Maine Books

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.

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!

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.

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.

I decided to read this book solely because Alafair Burke is the daughter of James Lee Burke, the master of the crime genre. Also, it would seem, she is something of a family favourite, JLB having named the daughter of his main character 'Alafair' in his long running Robicheaux series. Alafair Burke has now written 3 Samantha Kincaid novels and looks like writing a whole slew more, so it was a pleasure to give her series a hit out.

Alafair Burke's first offering is set in Portland, Oregon. Her main character, Sam Kincaid, is an assistant DA. This makes the book more a legal procedural and this point of view is very welcome: many of the established series set in law enforcement place their main characters in the police force or as private investigators. The job of the DA's office is to take the work of the police and ensure the evidence is sufficiently kosher to enable successful prosecution.

Living in Australia, I think I have a better idea of how the American justice system works than I do of my own, including the differences in laws between the different states (at least in the states where the crime series I read are set!). I don't know whether this is sad or not, but at least I'm KEEN! Over here we do not have DAs for example, although we do have a Department of Public Prosecutions. I imagine any reader from outside the US has a similar sense of peripheral perception, but we get used to it especially when it comes to good crime series.

This book focuses on Sam Kincaid's involvement in a case where a 13 year old heroin using child prostitue is grievously assaulted and left for dead by 2 men. There is quickly a suspect for Kincaid to prosecute, but the case becomes more complicated when an older and similar murder is revitalised and the spectre of a serial killer begins to materialise.

My main criticism of the book revolves around the plot's clunkiness. I think this is mainly due to the fact that it IS the first in a series, and number one always seems to have these kind of problems. Burke is keen and she knows her stuff and some of it gets quite complicated. However some of the Oregon law enforcement acronyms are not explained and the US justice system does love its acronyms, all slightly different from state to state. I was also champing at the bit about the identity of the second attacker, Burke is mute on this for much of the book.

Further I found some difficulty with the character of Kendra Martin, the 13 year old victim, who was not quite 3-dimensional. Some of the story's importance revolves around the state Kendra was in when the police interviewed her after her attack. She had supposedly been given a shot of Narcan to counteract the effects of the heroin found in her system, something that usually leaves addicts furious and hell bent on only one thing: getting more immediately. She wasn't quite believable as an addict either then, or in her later behaviour. Even after 'only' 9 months of use, she would, I believe, have pursued her drug lifestyle a little more vehemently even after this gruesome attack, especially with the lack of family support Burke creates for her. Kendra is really quite 'tame'.

Outside of that, Burke has created some strong characters; her love interest Chuck who is also a cop on the Major Crimes Unit, her newly widowed Dad, her friend Grace and her dog Vinnie. It must be overwhelming setting up a series and getting all your ducks in a row. The criticisms I have of the book never made me want to put it down, just hope that Burke can iron everything out to keep the series rolling. And it appears she has done just that. I've just picked up 'Close Case' and its a cracker.

I believe Burke's main audience, readers of crime fiction series, will exercise patience with this book and she will pick up other fans as the series gets stronger. I for one welcome her and her character and the setting onto the scene and will be looking out for more of her Sam Kincaid series.

Judgment Calls is the debut thriller audiobook about a seemingly simple assault case that leads to a prostitution ring of underage girls and a possible serial killer. Set in the dark side of Portland, Judgment Calls follows Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid, as she is called upon following the brutal assault of a thirteen-year-old girl left for dead. Author Alafair Burke, himself a former deputy district attorney and now a teacher of criminal law, reveals her inside knowledge of the justice system in this stunning and unnerving saga. 10 CDs, 9 hours 45 minutes, tracks every 3 minutes for easy bookmarking.

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.

As always, John Gould's dry-as-a-bone wit made me laugh out loud while reading. This memoir of his long friendship with his son's father-in-law deals with their shared annual vacation trips, through many years, into Maine's paper company owned north woods. The basic absurdity of a place where Maine residents rarely worked because they literally "couldn't get there from here" - it was easier for French Canadian workers to come in from Quebec, thanks to the lack of public roads - sets the tone for much of the book's humor. I found it a quick and easy read as well as a thoroughly delightful one.

Being one who visits the Golden Road almost yearly, I purchased the book with enthusiasm. My experience was mostly positive.

Gould demonstrates vast knowledge about the area. He describes: the realities of the Maine woods experience, personalities of the inhabitants, varieties of visitors, wildlife, history and industry.

One area of disappointment was Gould's frequent choice of vocabulary and references. While reading, a dictionary had to be at my side. Also, frequently used french, latin and some historical references made reading more difficult and not fun.

Mr. Gould did at times poke fun at his intellectual perspective. However, his choice of words does not seem suited for most.

All in all, the book is a positive experience. One can take a trip to Maine's Golden Road, from their favorite arm chair.

I have made two brief business trips to Portland and Bangor, Maine in the past year, enough to make me fall in love with the State. Thus, I was pleased to learn something about an aspect of Maine life that I knew little about but found intruiging: the history of Jewish communities in the State. I was able to visit the many small Jewish communites of Maine in this excellent photographic history, "Maine's Jewish Heritage" (2007) as part of the "Images of America" series of Arcadia Publishing. Images of America publishes photographic books of local histories of communities throughout the United States. The series offers readers the opportunity to explore communities that they know well, such as their hometown, as well as the opportunity to learn about unfamiliar places. For me, this book had components of both the familiar and the unfamiliar.

The authors of "Maine's Jewish Heritage", Abraham and Jean Peck, both are part of families with long histories in Maine. Abraham Peck has written widely on Jewish communities throughout the United States and on the Holocaust.

Most Jews in the United States live in large urban areas. I have spent my life in two cities with large Jewish communities. I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have spent most of my adult life in Washington D.C. I have read two books in the Images of America series that explore the Milwaukee and Washington D.C. Jewish Communities similarly to the way that the Pecks explore the Jewish community of Maine in this book. I am not and have rarely been a practising Jew, but all three books struck deep chords in me. Although I don't have personal experience with the Jewish communities of Maine, the photographs and commentary in this book of Jewish life in mostly small cities and town seemed immediately familiar. The photographs of synagogues, people and families, small shops, community organizations, and local leaders reminded me of communities I knew. I felt at home. There were some differences. The various Jewish communites in Maine are small and scattered through the State, mostly in the southern part, unlike the concentrated community of an urban area. From the Pecks' book, there appears to be substantial interaction among the various communites in Maine, some of which are located at considerable distances from each other. Life in small New England towns has differences from the life I know. But mostly, these were communities whose roots I shared.

In his share of the introduction to the book, Abraham Peck writes of several themes that have characterized Jewish life in the United States: "a belief in the promise of America; faith in the pluralistic nature of America; a quest for economic and professional success; and a commitment to the survival of the Jewish community." As far as the Jews of Maine are concerned, the community began in the 1840s but developed only with the large waves of immigration from Eastern Europe in the 1880s. The Maine Jewish communities were almost exclusively Orthodox and remained so until the 1940s. Portland Maine, Peck tells us, was once known as "The Jerusalem of America." Maine Jewry now includes a spectrum of all aspects of Judaism from Orthodox to nonpracticing. Peck also observes that while Jews have faced discrimination and exclusion in Maine, they have generally been welcomed into what has basically been a tolerant, open society. Peck quotes a leader of the Portland Jewish community in the late 19th Century who observed, with respect to his Christian neighboors that "our city fathers have in the past fully merited the good will and affectionate esteem in which they are held by us."

The photographs and commentary that follow the Pecks introduction illustrate the themes of Jewish life and integration of Jewish life within the American and Maine community. The first chapter of the book focuses on religious Jewish life in Maine with photographs of synagogues and religious practitioners from the 1880s to the present day in a variety of Maine cities, including Portland, Bangor, Biddeford, Bath, Presque Isle, Rockland, Calais, Old Orchard Beach, and others. The synagogues range from small wooden shacks to modern buildings and they cover all the various denominations of Jewish practice. It is a moving photographic tribute to religious worship.

The book continues with chapters showing the ways Jewish people earned a living in Maine which seems similar to the Jewish immigrant experience elsewhere in the United States: pedlars, small shopkeepers, clothiers, car dealerships, and wholesalers receive substantial attention, with recognition as well of the occasional Maine Jewish farmer.

The Jewish communities in Maine devoted important effort to improving relationships with their non-Jewish neighbors, to inter-faith activities, and to breaking down barriers of discrimination. In 1930, with the increase of KKK activities in Maine during the prior decade (which targeted mostly Roman Catholics) members of the Portland Jewish community were instrumental in creating the Portland Interracial Fellowship of America, which taught ecumenicism and tolerance among the many religious denominations in the city. Jewish religious leaders in Portland worked together with other religious leaders in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and in many programs designed to increase understanding and respect among people of different beliefs.

Other chapters of the Pecks book focus on the many Jewish Community Centers and other Jewish organizations that helped bring a communal focus to Jewish life in Maine. A small chapter describes Camp Modin and other Jewish summer camps in Maine, while a larger chapter offers photographs in both Maine and European settings of some of the large Jewish families that have long called Maine home. The final chapter of the book offers photographs of many distinguished leaders of the Maine Jewish community who have made important contributions of a local or broader character. For example, Dr Bernard Lown is a cardiologist who grew up in Lewistown, Maine. He was the correcipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for his work for the Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. (p.121) Henry Roth, the author of the famous novel of Jewish life in New York City, "Call it Sleep" (1934) lived quietly in Maine beginning in 1946 until his death.(p.123) The book concludes with a photograph of a young Jewish boy in Auburn, Maine participating in the religious ceremony of Sukkot. (p. 126) The Pecks appropriately describe this lad as "a symbol of Maine's Jewish future."

The Pecks sees the Jewish community in Maine as undertaking the difficult task of combining Jewish values, as individuals in the community understand these values, with the values of the vibrant, pluralistic democracy of the United States. Abraham Peck writes in concluding his introduction to this book: "For Jews in this nation, including Jews in the Jewish community of Maine both visions translate into an understanding that being a better Jew is important in becoming a better American." The Pecks offer an inspiring look at the American Jewish experience in the State of Maine.

Robin Friedman

Enjoyed reading about Jews from Maine. Would like to have heard about more families. Great Pix!

The Mobile book has great maps. However, the layout of the book other than the maps is not user friendly. When we traveled in New England, we went to "regions" not just cities. The book is laid out with recommendations under each city. Some of the other books we used had regional groups rather than just cities. The maps were the most detailed and were what we relied upon most of the trip.

We checked out the Mobil Travel Guide New England 2005 from the library for our trip to Maine. We thought it was so good, that on our return we ordered it to have for the other states. The hotels, inns, and restaurants were very accurately described. No disappointments.

This book wonderfully depicts the Maine coast and all its beauty. Jim Arnosky not only portrays the Maine coast, but also the way the sea provides Mainers a way of life. As a Maine resident I feel Jim has captured many aspects of the Maine coast that make it so wonderful. I recomend this book to anyone who enjoys beautiful paintings of the wonderful coast of Maine.

This book wonderfully depicts the Maine coast and all its beauty. Jim Arnosky not only portrays the Maine coast, but also the way the sea provides Mainers a way of life. As a Maine resident I feel Jim has captured many aspects of the Maine coast that make it so wonderful. I recomend this book to anyone who enjoys beautiful paintings of the wonderful coast of Maine.