Maine Books

The epitome of the kind of book I look for in my travels, "White Rock Ways" has everything one can imagine occurring as a part of life in a small town-or a small island-in Maine.

Set in the 1960s, though I had a hard time coming up with anything but images of folk from a decade long before, such was the ambiance of the characters, the stories of life in the community of White Rock unfold.

Through a narrative rich in Maine dialect and phraseology, we discover the ways of the locals and learn to care for them as we become involved in the comings and goings of their daily lives.

There is a tendency to sum each other up in one-word adjectives; for instance, Clara and Levi Weymouth, introduced early in the story and most consistently present throughout, are known as the "near Weymouths", which sometimes bothers Levi, who thinks it "fine to be `near', but not so fine to be `tight as the bark to a tree'."

When a neighbor's closed summer home has some suspicious activity taking place around it, Levi discovers a couple of intruding, though apparently harmless, neighborhood boys. He brings them back to his own house to report them to the authorities and makes them sit on the "funeral couch", made up of leftover coffin lining material Clara purchased from the local funeral director; an example of her reputation of being near, not to mention giving the boys the heebie jeebies as added, though unintended, punishment.

One woman, Meg, "from away" laments the fact that the villagers don't seem to read. It is not long before she comes to realize that "Rockahs ahn't readahs", as her husband puts it, but they are eager listeners. Meg, having plenty of opportunity to narrate her stories to islanders, finds parallels between village life and the lives of characters from some of her favorite books by authors such as Shakespeare and Sherwood Anderson. She learns that while White Rock dwellers may not read much literature, they "certainly lived it."

There is suspicion of child molestation by a teacher. Intrigue comes to town in the form of a tragic "fancy woman." Long memories of small town folk is proven when a sheriff's deputy is asked about a knee injury from a childhood incident as though it was just weeks ago he was injured. Secrets are revealed of the old doctor who would find interesting areas of women's bodies requiring examination-no matter of what ailment she complained upon arrival in his office. Mystery comes in the form of a Spanish man who shows up in the local cemetery. Lessons in preparing brown bread and salting cod also bring us directly into their realm.

One of my favorite traits of Mainers is the very fine thread used to tie people together who are "almost" related. It so happens that a distant relation of those from whom the author of this book purchased her own home some years ago owns the cottage in which I presently live. Makes me wonder if the author will allow me to claim her as a relation because of this thread, thereby allowing me a bit of leeway given the fact that I am "from away."

In addition, of course, there are the stories surrounding the white rock, which gives the island its name. You will have to read the book to learn of these.

If you love Maine humor you will love this book.Steve Bither and The Wicked Good Men excel at Maine humor.You may have to be from Maine or be very familiar with it to fully understand this.

This great 96-page book with 100 photos including the covers, starts with a tribute to the author/photographer Bill Silliker, Jr. Unfortunately, Bill passed away suddenly on October 13th, 2003 from an apparent heart attack while leading a photography group in Baxter State Park, Maine. The tribute includes memorials by several of Maine's Environmental leaders including Buzz Caverly, Director of Baxter State Park (one of Bills's favorite haunts). Buzz writes, "Bill's dedication and personal interest - as demonstrated in his photography, his writings, and his publications - have inspired all of us as we share the natural beauties of Maine."

Bill's last book Wild Maine is limited to the state's birds and mammals by design. He explains in his introduction "to be more productive, wildlife photographers need to focus - literally - on once species at a time." Further he explains the purpose of this book is to relay some of the "enchanting encounters" he has had with the wild inhabitations of Maine's north woods. "The stories of those experience and a look at the animal species that provided them are what Wild Maine is all about," writes Bill. "Perhaps through these words and images, the beauty and fascination of "what's still out there" will color your dreams as they have mine."

This is an inspirational book for anyone who is interested in wildlife photography and will inspire you to get out into the field and create some of your own enchanting encounters. It has both great photos and great stories.

On the surface, Dean Bennett's "The View from Chamberlain Farm" is an exhaustively researched history of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. Below the surface, it is a petition to use the Allagash as a template for the foresight, the courage, and the persistence required to preserve the wilderness, as well as a warning of the continuing threats to the integrity of the founders' intent. Deeper still is the author's worshipful approach to the inner peace and personal fulfillment which comes to the human visitor capable of giving himself over to the spirit of the refuge. The historic component is excellent, starting with the earliest Indian settlements following the retreat of the glacier, ten thousand years ago, and right up to Governor Muskie's dedication of the Allagash in 1970. In the intervening pages we meet Henry Thoreau and his Indian guide, Joe Polis, the founder and operator of the Chamberlain Farm, David Pingree and E.S. Coe, naturalist John Burrows, guide Lucius Hubbard, Governor Percival Baxter, who donated the 200,000 acres comprising Mt. Katahdin, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and the man to whom the Allagash owes the most, Robert Patterson. Against unimaginable odds, Patterson won a life-defining struggle against an adversary comprised of the Federal Government, the powerful landowners and their forest products industry which bankrolled them, and even the State of Maine, which at the time was a "company state." In an era when environmental protection had none of the cachet, none of the funding, and none of the legislative framework, or judicial precedent which it now enjoys, Patterson, Douglas, and Muskie locked arms to leave a legacy of controlled-access wilderness. Bennett leaves the reader with Robert Patterson's firm admonition, "Lesson Number One: Never relax."

This is not a book for the masses, nor is the Allagash itself a destination for the masses. It is written for the reader of the natural history of the lakes, forests, and rivers comprising the Allagash. And with its multiple layers, and with the stories of the saintly men and women whose names will forever be associated with the Allagash, the book leaves us with hope for a kind of spiritual redemption that is found only where vistas still remain as the earliest humans found them. Bennett picks up the mantle of John Burroughs, who wrote in "Wake Robin," in 1871, that his mission was to "depict the immediate, total harmony between man and nature."

I love reading her books. I wish I could have met her as she was living in Brewer, Maine when I was living in Bangor. I just didn't know about her books back then. But I've read all of her books about living in the Allagash area more than once.

A newly minted game warden is assigned to a wild, remote section of Maine to discover and break up a gang of poachers. Dan Hubbard, ex-Marine, sets out from his post in a community based on tourism and logging to protect the area's fish and game resources from poachers and a greedy politician who wants to turn over a state wilderness preserve to developers for logging, timber, housing and agriculture. The poaching ring knows he's coming, and they set out to stop the rookie warden -- by any means possible. A great read -- well written and fun. It has all of the elements you need in good juvenile writing: adventure, mystery, good v. evil, a hint at romance, and an exciting conclusion. A great book. I have been re-reading it periodically since I was 14.

This book has photos of around 350 wildflowers with a paragraph describing the pertinent details of each. They are arranged by color and are very easy to use. If you are looking for help separating extremely similar species, or want range maps, this is not the book for you, but for putting a name to the flower you just found it is excellent.

I am a student enrolled in the Forestry Program at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. I borrowed this book from a friend to use on a project and found it to be one of the most valuable resources I used this year. It is easy to follow, and the illustrations are very precise. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Maine plants, espececially if he or she is researching in the winter, when the leaves have fallen off most of the plants.

I love to snowshoe, so I got this book in anticipation of a snowy Maine winter. It has some wonderful ideas of places to go for a satisfying snowshoe treck! It gives good directions, has topo maps, and also gives tips on the level of difficulty. It tells you the scenic highlights of each trail, whetting your appetite for each & every one. There aren't enough weekends in a Maine winter to try them all! It even offers info on nearby motels and grocery stores (so you can pack a lunch). Looks like it offers a lot of information for the cross-country skiier, too. I've snowshoed for years, but this offers a multitude of new ideas of wonderful places to go. Now I can't wait for the first "heavy dumper."

When I first received the spiral bound book I must say I thought I was going to be disapointed. But once I started delving into the contents of the book I was more than happy that I had made the purchase. Coleman uses this book as an opertunity to offer updated information and further detail on winter harvesting for market with very specific varieties for each vegetable, methods and timelines for production and well outlined information on marketing and cold weather covers and high and low tunnels. I highly recommend this book as a permanent reference on every serious gardener's and small farmer's bookshelf.