Maine Books

This book is a personal history of lowbush blueberry farming in Washington County, Maine. The author, Walter Staples, was a frequent visitor to the region as a young child, when he accompanied his father on hunting, fishing, and blueberrying trips. He later purchased some land in Wesley, Maine to use as a base camp for hunting and fishing. When he made this purchase, much of the acreage was being used for commercial blueberry harvesting, and he deeded the rights to the commercial harvest to the previous owner, Shirley Guptill, for as long as Guptill was able to rake the berries. When Guptill became too old to rake blueberries, Staples began learning the trade himself.

In this book, Staples relates a number of hunting and berry picking stories, as well as some of his adventures and misadventures as a commercial blueberry harvester. He provides some interesting anecdotes about the local history of Wesley and the development of the commercial blueberry industry in Maine. The book also includes some statistics and press releases from industry publications, some poems on blueberrying and some old family recipes.

What is most attention-grabbing is Staples' personal account of the transformation of blueberrying from family enterprises to agri-industry. At the beginning of his tenure in the fields (1980), berries were raked by hand and fields were maintained with the addition of hay and regular burning. Expenses were minimal, and profits from a few works' work were significant ($3582.79). But by the 1990s, production protocols had come to require application of herbicides, fertilizers and mechanical raking. All of these additional inputs came at significant expense, while the resulting glut in the blueberry market meant that the returns did not keep pace with expenses. By 1990, Staples was losing money through maintaining and harvesting his fields, rather than gaining a respectable bonus to his yearly income. By then, the only way to make money in blueberries was to lease the fields at a minimal price to commercial growers, or consider organic alternatives. What becomes clear is that the term "wild blueberry" when referring to the Maine agri-industry product is no more accurate than the term "red delicious" apple. In this case, "wild" is simply used as a synonym for low-bush, to make the product sound natural, which it clearly is not, from Staples' description.

Staples includes a number of interesting anecdotes of blueberry country in the book, and some fascinating details about the development of the blueberry industry, but the presentation of the stories, poems, can be a bit disjointed at times. However, interested readers can piece together a remarkable personal story of a family industry being subsumed by big business. Others may simply enjoy the tales of rural Maine and the delicious blueberry recipes.

As someone who has periodically travelled through downeast Maine, passing through miles of seemingly tractless spruce forests and barrens, I have wondered who lives there, and why. This book captures the answer to that question in a way which edifies the reader about the history and quaint charm of the region. Moreover, the book also suggests how people in similar circumstances find livelihoods, community, and even survival in the most unexpected places. A wonderfully educational and insightful read that makes the reader long to visit the region...those who do will find an austere beauty, hardy people, and newfound respect for the spirit of human enterprise... and they are likely to return to the area, as did the author.

Grad student/teaching fellow Sarah Deane and her boyfriend, Alex McKenzie, M.D., go for a cruise on a luxury yacht owned by fatherly millionaire evangelist David Mallory, who distributes Bibles to churches along the Maine coast and, as a sideline, keeps a lookout for suspicious-looking boats that might harbor drug dealers. Before long, the oddest and most unpleasant crew member is found dead in the water. This book might be just your cup of tea if you enjoy a leisurely-paced cozy with idiosyncratic characters and plenty of literary references: John Buchan's Richard Hannay, hero of the classic thriller "The 39 Steps," holds the key to solving the mystery. (And, if only Sarah had read it, the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" might have shed further light on the case.)

This was a cute mystery. At times, the answers to some of the mysteries seem obvious and one doubts the intelligence of the protagonist (herself a college professor.) The imagery of sailing on the Maine coast is often vivid. All in all, this is a very cozy mystery that makes you want to continue solving crimes with the hero.

A nice accessible anthology for biz ethics. Could use some updating. Introductions tended to be very helpful to students without any background in philosophy.

Adams and Maine(s) have put together a very good text for standard business ethics classes, or for anyone seeking a comprehensive and readable introduction to the topics and issues in business ethics. I have used it in my classes for a number of years and find it covers the topics in depth and breadth. Students have also found it clear and understandable. One drawback, as with any text for a college level course, is that some topics I would include are omitted. However, this is true of almost any text in the field and for each individual instructor. The other drawback is that for some issues it could use just a bit more "pro-con" selections and presentations. Overall, the issues are presented fairly and in a balanced manner. The stengths of the text outweigh its weaknesses by far.

The Coast of Maine book is good if you're a first-time visitor to the state. I recently bought this before going to Maine for a week and found this book very helpful. If you're going to be driving a fair amount, then you'll like this...it provides information about the interesting things to do in the major coastal towns and areas in between. This book is lacking in a couple of areas, however. First, the hotel and restaurants listed are few in number and don't provide the best selection, although it is a start. Second, the maps aren't very helpful if you're going to do a lot of driving and provide only a relative idea of your location. I would recommend getting a AAA map of Maine to accompany this book.

That said, this is still a very useful book. Most of the other books on Maine were too focused (e.g., only lodging, or only lighthouses, etc.). This one at least gives a good overview and identifies both the common and less well-known things to do.

My family and I recently visited Maine and in preparation we purchased Great Destinations The Coast of Maine Book to get an idea of what we wanted to see. I found this book to be very clear and concise. It was extremely helpful in giving us an overview of what we wanted to see and do whilst in Maine. The coastline was as beautiful as the book depicted and I would recommend buying this book and also visiting this tremendous State.

I grew up in Maine and can't begin to tell you of the memories this book brings back. The colors are spectacular and the pictures capture not just lobstering but the true colors of Maine.

Greg Currier has an eye for bringing out the unique color combinations that you find hidden in the coastal towns of Maine. This book is a must have if you're looking for a small reminder of your life/trip to Maine.

Greg Currier has really captured the feeling of Maine! Looking through this book is almost like visiting again. The photos are engaging and natural even though meticulous attention to technique and subject are pointedly evident. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen this book in a larger format.

If you've visited coastal Maine, buy this book. It really captures the "the way life should be" - as the license plate says.

If you haven't visted Maine, buy the book to enjoy and you'll certainly see why your next vacation should be to Maine!

This is a continuation of Joanna Bennett Sorensen's family which began when she was a girl of about 19. The reader gets to know the Main lobster-fishing life and comes to love and appreciate every member of the large close and extended family.

It's Vietnam era, but the time period is only incidental in this slow and lazy trip to the Island. Joanna and Nils are almost on their own, until long-lost cousin Hal joins them. He's all Bennett, and the reader loves him from the start, but is he all that he seems?

Ogilvie devotees get a chance to catch up on all the Bennetts in this latest episode. It's an excellent read.

Overall, this book does a good job of providing succinct summaries of some great hikes throughout Maine. I only gave it three stars, however, because it strangely omits western Maine (the area near the New Hampshire border). Western Maine has some great hiking, including the Maine section of the White Mountains National Forest, Mt. Blue State Park, and Grafton Notch State Park. Oddly, this entire region goes unmentioned.

This is a great book for the moderate, hobby fisherman. I have been fishing in Maine all my life, however when I recently moved to central Maine I was at a loss as to where to throw my line. I bought this book last year late in the season and had very good luck with the advice given. It gives you peak times and lures to try for best results. I look forward to checking off some of the spots I missed last year and hopefully catch the big one! The only complaint I have is that it is sometimes more geared to fly fisherman than I would like. Overall a very good investment in my book!

A former student sent me this book after her first year in medical studies and said "finally someone who tells it like it is". Definitely NOT about urban Medibusiness or the world of HMOS and doctors too busy to doctor, instead McPhee focuses on the lives and work of young doctors in rural Maine, bringing us their story and that of their patients with compassion and without either the cloying sentimentality or the muck-raking zeal that sometimes clogs this topic. A quick read & well worth it.

I come from a family of general practitioners - my mother was a G.P. and my sister followed in her footsteps - and I am a fan of John McPhee's writing, in general. So I expected to like this book more than I actually did. The book follows the standard McPhee schema - in-depth reporting on a very specific topic, in this case doctors who choose to work as general practitioners. McPhee provides vignettes of a dozen or so such doctors, almost all of them working in Maine.

McPhee is usually very effective in working from the specific to reach more general insights, and it is clear that he would like to do the same here. That is, by focusing on doctors who have opted out of the mainstream, he would like to illuminate some general truths about the practice of mainstream medicine. However, I think his success in doing so is limited, rarely rising above statement of the obvious. By focusing his microscope only on family practitioners working in Maine, the generalizability of any lessons they might offer is questionable. The needs of communities in Maine cannot be considered particularly representative of the U.S. in general.

So the book never really becomes anything more than a series of isolated vignettes of some individual 'maverick' doctors. Which is interesting as far as it goes, but I wish McPhee had been able to do more with the material. By the end I felt that an opportunity had been missed to write a book that would have been of greater general interest.

I am in the process of section hiking the AT, and this book was a great supplement to the regular guides and maps. It was especially helpful in the more difficult sections such as the Mahoosuc Range because it identified the most and least strenous sections - very useful in planning where to stop and how many miles to try in a day. For example, for northbound hikers, the first 9-10 miles from Route 2 north are not too bad, while the rest are a real challenge. Instead of trying for the usual 10 or more miles per day, I knew where to plan for 5-mile days. I was not disappointed - these were TOUGH miles.

In general, the authors' descriptions of difficulty matched my experience on the trail. I am sometimes a little slower than they predict, but then, I am a little older than most of the people on the trail!

The book is NOT a complete guide to the AT sections - almost all of the hikes use other trails to access the AT. But it is still very useful.

In addition, the authors provide lots of human and natural history. Example: Want to know why there is a trail called Six Husbands in the White Mountains? It's because an Amerindian queen decided she wanted that many mates. They do refer to her as "polygamous" rather than "polyandrous," but that'a a quibble.

The maps (topographic and elevation profile) are a helpful reference, and information about road access is also helpful in planning.

Highly recommended!

A Helpful guide to hikes along the Appalation Trail in Maine. The guide gives general information as well as specific information about the trail. Each hike includes specific places, distances, where to find a lean-to, and water.

This lovely coffee table book tries to sum up the state of Maine in 572 photos. Taken in one week by a broad range of photographers, it captures some of the essence of the state, but misses some others.
You'll see lobstermen, moose, blueberry fields, boat building, loggers, and other icons of the state.
The reason for including some of the photos escapes me. Some of the cute kid photos (page 20 and 21) are generic enough, they could be anywhere in the US. Why devote four pages to women football players?
I don't understand why they included six photos of one family and their dairy farm, but left out the white spired churches and summer theaters that are part of the picture of Maine in my mind.
Despite these quibbles, I'm pleased with the book and would recommend it to anyone who is curious about the state or for those who already love all that is Maine.

This book is nice to flip through, there are some very pretty photos that capture what it is to be in Maine. However, I found that a lot of these images were too focused on people, and not focused enough on images of Maine. The front cover is my favorite photo out of the whole book. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Maine.