Artemis Books & Goods Takes Aim

The new Traverse City bookstore is set to host its grand opening May 30

By Jillian Manning | May 16, 2026

When Brilliant Books closed its doors in Traverse City last October after a decade-long run, several of its former booksellers decided to make lemonade out of lemons.

“It was so hard every day at the old store to talk to people and hear the stories about the impact that Brilliant had on their lives,” says Caitlin Marsh. “It really drove home that this is what we wanted to be doing.”

So, just a few short months later—in what Marsh calls “an absolute whirlwind”—Artemis Books & Goods opened in Warehouse MRKT in Traverse City. The team behind the store includes Marsh, Samantha Duby, Rachel Sang, and Carissa Yonan, all experienced booksellers.

“It’s a wonderful place to have a business,” Marsh says of their new digs. “Our fellow shops are so fantastically niche, and yet we all work so well together. There’s a sort of general camaraderie that’s a very pleasant place to work, even outside of the store. So it’s just been one small miracle after another.”

Artemis (named for the Greek goddess of the hunt, nature, children, and wild animals, among other things) soft launched in February and has been building its inventory, creating a dedicated ordering site, and filling out its space, complete with custom cabinetry. While they have a wide selection of new, popular, and classic titles, they also offer used books at a discounted price.

“One of our big things about this business is that we wanted it to be sustainable, and we mean that in several aspects,” Marsh explains. “The margins on books aren’t great, and having gone through the devastating loss of one bookstore, being able to offer used books means that we broaden our customer base. It makes it so that literature is more accessible, and it gives us another way to just source books and make sure that we can keep our shelves full. And on top of all that, it helps keep them out of dumpsters and landfills.”

Whether you’re shopping new or used, Artemis is planning a grand opening for May 30 to welcome in new and familiar customers. Throughout the summer, they’ll be hosting author events, pop-ups, and other bookish or crafting activities in the store.

And speaking of summer, we asked the booksellers for their favorite recommendations for the season ahead, from tried-and-true favorites to new books releasing soon.

Samantha Recommends

“I’ve been working in indie bookstores for over a decade, and somewhere along the way it stopped feeling like a job and started feeling like home. It's the kind of place I've always felt comfortable in, and I'm so excited to be a part of the community we're building at Artemis.”

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Adult Nonfiction)
Nobody does nonfiction like Keefe. This one begins with the mysterious death of a young man and looks into his unexpected ties to the darker side of London.

Book Witch by Meg Shaffer (Adult Magical Realism)
A cozy story about a young book witch who has dedicated her life to protecting stories. She sets out to find her missing grandfather, following clues through different literary worlds such as Alice in Wonderland and Great Gatsby. It’s imaginative, fun, and full of nods to classic stories.

Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr. by Lerone Martin (Adult Nonfiction)
A closer look at the early life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the experiences that shaped him into the leader we know today. A fresh and thoughtful perspective.

A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic: Or, Like Lightning in an Umbrella Storm by Philip Stead (10 & up)
A whimsical, quirky story full of magic, adventure, and unexpected details (including a castle built on 24 goats and a forgetful magician). A great read-aloud and easy to get lost in.

Caitlin Recommends

“I’ve been an accidental bookseller for about a decade now, and though I’m still faintly surprised to have ended up here, I’m so glad I did. I thought I was going to work in public health, but even during grad school, I was blogging about books because that was the way my introverted self made connections. There’s something about stories that is so viscerally universal, and I love being able to share that. Watching kids discover what books can offer and watching adults light up just like kids when they find something new never gets old.”

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Adult Science Fiction)
In a futuristic eco-city, a private detective is tasked with finding a runaway scientist. The twist? These characters are genetically engineered animals operating under the very nose of their human creators.

Alice with a Why by Anna James (8 & up)
A lovely follow-up to Alice in Wonderland or a perfect introduction to Carroll’s classic. Alyce, granddaughter of the original Alice, finds herself on an accidental adventure with nothing but her grandmother’s stories to guide her.

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher (Adult Horror)
Not a tale for the squeamish, this genre-bending book blends historical science, horror, dark fantasy, and a through-line of fierce feminism. Just…brace yourself for the bugs.

The Iron Garden Sutra by A. D. Sui (Adult Science Fiction)
A spaceship, lost for millennia, has resurfaced. Iris, a monk from an order dedicated to caring for the dead, is tasked with laying to rest those who died aboard. The trouble is, not everything is quite as dead as expected.

The Weedy Garden by Margaret Renkl, illustrated by Billy Renkl (picture book ages 4-8)
This book reminds me of my young nephew—his family’s yard is a naturalized meadow, and I can almost hear him telling me about the creatures he’s seen as I turn each page. The illustrations, worked in collage, are wonderfully vibrant and almost tactile in appearance.

Rachel Recommends

“My husband and I transplanted to Traverse City from West Yellowstone, Montana, wanting to be closer to family and live somewhere beautiful. On one of our visits as we planned our move, we wandered downtown and discovered Brilliant Books—I knew right away I wanted to work there. Bookselling taps into all of my favorite things: real connections, creativity, and art. I became store manager and Director of Children’s Literature at Brilliant, where I fell in love with helping people find the right book. As a parent, getting to do that for kids feels especially magical.”

The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert MacFarlane (Adult Nonfiction)
I am endlessly a fan of nature writing and one of my favorite nature writers, Robert MacFarlane, has a new book collaboration with Jackie Morris coming out this summer. Beautifully illustrated, this is a new kind of field guide, helping us both identify and understand how we share space with these species around us.

Country People by Daniel Mason (Adult Fiction)
I loved North Woods by Daniel Mason, and cannot wait for his upcoming book, Country People. He is a masterful writer, weaving together beautiful stories through thoughtfully crafted characters with intertwined themes. Set in rural Vermont, Country People follows the life of a transplanted family and the cast of characters their lives interweave with. Mason’s work is just so smart, the kind of writing that makes me stop and reread because it is so beautiful.

Rialto by Kate Milford (8 & Up)
A new book from the author of Greenglass House? I am so excited for Kate Milford’s latest middle grade book. Sisters over summer vacation in an abandoned theme park set this up as a fantastic mystery, with a bit of magic and lots of big thinking that make for the best middle grade reads.

Carissa Recommends

“I was a bookseller for three years before opening Artemis and loved getting to connect people to books and then chat with them after they finished them. I felt like we had built up such a great community there. It was awesome to see people’s faces light up when they came in for a new suggestion or to talk about a book I had recommended to them. I’m such a book nerd and love being around books and book lovers.”

The Clover Lake Series by Ashley Herring Blake (Adult Romance)
I love this sapphic romance series; it’s so cute and such a great beach read. The second book, Get Over It, April Evans came out earlier this year, and the last book in the trilogy, Take a Chance, Sasha Sinclair, is scheduled to come out this fall.

Forest School for Grown-Ups by Richard D. G. Irvine (Adult Nonfiction)
This book is so cool with beautiful illustrations. It’s great for more outgoing and outdoorsy people looking to go on all kinds of adventures and learn new skills this summer!

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Adult Science Fiction)
This has been out for a while, but it's one of my favorite books of all time. Muir is a genius writer. This book is crazy! It’s lesbian space necromancers and also a murder mystery? The narrator is so unreliable that I was confused the whole time, because the writing is so well done. Re-reading it is just as fun because you know the story and you realize how much you were missing during your first read-through. I recommend this to everyone.