the elements - romance, affairs, fashion, intrigue, war, espionage and betrayal. There are races to the border, meetings in elegant hotels, and lessons on the verities of the Spanish Civil War and the Nazi presence on the Iberian Peninsula. Some characters go from rags-to-riches while others go from riches-to-rags. Set in Madrid, the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco and Lisbon, the book is epic-lite (perhaps on the order of Gone with the Wind) and neatly stitched together with the thread of the dressmaker's trade. Over 600 pages of indolent pleasure!
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Featured Titles
The Leviathan Trilogy
Scott Westerfeld
Price: varies
There are countless series out there for young adult and middle readers (ages 10-16). It's quite difficult to decide which ones are really "good." Scott Westerfeld has created an exciting series categorized as Steampunk - a sub-genre of science fiction. This series has become more and more popular this year, which comes as so surprise to us. These books are well written and include breathtaking illustrations.
Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle torn war machine and a loyal crew of men. Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered. With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected ways, taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventures that will change both their lives forever.
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Greetings!
The Scene:
A foggy morning on Lake Superior at 7:45 am. At 112 Rittenhouse Avenue in Bayfield, Wisconsin newspaper bundles are scattered in front of Apostle Islands Booksellers. The early morning politicos are sharing their wisdom across the street at the Big Water Café. Other than that, the town is deserted. The Characters: - Two tousled, but otherwise apparently typical, middle-aged women vacationers. They are sleepy-eyed, but fully awake with anticipation. Their pajamas are obvious beneath light raincoats. One wears slippers; the other is barefoot.
- A white-haired septuagenarian buttoned-down and khakied. He carries a small blue backpack and a thermos cup. He is groggy, but resolute. His gait is casual and marked by a slight limp.
The Action:
The two women are sharing a cigarette and glancing from time to time at the "SHUT" sign on the bookstore door. As the man approaches they turn their attention to him and dispose of the cigarette butt in the gutter. "Do you work here?" asked the barefoot one. "Yes, I do," he replied, "I open at 8:00." "We need a book!" said the slippered one with a sense of some urgency. "Please come in," he said, "I'll take care of it right away." He unlocked and opened the door leaving the newspapers on the sidewalk. They followed him into the store and stood at the counter while he went around and turned on the computer. "Well?" he inquired. The women glanced sheepishly at each other before they responded. "Do you have that "fifty shades" book?" they blurted out simultaneously with slight embarrassment. "Fifty Shades of Gray?" he asked gravely, "Of course. It's just there on the table." "Omigod! You've got to be kidding! We want two!" Their excitement was palpable. He frowned as they shuffled - slippered and barefoot - out the door. Pajamas flared below the hem of the raincoats. Each had the "fifty shades" book tucked behind the buttons on her coat. His formality no longer required the old man slumped with his elbows on the counter. He thought about last summer and the Stieg Larsson book they jokingly called The Girl Who Made Our Margins. "This year it's Fifty Shades of Margin," he thought bitterly, "Swedish murder mysteries never looked so good!" |
Russ Feingold visits Bayfield
 Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold will be discussing his latest book, While America Sleeps at Big Water Cafe & Coffee Roasters on Thursday, August 23rd at 1pm. In his book, the Senator looks at institutional failures, both domestic and abroad, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and proposes steps to be taken-by the government and by individuals-to ensure that the next ten years are focused on solving the international problems that threaten America. The Senator will speak for a short time and take questions from the audience. Apostle Islands Booksellers will be on site to sell signed copies of "While America Sleeps." |
Other upcoming events
We are thrilled to be welcoming quite the line-up of authors later this year at Apostle Islands Booksellers. Michael Perry, Peter Geye and William Kent Krueger are all established authors and have other titles available for purchase as well. The books featured below will all be released for sale over the next couple of months. We hope to see many of you at these events.  Michael Perry, author of Visiting Tom: A Man, a Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace (on sale August 21st) When: Sunday, September 9 at 2pm
Where: Big Water Cafe & Coffee Roasters Peter Geye, author of The Lighthouse Road (on sale October 2nd)
When: Saturday, October 27 at 2pm
Where: Big Water Cafe & Coffee Roasters, with signing to follow at Apostle Islands Booksellers  William Kent Krueger, author of Trickster's Point (on sale August 21st)
When: Saturday, November 3 at 2pm
Where: Big Water Cafe & Coffee Roasters, with signing to follow at Apostle Islands Booksellers |
What we're reading
 Double Cross
Ben MacIntyre One is dumbfounded by how, given the astonishing gullibility of the German Abwehr and the equally astounding pettiness of the British MI5, anyone at all won WW II. This last in the MacIntyre espionage trilogy (Agent Zigzag & Operation Mincemeat) is the incredible story of the great intelligence deception perpetrated by the Brits on the run-up to D-Day. As fiction, it would have been rejected by the publishers as too preposterous to hold the attention of serious readers. As it is, MacIntyre's writing is suspenseful and captivating and holds together probably because this was the way it really happened. The principal ruse was to deceive Nazi intelligence into expecting that the allied invasion would occur variously in Pas de Calais, Bordeaux or Norway rather than on the beaches of Normandy. Spoiler alert: The invasion did, in fact, occur on the Utah, Omaha, Sword, Juno and Gold beaches along the coast of Normandy. It was a bloody success. |
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Tense new mysteries set in the North Country
 Okay you avid mystery readers, we have two new books written by a couple of our favorite authors to test your imagination and analysis skills to determine who the culprits are and solve the stories puzzle.
The first is Steve Hamilton's new thriller Die a Stranger, featuring that ex Detroit cop Alex McKnight. Set in the wild and rugged Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Hamilton creates a cast of characters and a plot that will have you staying up late to read and turn the pages as fast as you can to find the clues that will lead to your guess of what will happen next. The intrigue happens in a landscape that adds to the danger with a solid Ojibwa connection; drug trafficking, a strange hippie couple, murder, and missing persons. Hamilton adds many twists and the tension increases as he develops the intensity of the relationships between the characters with more complexity than in his previous books. This is a great read with an ending that will leave you breathless.
 The second book is William Kent Krueger's Tricksters Point. How many lives does Cork O'Connor have? For those of you unfamiliar with Krueger's main character we should mention that this once Sheriff (now retired), of the small town of Aurora, Minnesota, on Minnesota's iron range, has now survived thirteen books and somehow stays alive to jump into the next hotbed of evil and murderous activities. Cork is at heart a family man and his children are the love of his life but he cannot stop himself from getting involved when something happens in his town, or the nearby Ojibwa reservation, that threatens his friends, or family. Krueger is the master of a complex plot with so many twists and turns that your head will spin trying to grasp what just happened. In this book Krueger's characters are a great mix of friends and foes including a dark and complex relationship from Cork's childhood that haunts him and becomes part of the main plot in this very tense read. Yes, Krueger has written another good one and how does Cork fare this time? Read it and find out!
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A closing thought...
Remember that photo that takes your breath away, the one that elicits an instant smile or brings tears to your eyes, the one that makes you wonder what is the story behind the image? Sometimes, we like to be told the story. Other times, we like to be left on our own to fill in the spaces left open by the absence of words. A particular photo may become iconic simply because of the emotions it evokes.
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