Maine Books

The Caretakers is a bittersweet memory of two people who love one another over a span of years and miles of troubles. Their inability to part from one another is testament to the power of their love. Coming from opposite backgrounds and with completely different expectations of life, they nevertheless manage to attract each other and stay attracted despite all the tragedies that their relationship causes. Apart they are flawed, difficult people but together they achieve a sort of balance that is remarkable in its tenacity and caring. Not ordinary people by any means, they still come across as people you might know but never dream of interfering with. For all the grief they cause, a reader still cheers them on. Perhaps because they're an example of a love that can survive anything.

This is the type of book which one reads again and again, finding more in it to admire and enjoy each time. It explores the star-crossed relationship of Tory Christopher and Joe Nevers, two people who have nothing in common and yet are inexplicably drawn to one another. There's a mystery surrounding a couple of unexplained deaths, as well as subplots involving friendship, love, sex, revenge, prejudice, marriage, illness, and death. The way the book moves from the present day into flashbacks and then back makes it a bit difficult to follow when you first read it, but it is well worth a little effort. I consider it Ms. King's best book, and one of the best novels I've read in the past 20 years

Tabitha King is masterful in her character development, dialogue, and understanding of human nature. Caretaker is the second book by Ms King that I had the good fortune to find and read, and I was as unable to put this one down as I was with the first, "Basketball." Her writing style is slow and steady--not rushing into the plot, but introducing us to believable characters who act in very human ways, both good and bad. Don't get me wrong, there are surprises and twists in her stories, but there is also a gentleness and a beauty to her writing that I have never seen before from any other author

I love this book! For me to read a book twice when I have tons of books that I have NOT read says it all. Great, great book.

I have had the pleasure of not only reading this book but I have been fortunate enough to actually know the author. Jaimee Colbert is a very pristine and talented woman. Her work is excellent and manages to capture the reader's full attention from beginning to end!

WINNER OF THE WILLA CATHER FICTION PRIZE

"A debut novel set in a haunted Maine town. Eerie, understated, and deft. Colbert uses atmosphere the way David Lean uses scenery." -Kirkus Reviews

"The scope of Jaimee Wriston Colbert's storytelling is impressive, with no fewer than 16 central characters delineated in intricately overlapping narratives. The stories stand on their own as sensitive and unsentimental evocations of unrelieved loss." -The New York Times Book Review

"Here is a writer who, in powerfully linked stories, movingly evokes both our craving for the sacred and our tenacious embrace of the profane." -Dawn Raffel, Judge, Willa Cather Fiction Prize

"Ingeniously constructed and sensitively rendered, Climbing the God Tree is a compelling and moving novel." -Madison Smartt Bell

"Colbert has a knack for creating vivid characters and handles well the novel's recurring themes of loss and retribution." -Publisher's Weekly

This is a great book about fishing, and one to take along on your next trip. (I plan to bring a couple of copies to leave at camp in N. Quebec in June). Hall is a wonderful writer who captures both the essence of flyfishing and the downeast humor of life in Maine.
Don't miss this one. You will love it.

Whether you fish or not, this book is sure to entertain you. Through a rare gift of writing that captures a range of human emotions in imaginative stories, J. H. Hall gives his readers a glimpse of the passion that drives those who fish. Witty dialogue, humorous situations, and a touch of poignancy will keep you turning pages.

Being a fisherman from Maine I was delighted with seeing many of my favorite fishing places included in the pages of this book.

I personally know a few Maine fishing guides. I can tell you that Hall captures a true picture of the type of character that you might find in Maine fishing villages, with their subtle humor and unconventional thinking.

I was also impressed with the insightful knowledge of fly fishing that was sprinkled throughout the delightful stories.

A must have book if you like to paint marine paintings or even paint in watercolor. Who better then Carlton Plummer to show the artist ways to paint the coast in watercolor? This book is full of a life time of helpfull information and great paintings to put the artist on the track to feeling the texture of marine life in watercolor.

This book is beautiful and outstanding, but is not a beginners watercolor technique book. I would still recommend it to any one wanting to learn watercolors. It is more for the advanced watercolorist to understand design methods to create drama in a painting, but beginners can certainly benefit from all the information in this book and be inspired by the stunning and dramatic coastal scenes that Mr. Plummer teaches through his many demonstrations and explanations of how to create drama and excitement in painting coastal scenes in watercolor.

Mr. Plummer teaches and demonstrates about things that can add drama to a painting such as using light, exagerating shadows, adding warm color on a generally cool scene, using analogous colors on the color wheel to create continuity, connecting shapes, deciding tonal values, etc.. He breaks the coastal elements into sky, surf, calm water, reflections, rocks, ledges and beaches, vegetation, boats, and buildings.

It's an absolutely stunning book and each painting is filled with enormous energy through the use of design methods that Carlton Plummer teaches and demonstrates in this book. I'm somewhat a beginner, but I love this book even though it would be more helpful to me if I were a bit more advanced.

i received this as a gift from my son. not for a beginner, but great instructional techniques. a book chocked full of fabulous paintings and demos. i cant put it down. just makes you want to paint maine scenes!

Born and raised in Lubec Maine, I grew to love the coast as if it were my own personal playground. As a young lad I would spend my days swimming in the chilly waters off my families private beach, and my nights roasting marshmellows over and open fire. When I was in my teens I went to work in the local sardine factory and spent many days dragging for scallops in the bay.

I moved away from Downeast Maine twenty years ago and I have missed it ever since. I miss the smell of the salt air and the nice cool breeze that always seems to be there. I miss the endless hay fields and the way the trees produce unheard of colors every fall. Most of all I miss the people. They are kind, honest, and carry an accent that could make anyone feel at home.

I bought the book Downeast Maine: A World Apart a month ago and I read it every day. The stories and black and white photos give the reader a true feeling for what it is like living in Downeast Maine. Reading it, I can almost smell the salt air and feel that unforgettable summer breeze. The book really brings me home again. It's wonderfull book!

A summer resident of Maine's easternmost corner, Frank Van Riper goes beyond clam shacks, country clubs and outlet malls to portray how people 'Down East' eke out a living and build a life.

Van Riper, a former White House correspondent for the New York Daily News ably handles both camera and notepad to record vivid, full-frame images of his neighbors. This is fundamentally a book about people, and he has clearly managed to transcend that putoffishness that Maine residents are known for to get their stories alongside their pictures. The text doesn't merely accompany, nor do the photos merely illustrate; they are inseparable components.

There is a timeless quality to these images of people, most seen at work. Only at times does a modern watch or a radar dome on a boat remind you that clams are still dug through back-breaking labor and lobster hauled up one or two at a time. The book was collected over a number of years, and italics note where the subject portrayed died between the portrait and publication -- and you feel the loss.

This is serious documentary, with more than a hint of Walker Evans and Sebastián Salgado, but with light touches as well. Van Riper devotes a page to the peculiar delight of Maine's own Grape Nuts ice cream, a confection that predates -- and in his view, outrates -- Ben and Jerry's chunky conglomerates.

A visually stunning series of what happens when a dead whale washes ashore in his small town of Kennebec closes out the book. The sharply mottled skin of the whale amid the wash-fade of a foggy illustrate the beauty of his corner of Maine, as Van Riper also tells us of hard choices a financially strapped, self-reliant community must face as it struggles to get rid of what is, after all, tons and tons of rotting flesh.

This sensitive portrayal proves that what it means to be from Maine has nothing to do with what bottled water you drink.

Frank Van Riper captures, in his portraits of Maine, the people that he has come to know slowly (is there any other way in Maine?) through his photo excursions to the northeast.

His "moment" photographs are some of my favorites, including the photo of the boy at the pie-eating contest. It's an ageless photograph captured with precision timing and artful composition. These are traits of photographs throughout the book and share the essence of great documentary photojournalism--the ability to capture a simple (almost unseen) moment with artisitc and historic sensibilities. Van Riper captures this quiet beauty in medium format which lends itself to the superb reproductions.

Van Riper's fine images coupled with his words showcase his great ear for telling dialogue honed during his "other" career as a newspaper writer.

As a former Maine lobsterman, I can assure readers of the authenticity and accuracy of this book. Although I am landlocked in the Midwest, each night I read this book to my two-year-old daughter. She loves it, and it gives me a taste of being home in Maine. She asked questions about each photo. Fortunately, I can answer most of them. However, someone not fully familiar with commercial fishing in Maine, might desire fuller descriptions of the photographs. I highly recommend this book.

Aaron Werner

Louisville, KY

The pictures are breathtaking and the scenery pure Maine. Nance Truworthy is a wonderful photographer who has captured the true essence of Maine and the people who make a living on the water. I savored every page of this wonderful book. It is the perfect book for anyone who lives in or has visited Maine.

I just LOVED this book! The photographer captured the actual life of a Maine coast fisherman and the work is just brilliant.
If you never knew anything about fishing, you would have learned alot of information about the industry from the writer plus some very interesting and amusing tales. And the point of the book is to call some appreciation to the men and women who brave the elements to bring food to our tables....a great cause and so beautifully portrayed. I would highly recommend everyone see this book!

Richard S. Dunn examines the British colonialization of the West Indies. Dunn considers numerous colonies, but Barbados takes early preeminence. Dunn discusses the adventurers of the first twenty years, mostly small-scale farmers; the cavalier-planters of the 1640s and '50s, Royalist exiles who fled the English Civil War; and the slaves who became a majority of the population in the period Dunn considers.

Dunn offers a detailed contrast between the lives of the planter elite and the enslaved majority. This is a landmark work in the history of plantation agriculture in the West Indies.

The work should also interest readers of Southern history. Dunn compares the rise of a cavalier elite in Barbados to the same development in Virginia. Planters from the West Indies, especially Barbados, dominated the early years of the colony of (South) Carolina.

Other works on this period of West Indian history are Richard Sheridan's Sugar and Slavery and Gary Puckrein's Little England. Works by Hilary Beckles examine the lives of women and Blacks in this period of West Indian history.

Dunn does an excellent job of explaining the planter class in the West Indies. His research is excellent and his writing style is clear and devoid of that crazy academic jargon so often found in history books. This is my first book on planters and it gave me a good fund of knowledge on the histories of Barbados, the Leeward Islands, and Jamaica, and it outlined in detail how the planters made or lost money. For me, it's Dunn's careful unraveling of the planters' financial arrangements and entanglements that made this book absolutely hard to put down!

In "Sugar and Slaves," Richard Dunn shows not only the brutality of the West Indies slave trade that revolved around sugar, but also how slave owners "created a society...radically different from the one they left at home." He notes that while these planters brought with them to the islands their laws, church and social institutions, these settlers early on "developed their own lifestyle...bent by their eager embrace of African slavery." (46) Dunn persuasively argues that European planters who came to the West Indies traveled literally and figuratively "beyond the line" of normal, British social conventions, and created a world in which "everything goes," particularly the exploitation of slaves and natives in the creation of a dominant master class. These rapacious men, he argues, quickly adapted to harsh climatic conditions by abandoning the use of lower class but white indentured servants in favor of exploitable, controllable Negroes once the sugar boom created a demand. "The rape's progress was fatally easy," Dunn notes: "from exploiting the English poor to abusing colonial bondservants to ensnaring kidnaps and convicts to enslaving black Africans." (73) Unlike his Chesapeake or Lowcountry counterpart, the West Indies sugar lord produced nothing but his staple crop, and relied instead on imports for all other necessities. "In short, the English sugar planter was more strictly a businessman than the senhor de engenho of Brazil." (65) This was a marked difference from other English settlement and colonization patterns, which Dunn concludes is evidence of the atypical class of planter the Caribbean islands fashioned.

As the owner/operator of Sea Venture Custom Boat Tours here in Bar Harbor I was pleased to be chosen to provide water transport for Mr. Blagden during the creation of this book. Needless to say, I was eager to see the end result. When I finally did I was blown away! A wonderful book chock full of breathtakingly beautiful photos that show a sensitivity to Mount Desert Island's natural beauty that is rarely encountered among those attempting to record its manifold beauties on film. Having conducted bald eagle research on Mount Desert Island for a bit more than 30 years and having hiked every trail, snowshoed every mountain slope, sea kayaked, sailed, and motored more than 100,000 miles worth of watery highways, I am a bit more than familiar with the area. And if anyone has ever done a better job of portraying Acadia's mountains, coastline, streams, forests, meadows, and pathways it must have escaped my attention. Bravo! for a job more than well done.

This book is superb. Packed with spectacular photography and interesting essays regarding Mount Desert Island's history, geography, and ecology. The print quality is first rate; kudos to the publisher. A very inspiring volume which reminds us how important it is to have places like Mount Desert Island and Acadia. Highly recommended from a resident of Maine.

I took this book with me last month when our camera club went on a January trip to Acadia National Park. The photography is outstanding and inspirational to say the least! We visited many of the places shown in this book and were able to take wonderful pictures ourselves. This book inspires one to visit Acadia at any time of the year and I highly recommend it to any photographer or persons who are planning a visit to Mount Dessert Island.

This is a very interesting book about a colorful woman who put Maine on the map with her tireless writings and promotions. The first part is about Cornelia's life, and the second part is from "Fly Rod's" letters and an album of vintage photos by Edwin Starbird. It all makes for a fascinating collection about this bold New Englander!

With an odd nickname like Fly Rod, Cornelia Crosby was bound to attract people's interest. Not only that, she was six feet tall and unusually athletic for nineteenth-century women. Ironically, she tended to be sickly as a child, so her doctor prescribed being in the outdoors as a cure. Cornelia discovered she loved to hunt and fish in the Maine woods. As a young woman, she began to write about her adventures in a popular newspaper column, using the pen name "Fly Rod." The name stuck. Sadly, a knee injury put an end to Fly Rod's active outdoor adventures, but she remained beloved by many for the rest of her long life.

A carefully researched, entertainingly written biography of a woman who in many ways defied the conventions of her era - but who was in many other ways limited by them nevertheless. You do NOT have to be interested in hunting and fishing to find Cornelia Crosby's story inspiring and enjoyable.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "Granite Island"

This captivating, informative and fresh volume betrays an excellent working knowledge of the subject. From a lifelong Maine resident who published a tourist guide for about ten years (nearly three decades ago), please accept my sincere thanks. Such an evening of "pure joy" this account of Fly Rod (and those newly-revealed photographs) brought to me! Even 8 months after reading it, I remember with pleasure this account from "old Maine." The volume is still displayed, so guests also can "enjoy the read!"

I have just finished reading this sequel and I must say that it was worth buying. I fell in love with Christopher and David in "L.A. Heat" and I really enjoyed watching them come together as a couple. I like the way that P.A. Brown writes and I am eagerly awaiting the next title in the series - to be published next year.

The eagerly anticipated sequel to L.A. Heat. You really have to read the first one before this one. This is a sequel with a difference - it's more like an extended epilogue to the first book, in a way, it completes the book L.A Heat.

As a novella, LA Mischief is tight and fast paced. I agree with the other reviewer, the crime itself takes a back seat this time. The author spends more time getting into the characters minds and their emotional struggles.

Readers of LA Heat are already emotionally invested in the major characters David and Chris, the sequel opens with a bang - with the brutal fact that they are not having their "Happily Ever After" after readers would have thought after the first book. And it makes perfect sense, because the David and Chris we knew from the first book are far from perfect, nor were they perfectly matched (in fact, far from it). In this book, they have to overcome a lots of struggles, make compromises. And these are all real conflicts.

It's a great read, P.A. Brown gives a great sense of the place and environment the characters in. I see this as the final piece to build up solid characterization of this series, to path way for further adventures in the series. And I am looking forward to them.

I have been looking forward to a sequel to L.A.Heat not for more police or murder stories but more on Chris and David. PA Brown certainly does not disappoint. I have to say I am very surprised with the change in tone in this sequel, which is emotional, sexy and heartfelt. Never thought PA Brown has it in her!
The violent LAPD world is secondary in the tightly paced and engrossing plot as this sequel focuses on the 3 men, Chris, David and Des at the most difficult points in their lives. The story starts off really well even if I am shocked by the turn of events since the end of LA Heat. The emotional relationship development between Chris and David is deeply explored and I find myself once again rooting for these 2 completely opposite men to be together. And Des' life is just sad and touching and I love his friendship with Chris and David. PA Brown breathes life into her 3 characters and their stories simply hold me spellbound. As for the last two bonus stories, they are just steaming hot, with a dose of BDSM too. Highly recommended for all M/M romance fans.