Maine Books

I read the authors Home Repair novels beacuse I am a tool belt woman that can identify with the constant fixing up of houses.
Sarah Graves has a cast of characters that sometimes are confusing but her books are overall well written and you can get 'into her head'. I would reccomend them for all my sisters in home repair hell...

As a Downeastern Mainer myself, I loved this story line. As with all of Sarah Graves's "A Home Repair Is Homicide Mystery" novels, I read it almost in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it.

I'm a huge fan of the Sarah Graves "Home Repair is Homicide" mystery series. I've read every one-- and was looking forward to Tool & Die...until I read it. I found it nearly unreadable. I labored through the first few chapters and then decided to just crack open the book somewhere in the middle and continue reading from that point forward. That's the first time in my life that I've done that! I have no issue with the plot/story structure or the main/returning characters. However, the new characters (the ones central to the homicide) I found to be thinly drawn. One further gripe: the "Home Repair is Homicide Repair Tips" which pop-up through out Tool & Die in mid-chapter accompanied by cutesily-bordered text boxes really detract from the book. Whereas Sarah Graves once incorporated how-to tips throughout her books by including them within her storylines, having them just appear randomly throughout the book in the middle of page and in the middle of a chapter serves no purpose except to fill space. It's laziness on the writer's part or poor judgment on her editor's part. Her first eight books in this series were fun, well-thought out, engaging, and tightly written. Tool & Die is not. Don't bother.

Readers who are also viewers of the myriad home improvement shows flooding television networks will find plenty to delight them in TOOL & DIE, the eighth book in the "Home Repair is Homicide" mystery series. Not only does Sarah Graves spin an entertaining story, she also includes home repair tips throughout the book.

Eastport is located on Moose Island, seven miles off the coast of Maine "and so far downeast that it's almost in Canada." Despite its rural location, life here is anything but dull. For Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree --- Wall Street executive turned small-town gal turned resident snoop --- there is no shortage of fixer-uppers, whether it's the rambling house she lives in or one of her fellow Eastport residents.

Jake and her best friend, Ellie, have yet to encounter a problem they can't solve. So when Jake wins a month of housekeeping services at a church fair, she's determined to get to the bottom of Bella Diamond's hygienic but unhealthy compulsion for cleanliness. It turns out that Bella has been hiding her anxiety at receiving life-threatening letters behind a broom and a mop. Her ex-husband, newly released from prison, is the likely suspect...until he turns up dead after being whacked in the head with a cast iron skillet. Snooping is rarely risk-free, and Jake and Ellie soon find themselves tangling with a cunning killer.

This well-crafted mystery is filled with twists, turns, clever dialogue, and a cast of characters so endearing you'll be ready to move into one of the spare bedrooms in Jake's house. If you're new to the series, TOOL & DIE is a fine place to start. As you're reading you'll know there are plenty more adventures with Jake and company to go back and savor.

If you want to know how to fix a hairline plaster crack, you'll find the answer in TOOL & DIE. And if it's a witty, enjoyable whodunit you're seeking to while away the afternoon with, you'll find that here too.

--- Reviewed by Shannon McKenna

Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree still lives in Eastport on Moore Island seven miles off the coast of Maine where she still is fixing up her 1823 Federal home. In a raffle, she won the housekeeping services of Bella for several weeks, but the woman acts loony driving Jake's household crazy. When Jake confronts her, Bella says she has been receiving death threats letters left in her home; she thinks her ex-husband Jim Diamond, just released from jail for forging checks, is the culprit.

Jake and her best friend Ellie visit Jim but when they get to his apartment, he keels over on Jake. Someone caved in his head with something heavy. Jake and Ellie decide to find out who did the deed because the State Police believe Bella is the guilty party as she had motive, means and opportunity. Besides Bella, her daughter, Jake's son ex-girlfriend, and the town banker who was scammed by him, wanted him dead. Their sleuthing comes to the attention of the killer who decides Jake and Ellie will be the next victims.

TOOL & DIE is a very exciting amateur sleuth mystery due in part because readers get to see Jake as a wife, mother and daughter as well as a snoop. There are practical easy to follow home repair tips scattered throughout the book which gives another layer of authenticity to the storyline. It is obvious the author knows about home repairs and the instructions she gives will prove useful to homeowners. There are a lot of suspects with motives making it very difficult to decide who the murderer is even with a few good clues sprinkled throughout the entertaining amateur sleuth plot.

Harriet Klausner

I liked this book a lot. It is written as if it were a notebook so each day something different happens.
Aggie B. Wind and her brother are moving, again. This time, romance writer mom is dropping them off for the summer in Ludwig, Maine, to stay with their 91 year old grandpa, who sleeps all day. But Aggie is still determined to find some good out of this move and she writes everything she does in notebook #27. She finds out that the town is very small and her mom has a twin brother. As soon as Aggie meets Mad, her summer is full of adventures and excitement.
I would recommend this book to a girl who is around 11-13 years of age because it is about how a girl spent her summer.

"Welcome Home or Someplace Like It" is enjoyable. While not quite a coming of age story, it does expose the young lead to new feelings, new friends, a new town and a new way of life. She is still innocent and perhaps a bit naive, but very sweet and well-meaning. All in all, a cute summer read.

I felt as if the end was a little unfinished - as if there was more to the story, more to tell about the interesting town and the tangled family tree. Perhaps there will be a second novel in which we find out more about the father, the cousins, and yes, even the chickens.

This book was sooooo much fun to read its a great summer bok and anybody can realate to it! I am 13 years old and it was not a hard book to read. It wasn't really thrilling but its a great kids novel i think Agell did a superb job adn I cant wait to read her next novel!

What A Book!

This Story has truly captured the child in Charlotte Agell. Before I read this book I had researched a little bit on the author. I found out that she actually experienced some of the events that took place in the story. This added a glimpse into her life as well as her characters. Normally, it takes me a while to get interested in a book. This story only took me a hour and I was already hooked. Her writing is so original and I could find things in every chapter to relate to.

Aggie is a thirteen-year-old girl who has "relocated" to Ludwig, Maine. Her mother is a writer that likes to move every time she writes a new book in order to plot out the novel. Aggie is particularlly upset since she had just started to make friends back home. She feels that all is lost until she finds Madd, a local in Ludwig. Together they form a bond anyone could appreciate. Everything is going great until Aggie finds out she has a long lost relative. Why hadn't her mother told her before? The plot unravels and other funny things start to happen such as the miracal her brother and her start at their church. This is a tale about friendship, mystery, and finding her way back home wherever it may be.

This book is one of the best books I have read. It is about a thirteen year-old who move to Maine, and it is written in a diary form. It has lovable characters and a plot that will keep you reading. This book is no-doubt a page-turner. I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

After reading this book, I have a) a somewhat revived interest in gardening (with some new planting ideas); 2) a deep aversion to ever having to read/watch anything by Mr.Phillips, who is completely self-absorbed with his own knowledge; 3) bemused speculations about What Might Have Been, vis a vis what seemed an almost flirtatious beginning between the two, which then subsided once Land found herself a guy [after that, copious references to children and mates--before, nothing]! An interesting read for gardeners, but not a great one--this book's a borrower, not a buyer (sorry, amazon.com)..

The 3,OOO Mile Garden is a pure delight. While full of useful gardening information, interesting recipes, unusual plants and vegetables, it is in no way dry or pedantic. It is instead a lively and spirited correspondence between two very unique gardeners- their gardens, their countries and their lives.

The 3,OOO Mile Garden is a pure delight. While full of useful gardening information, interesting recipes, unusual plants and vegetables, it is in no way dry or pedantic. It is instead a lively and spirited correspondence between two very unique gardeners- their gardens, their countries and their lives.

Having seen the PBS series based on this book, I was very anxious to actually read the book. I wasn't disappointed. Meeting the challenge of one's own ecosystem and making a garden work is interesting reading. This book doubles that interest by going back and forth between two completely different eco- systems and two completely different gardeners. Roger Phillips is in charge of a very public garden in the center of London and enjoys not only working with others but also conversing with visitors that are a part of his daily routine. Leslie Land gets very upset one morning when a strange woman wanders into her garden to admire and comment on it. This is her private domain and she considers the woman to be a rude trespasser. Even Roger finds that difficult to believe. As their friendship develops, however, they rely more and more on the advice they receive from each other and, as a novice gardener myself, I found myself combining their expertise to benefit my own garden.Very interesting reading.

loved the coastal setting of the beautiful state of Maine

It was refreshing to read a novel where the main character is a blue collar worker who loves her profession. I found her to be an excellent character and enjoyed very much reading about her life at sea.

I was not impressed at all by this book. All the Maine references were a bit heavyhanded. I felt like I was reading an advertisement at times. Half-way through I was ready to give up on it but the writing was passable so I finished it. Nothing memorable here.

Diana Tremain Braund makes her descriptions seem so real. As fun and romantic as the story was, it also takes place against a really different kind of background: coastal Maine. I've read all her books, and I think this was the best yet.

This is my first read of Diana Tremain Braund, and I'm now looking forward to reading her other books. I started this one Friday night and finished on Saturday afternoon. The story is set in Maine lobster country. Molly Bean, an orphan who was raised with her younger brother by a family friend, Auntie Em, operates a lobster boat. Her brother, younger by about 10 years and a virtual stranger to Molly, gets arrested for drug possession. There has also been a murder at the local university and Molly's ex-girlfriend is back in town. It's bad enough Molly has to deal with all of this, when along comes attorney Carolyn Stanley. Their first encounter is messy, but the two feel an immediate attraction. Molly finds herself behaving badly toward Carolyn, and Carolyn isn't sure pursuing a relationship is worth the headache. Matchmakers Allan (Carolyn's friend) and Charlie (Molly's friend), a couple for five years, get involved to ensure their good friends don't give up too soon.

This was a really nice book. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but they all contributed to the story line. I'm not sure there was the perfect balance between the drugs/homicide issue and the romance, but it didn't seem to drag the story down too much. Carolyn could have had any profession because her being a lawyer didn't impact the plot at all - it just seemed like an afterthought.

Overall good read. Recommended for a cold winter day accompanied with a hot pot of coffee. (That's half the year in Minnesota, and probably in Maine too!)

This book is more of a coffee table kind of book. The photos are beautiful, but I wish there were more descriptors, more info on the plantings themselves.

This book is very inspiring, brilliant and incredibly colorful. It showcases some of the great variety of gardens, and also points out the challenges that face the gardener in this northern most New England state. It is well designed, with many large photos, and the reading is very easy, but informative. The photos have been choosen to inspire and delight, and the captions are hardworking-explaining tasks and identifying the plants. A very beautiful piece of work!

This is a model garden book. The superb photographs provide the backbone of the book. The text is short, not filled out with unecessary words copied from other garden books as is often the case. The photos show what is working in other peoples' gardens and are replete with good ideas.

This is a fairly good and helpful book on gardening in Maine. Being a citizen of Maine myself I know a thing or two about gardening up here, for instance there is a very short season here. If you have trouble gardening, no matter what type, being herb, vegetable, spices, fruits, or even trees this book will most likely give you some long awaited answers. This book even shows you how to garden indoors for those times you don't feel like getting eaten by bugs. So if you love gardening then this is a fairly good choice, but look into some other books first.

Seldom does a book change one's life - but I know several people whose lives were enriched upon reading these pages. Here is an adventure for the whole family, as well as for the lone searcher for treasures.
All the necessary information for finding gold is there, and many prospectors share their secrets - very interesting characters, most of them. An old lady who was panning on the Swift River - she had recently read the book - said 'It reads like a novel and it tells all.' I heartily agree with her assessment.

I bought this book because I was thinking about doing some recreational gold prospecting in Maine. Upon reading the book, I found that 95% of the book was anecdotes about people who had lived in Maine and had been been in some way associated with prospecting. To its credit, there were a few pages that mentioned a couple areas where some people go regularly to pan for gold. This book it not really a how to guide for panning in Maine.

Seldom does a book contain both useful information and intriguing true stories on prospecting - this is a learning experience as well as an entertaining one.

There are simple and easy-to-follow instructions on how to hunt and pan for gold, and a list of the streams and rivers where gold has been found.
Prospectors are a widely diverging group: they include eccentrics and every-day people, all equally caught up in that adventure of the search for gold. Many of them are generous as they share their prospecting secrets.

After closing the covers I looked sadly out at the snow. I wanted to pack my gear and go gold-hunting right away! That is how the book affected me. But time goes fast, and soon it will be warm enough to swirl a pan. I can warmly recommend this book for all who love adventure.

C. J. Stevens tells it like it is, very informative and historic. if you can't go right out and find gold here in Maine after reading this book than you never will find any gold. This book is a must read for my entire family before I will take them panning with me.

This is one of my favorite love stories, one I have reread many times, and am contemplating doing so again.
It's stormy to be sure, and passionate; it isn't a love story unless the characters are passionate. I like that the love is felt so deeply.
The MacGregor stories are all good, but this my favorite so far.

This was my first Nora Roberts and will probably always be my favorite. I loved the characters almost as much as I loved the story plot and I'm definately going to read more my Nora Roberts now.

This book demonstrates a troubling contradiction in American culture. Boys are taught (or I thought they were; I was) that when a woman says no, it means exactly that. Any force he applies subsequent to the word "No" is a serious felony. There are men in prison for neglecting to honor the negative from women. Perhaps someone should correct me if I am in error on that point. The contradiction is that Ms. Roberts writes best selling novels, read primarily by women, I should think, books that have men who literally force women into bed with the women approving his action, both the women forced into the bed and the women with the book in their hands.

This book is very little different from all other Nora Roberts novels. The names, locales and occupations are altered, but not much else. Here two artists meet on the picturesque coast of Maine, clash initially, and just after half-way through the pages, the hero, in effect, rapes the heroine, and she responds positively. They make a side trip to pay homage to "The MacGregor" at his Hyannis Port castle and end up happily ever after--or so it is implied. Daniel MacGregor is a meddler who uses his wealth to impose his will on his family and others. He is just a wee bit obnoxious.

The book has some good moments, nice descriptions, but there are not enough of these to raise this to the level of literature. Perhaps that is exactly the lack that readers expect and want from a Roberts book.

The MacGregor saga continues with this side trip. ONE MAN'S ART is not about true MacGregors, but extended family. And of course Daniel MacGregor enjoys his role of matchmaker so much and is so efficient in that function, he's not above sharing his skills with extended family.

Any time I hear that a book is about Nora Roberts' MacGregors, I can't wait to read it, knowing that it will be a hit! ONE MAN'S ART is a little different, although still a very good romance, but gives a little less than the actual stories revolving around the MacGregors.

This is the story of Genevieve Grandeau and Grant Campbell, brother to the Campbell married to Alan. There are not many twists and turns as usually indicated by Daniel MacGregor's involvement, but more on the average and predictable side. The background and scenic area are more interesting than the story line and with Roberts' descriptions you can actually see the seascape and feel the ocean spray.

Overall ONE MAN'S ART isn't a very exciting story, but better than most!

This one of those cases where you really CAN tell a book by its cover. A breath-taking painting by N.C.Wyeth sings out from this book's cover, and the rest of the book just carries on from there. Perhaps I am unusually aligned with the author/editor's tastes, but I found myself practically gasping with pleasure at every turn of a page. The spare, well-written text perfectly matches the tone of the book and in no way detracts or distracts from the generous panoply of reproductions. It's a small volume, but packs an aesthetic punch equal to any over-sized coffee table book!

The Paintings of Maine is a relatively small (8" x 9") publication of 128 pages, landscape in format. The text, which following the introduction is divided into five chapters, provides a few basic facts about the artists, but has little if anything beyond the obvious to say about their work. The book concludes with a List of Artists and a very short Selected Bibliography. There is no index to the text.

The real attraction of the book however is the pictures; reproduced entirely in full colour, and almost all of them filling the page, the larger ones coming in at 7" x 8", the landscape format of the book being taken full advantage of so that many of the images are as large as one finds in much bigger books. The quality of printing is very good, although the layout does feel a little cramped, mainly due to the text. There are about 112 artists represented, all but a very few by just the one picture; with familiar names such as George Bellows, Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and the Wyeths alongside the less familiar. With paintings covering the period from around 1830 to 2005, not surprisingly there is a wide range of approach evident, from the extreme realist work of Alan Magee to the almost abstract of William Kienbusch, and much between.

It is an attractive little book if only for the range and amount of work shown; the text however might have been better omitted, it adds little to the work, and while text and associated pictures run roughly together, with no reference in the text as to where the pictures are, and no index to the text itself, the book can be somewhat frustrating.

PAINTINGS OF MAINE: A NEW COLLECTION must be defined as such because author Carl Little originally collaborated with Arnold Skolnick to provide the original volume back in 1991. Here Skolnick serves as picture editor on a new volume which visits Maine landscapes through art, gathering works from three generations of the Wyeth family as well as many other well-known American artists who painted Maine scenes. A lovely pick for any Maine fan.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book (like the first edition) has really great paintings. I mean yes: the editors made really fine choices of art works to include and discuss. Absolutely wonderful. However - the PROBLEM is that they're all 6 inches by 4 inches. This (and the first book) really should have been done in a large format. For once, a coffeetable book-style would have been absolutely perfect. It would have been worth the extra money not only to see the images larger but also because many are rarely seen images and at last, worth seeing well. Yes - the selections are quite that good. But the miniscule format they chose to print it is disappointly teensy. Detail is lost. Is not for scholars or real art lovers; you emerge hungry with no options. I'd rather not see them at all.

I had to read a Historical Non-Fiction book for my History class. I chose this one because it only had 223 pages. Everyone else had to read like a 600 page book. But, I payed my price. I think that this book sucks.(and that's being nice). I have never read anything so boring in my life. It is like reading 300 pages out of your history book. I know some people are actually in to this stuff,(if you have no life). So learn from my mistakes and please never ever read this lousy book. THE END.

Professor Leamon's wealth of knowledge and pithy style make this book a delight. I'm not a fan of positivistic approaches to history, but Leamon's insights, analysis, and strong literary voice endow Revolution Downeast with special character. It is obvious that Mr. Leamon devoted years of his professional career to ensuring the durability and integrity of his work.

_Revoltion Downeast_ is a fascinating look at the role Maine played in the American Revolution. While not quite the density of Prof. Baiylin's work, the book can be slow going. Being a Maine native myself, I found this book to be particularly interesting. Reading about the American Fleet at Penobscot Bay, I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry. This is definately a must read for anyone from around here.

The Revolution in Maine has been by and large ignored by professional historians but Leamon effectively reveals the dimensions of revolutionary events in Maine. One need not be a professional, however, in order to enjoy this book. Leamon's prose makes the book's content both accessible and enjoyable. :) I highly recommend this book.

I found the author's guide information to be easy to understand and use. I have ridden some of the areas discussed and would have benefitted from the information in the guide. Definately recommend anyone planning to cycle along any portion this route use "Bicycling the Atlantic Coast" as one of their planning tools.

Win Allred

this book was recommended to me via a newsgroup posting back in 1997, during my planning for an east coast solo tour. while the author's itinerary took her all the way to maine, mine started in naples, FL, and ended in washington, d.c. i found the book to be most useful in planning my route and campground locations. i followed up my reading of this book with the acquisition of road maps and a AAA campground guide for my route. in and of itself, the book was more enlightening than a detailed touring planning guide, but this was not the author's intent; rather, this book is more of a diary, and certainly helped give the flavor of a day-to-day tour. other books which went into detail regarding the logistics of a loaded tour were essential as well. i would recommend this book to the newcomer to loaded touring.

Used this book for the DC to Boston stretch. Good information about campgrounds and sights to see along the way. Donna's route was good at keeping us off most of the main roads and taking us through the more scenic back roads, but sometimes it seemed we spent more time reading the map and looking for street signs than bicycling. Good orientation information about each stretch.