Maine Books

John R. Walsh and Thomas Bradley are a pair of expert history and religion teachers. They draw upon their considerable expertise in A History Of The Irish Church 400-700 AD, offering the reader a straightforward overview of the 300 year time span that characterized a true golden age in Irish art and an era when Ireland earned its lasting and justifiable reputation as a land of saints and scholars. A deftly researched study, narrated in a style as completely accessible to non-specialist general readers as it is to history scholars, A History Of The Irish Church 400-700 AD is a welcome and recommended addition to Irish History and Christian Historical Studies supplemental reading lists and library reference collections.

There have, over the past several years, been many texts highlighting the unique contribution of the Irish church to the preservation of the church, culture, and general literacy and administrative strength to Western civilisation. This book by John Walsh and Thomas Bradley fits well in this genre, exploring the history of the Irish church from the years 400-700, roughly corresponding to the time period from the fall of Rome to the beginnings of medievalism in Europe.

During this period, Ireland was saved much of the trouble caused during the general collapse of the Roman Imperial establishment and way of life across Western Europe, as such Imperium had never been established in Ireland. Even the Christianity that was brought over assumed a different character pastorally, academically and liturgically from its British and Continental sources. Walsh and Bradley begin with a brief chapter on Christianity prior to the advent of Patrick, and then devote three chapters to looking at Patrick, the great apostle to the Irish, in terms of who he was, his mission and its setting, and the Church at Armagh.

Following this, Walsh and Bradley look at Irish monasticism, its origins in France and Britain, and the way in which monastic structures came to rival the more traditional diocesan pattern of church authority and administration. Different theories are advanced, including the possibility of plague and the fact that Ireland lacked the secular Diocletian-instituted settings of administration the Continental church co-opted. Walsh and Bradley also look at the character of Irish monastic life liturgically, architecturally, administratively, and from a day-to-day living basis. Many leading Irish thinkers and saints came from the monastic tradition, and many of these leaders are highlighted.

Of particular note for Walsh and Bradley are Colum Cille, an Irish monastic who worked in Britain, and Columba, who saw as his mission field the areas of Continental Europe. Colum Cille was the first great Irish missionary abroad. Colum Cille might have had royal positions had he not turned his attention to the church instead. His upper-class connections likewise might have provided a respectability for the church among the royal and aristocratic classes, and ultimately providing it with an authority beyond simple moral authority. Colum Cille continued as a monastic to be involved in secular affairs, perhaps even being the cause of battles and strife such that he was driven into exile, where he established the community at Iona, famous to this day, and mother monastery to other famous places, such as Kells.

Columba is a very accessible person, having been a prolific writer who established communities and schools with libraries across the continent. Columba's missions took him all across Gaul, and into Italy and Germanic territories. His influence went even further afield, as did that of Irish monasticism generally, as people from Britain and the Continent decided to be trained and educated in the monasteries in Ireland, and then return to their homes with such influence as would be gained there.

Walsh and Bradley conclude by exploring issues such as the Easter-dating controversy and the wider issues it raised for local autonomy and diversity over against central authority and uniformity of practice, and by looking at the unique character and qualities of Celtic art as expressed through Irish Christian artists. Celtic crosses and illuminated manuscripts are but a few of the magnificent productions of this period.

Overall, this is a well-written and engaging book, meant for the casual reader as well as the general scholar. It includes a few endnotes with each chapter, and a bibliography arranged with general titles as well as resources specific to each chapter and topic covered. There are several basic but useful maps highlighting locations in Ireland, Britain and Continental Europe of monasteries, missions, and other important landmarks.

Columba Press (name for St. Columba, 'the dove of the church') is a growing press based in Ireland, begun in 1985 with three titles relating to religious and spiritual themes. Since then, they have grown substantially and now publish across a broad range of areas, including pastoral resources, spirituality, theology, the arts, and history. With over 200 books in print, they add another 30 or so each year. Additionally, they are the British/Irish/European distributors for many other titles in the same fields.

This is a book I read and return to, its poems like pearls, crafted and luminous. Walton's resonant voice recalls at times August Kleinzahler's, Wallace Stevens', and A.R. Ammons', but is maturely individual as well. Whether he pays homage to Etta James, draws in the natural rhythms of Maine, or evokes characters from a Midwestern night shift, the poet guides his material (and indeed this reader) where it is already inclined to go, namely towards the spirit of survival as it runs a footrace with the ordinary and extraordinary elements of life. Walton delicately but deliberately shapes a kind of comfort out of the discomfort of mortality. To me, it is a book about quiet resilience, and Walton deftly fingers creative production as a means both to make sense of and form that stunning characteristic.

Cricket Weather is a collection of poems and prints of the specific. The poems range in subject from music to nature to the study of the human mind, each full of details that engage the reader. Walton's sense of timing and sound in the lines of his poetry is clever and concise. This is a small book of carefully constructed poems that the reader can enjoy on the first read, or with more study, can understand the layers of their construction. I highly recommend it.

"The Customer Delight Principle" by Keiningham and Vavra is the missing link to the mystery of why customer satisfaction, which seems like a sound principle, has failed with so many companies. Customer satisfaction has been perceived as a sound principle (and quite frankly - a way of life) for many corporate research and marketing departments for many years. Anyone in the field would have to admit that, while the principle sounds solid, the end results have almost always been less than satisfactory. Perhaps down right poor.

The "Customer Delight Principle" is the first publication that has been bold enough to shoot a hole in past theory and validate true bottom-line, measurable, results. Completing the final lesson in the ultimate goal for a customer oriented operation.

Practicing customer satisfaction techniques in the past can be compared with buying into the Lexus marketing and going out and buying a vehicle without a test drive. Until you know the feel, smell, taste, touch of a principle, and then truly have tested the outcomes, you never know what you are getting into. This book takes you through the test drive, and truly delivers the missing link!

Buy it, read it, create an internal educational project to incorporate this theory into your practices with management. If you do, you'll get a leap on the competition (before they read it).

Sincerely,

Thomas Bell

Note: Thomas Bell is a respected educator having dedicated much of his career advising corporate marketing departments with companies such as Gannett, CitiGroup, RDI Marketing & Research, and BMI.

I work in the sanitation industry and boy could the owner of my company as well as all his drivers and helpers could use a good dose of this book. On my companies behalf, I firmly believe and will try to enact some of the basic principles that are discussed in this book. Personally, I have gained a lot of knowledge and when I interact with customers, ( usually to put out fires ), I will benefit by implementing the strategies set forth in this book. Thumbs up!

Dead of Winter takes you to a small island town in Maine and captures you there until the last page. I found David Crossman's use of small town conversation and gossip an interesting way to reveal clues and information; endearing the small town and its people to the reader. You feel involved in this mystery of whodunit.

I had never been a mystery reader until a friend suggested that I read "A Show of Hands." That captivated me. Then I purchased "Secret of a Missing Grave" and read it with my granddaughter. To date, I have read ALL five of David Crossman's books. I was successful in obtaining an out-of-print book "Murder in A Minor Key." "The Dead of Winter," true to a Crossman book, kept me entranced to the last page. He introduces you to characters that become your friends. His books have also provoked my husband and I to travel to Maine and investigate the islands. The "Maineiacs" are fascinating and remarkable people. All of his books deserve 5 stars. He has an expert technique of telling his stories with humor and suspense. You will not find inappropriate language, or obscene references. This proves that someone with the intellect of David Crossman can write without subjecting us to the ugliness of the world. Many Thanks for your skills.

Bravo, Mr. Crossman for yet another fantastic book.

This blurb is on the Jacket:
Tania Runyan's wise and elegant poems in Delicious Air accomplish small miracles: They alchemize the ordinary into the extraordinary. Whether Runyan is considering mortality, motherhood, the mysteries of the body and soul, or the power of love, her poems are awash with insight and grace--their truths always poignant and moving. Here is a poetic debut to celebrate, a new voice singing its gentle laments and hallelujahs, a poet who "cannot stop leaning over / the verge of possibility"

-- Maurya Simon
This is is my review:
Tania Runyan's Delicious Air is one of the most powerful and beautiful collections I have ever read. This book is a treasure.

-- Leah Maines

An intricate exploration of faith and everyday life that recently won Book of the Year in Christianity and Literature--an honor that Runyan now shares with Umberto Eco and other authors of note.

This is a great book for intermediate German learners who want to take the next step to becoming fully literate in German. As the previous reviewer mentioned, the story is on one page and the opposing page is full of vocabulary that will help you get through the story. This is not for beginners however, as it moves rather quickly and expects you to know the grammar forms. It does build practice with grammar however.

The exercises in the book are excellent. They have you use sentences from the literature and dissect them in order to build grammar skills. There are also questions to answer about the reading that provoke the use of good sentence form. Der Weg zum Lesen provides a well-needed break from textbook learning, while still providing enough learning material to make it worth every penny.

There is only one slight problem. This book was written before the 1996 German spelling reform (Rechtschreibreform) and contains what would now be called spelling errors. This is very minor though, and won't get in the way of learning whatsoever.

Overall, this is a priceless resource for the intermediate German student who's ready to read German literature or strengthen their vocabulary and grammar.

This book has easy to read contemporary short stories. The stories are all written on just the right page, and on the left page are definitions for words that may be new or unfamiliar to the reader. The exercises after each story are also very useful to see if you understood the story and also to practice your German grammar skills. You definitely need to have had German in the past to be able to understand the stories in the book. I would recommend this to an intermediate level German student.

might be how some people might see the content of this book's argument. I would have to disagree with them. This is an unusual book, cutting in its honesty and rationality. Written by one of the most vocal and learned critics today, this book argues for something which concerns the life of art and the place of art in life. At some point in his very active career as curator, critic, and museum director, Spalding decided that he had had enough -- enough of trying to the clothes the Emperor was emphatically NOT wearing. In this book he addresses the question of why he has never met anyone who could, with genuine enthusiam and love, say to him, "You simply MUST see this" about contemporary art. What is behind the alienation of art from life? Why has art become so solipsistic? So onanistic?

Just because he wants to see less offensive material in art, Spalding is not therefore out to argue for something underhahdedly smarmy and specious, like the importance of art's being earnest or being accessible to "the people." Spalding is by and large impartial in his attitude toward what art used to be, did, and can still do. In other words, he accepts art's aristocratic alliance as a matter of historical fact. He also accepts the break with tradition that modern art had to accomplish in order to open new horizons. Spalding is neither a condescending snob nor a churlish champion of the hoi poloi, but he presents the situation of today's art as one that has no voice, and no language, to speak to anyone (high or low) but only to its deaf self and a handful of self-appointed members of the pointlessly esoteric priesthood.

Spalding has been around a while and has seen much of the making of modern art on both sides of the Atlantic and now tells the story of how, and when (1937) the eclipse of art in our time began so as to put us in total darkness today. But the story he tells is not all gloom and doom. He does not deny that there is great art in our time. But the main focus of his argument is that art has today become, for the most part, something akin to an abomination, and a very tedious and depressing one at that. "What is there to really get out of looking at a rotting cow head being eaten by a swarm of flies?" he asks rhetorically, referring to what the Tate Modern bought having declared it a significant work of art.
If Spalding seems the odd man out in the art establishment, he probably is. Spalding's stance is simply that of a thinking man who still believes that art's core values are tied to its ability to communicate something about that by which human beings are oriented and reoriented, if strangely, unto some plane of experience most of us feel is higher and more vibrantly life-affirming.
Spalding apparently lacks humor, patience, or artistic acumen, but he just cannot be convinced that human excrement packaged in tin cans is art. And perhaps that's where and how he stands apart from his colleagues at prestigious museums who think nothing of spending $20,000+ for such cans putatively filled with some artist's own excrement. (Not that they ever verified the content.)

His argument will have some people throwing eggs and tomatoes at him -- real or cyber -- for not appreciating the spirit of contemporary art. But Spalding presents a very cogent picture of why and how the eclipse -- or a series of eclipses in learning, language, content, and discipline -- came to be historically, and how that eclipse has come to benight art's original and engendering powers.

Spalding's vision of art is wide enough, I think, to encompass any medium and style of expression. What he is asking for in art is intelligence. Not cleverness, but intelligence, a show of reflection and care.
What he is arguing against is pseudo-intelligence, pseudo-spirituality, and contrived ideas about creativity. Spalding's argument is not against any particular artists' work but against the entire structure of Byzantine politics and machinations behind the tyranny of art world's decision-making process.
His plea is one that would have art itself "function" creatively, not just made in the name of anything-goes. Spalding's general definition of art by way of an attitude is that art is a compression, not just expression, of intelligence, love, observation, insight, reflection, care, and reconfiguration of vital human experience so as to deliver us ultimatley to that realm whose name is now considered taboo to mention: beauty and grace.

Spalding's brief analysis of the history of art education in Britain, of Marcel Duchamp's role in the (d)evolution of modern art, and of the reasons behind the rise of Jackson Pollack in the identity-desperate postwar US, and comparison of Pollack's work with that of Edward Hopper are very illuminating even as he tracks the eclipse of art.

In Romania a man who had committed suicide by hanging himself in the sculpture garden section of a public park was left hanging for nearly two years because everybody thought it was a "work of art." If you think you too might have walked past a dead man thinking it was art just because it was in a "art" park, then this is a book for you. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be interesting and well stated even though I did not agree with everything the author says. The basic premise of the book is that modern art has lost touch with modern audiences because it has little to say that is relevant to people. With too many artists seeking to capitalize on shock value, "statements" about non-art as art, and making the artist into the center of attention, modern art is becoming a backwater where people will say they like some works even though they love none of them. Some good points about the book are its questioning whether modern art is even trying to reflect the current times and whether much of what is called art is even art at all. I disagree with some of the author's contentions such as his statement that photography is merely a mechanical process (frankly, it is far more difficult to get perfect tonalities in a photograph than it is to assemble a bull's head from bicycle parts even though the creative visions may be similar) but attribute this to his lack of familiarity with that medium. This book expresses a thoughtful perspective and makes you think. This alone warrants the five star rating. Also, the book contains no graphic nudity even though the author asserts that the emperor is wearing no clothes.

Mr. Wolff does a wonderful job of describing certain historical snapshots and present-day cultural aspects of coastal Maine. His description of being lost at sea in a horribly thick Maine fog is worth the book itself. Mr. Wolff does not attempt to depict all facets of my home state, but does a commendable job in his usual eloquent manner. In this brief work, he made me laugh, reflect and ultimately, reaffirm the true beauty of Maine and why I'll always live here. Do yourself a favor and read this pleasant and realistic tribute.

I sent this to a sick friend in Maine. She loved it, her husband loved it, and now they are sharing it with others, but only with the promise they will get it back.I will have to get on the list to borrow it.

Monica Wood's story is set in a small town which is affected by the closure of a local paper mill. Wood follows several characters, each with a unique and touching perspective. I cherished this book and often give it as a gift to other readers.

I loved this Maine author! Our book club found many issues to discuss. Monica Wood has a deep understanding of Maine communities. This collection of stories weaves a fantastic tale about a mill community torn apart by a strike and the healing process that ensues. Her characters are appealing and her sense of humor is awesome.

I enjoy this book very much. It is not one that I have read once never to pick up again. I have highlighted may portions of this book as I have found them to be very insightful for my own life as a woman and as a writer. I enjoy her candor and observations. I appreciate her ability to express herself, even during her sadness. It is real. True authenticity seems to be what contemporary women are searching for, and this author has certainly been able to convey that through her words.

This is the second, longest, and most far-reaching of Grumbach's memoirs (I've read them all; this one is a favorite). It delves into Grumbach's past more than the others, detailing various memories of childhood and youth, thereby giving a vivid sense of the rich and unusual life she has led. Reflections on the aftermath of her first memoir (Coming Into the End Zone) are particularly interesting, as are her reflections on the similarities between fiction and autobiography. It's a helpful link for Grumbach fans between the long and often grumpy memoir that came before it and the slim, much more peaceful memoirs that followed it. This may be testimony to the unforeseen benefits that a life change can bring -- at the end of the last memoir Grumbach unexpectedly relocated from D.C. to rural Maine. Very inspiring.