Maine Books

Reading this book is like having coffee with a sagacious friend who is relating the experience of losing a spouse. One truly cannot put it down once started. Brave emotions are so eloquently expressed by Graves in her writing.

The author brings us effortlessly along on her personal journey of love, life and death; generously sharing her private thoughts and spiritual experiences along the way. I was mesmerized by the drama and pathos of this heartfelt and beautifully written story. The poetry provides respite and further insight, a gift--much to learn and ponder here.

A most touching and poignant story, sensitively written with compassion and insight. Difficult, but necessary, lessons for us all to learn in the face of personal loss. A beautiful work by a beautiful soul.

Great pictures of a Maine Lighthouse taken by someone who lived next to the structure for many years.

(From Tena Wallace) This book is absolutely amazing and that descriptive word doesn't even compare to the reality of the pictures and entries of your book. I don't think I have EVER read something and felt the emotion like I did with these entries. To read and feel the sandess, heartache, the joy and excitement along with the horror is the most amazing reader experience.
This book makes a great gift, it's not a one time read, it is a book to be enjoyed over and over!

In 1987, Thomas and Lee Szelog were two lighthouse enthusiasts who visited a series of Main shoreline beacons for their second date. Two years later (and now married) they moved into the lightkeeper's house at the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde, Maine. Tom kept a journal, as did Lee. Tom is also an award-winning photographer. Drawing from those journals and Tom's gift for photography, the wrote and illustrated "Our Point Of View: Fourteen Years At A Maine Lighthouse" in which they share their experiences, excitement, and pleasures of living at a lighthouse in every season and through all manner of weather. They even celebrate the gulls, cormorants, whales, seals who turn up at their door, as well as the people meeting and marrying in the shadow of their lighthouse beacon. Simply put, "Our Point Of View" is a joy to read and a 'must' for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to live in a lighthouse in our day and age.

Charmingly written by Ethel Pochocki, A Penny For A Hundred is an engaging story for young readers about a nine-year-old girl growing up in America in 1944. When German prisoners-of-war are brought in to help harvest a potato crop, she befriends one of them in this gentle tale of compassion and hope for the future. Very highly recommended reading, A Penny For A Hundred is illustrated in soft colors by Mary Beth Owens that are evocative and reminiscent of an earlier time.

This book is a wonderful book which shows that not all POW's were bad during WWII. The book shows the warm heart of a child who befriends a POW...This is an excellent book!

Maine's Aroostook County is a special place. Some would say it's America "uncut diamond" for culture, history, sense of place, family and heritage. This distinctive culture was even more pronounced before the advent of television during World War II. A Penny for a Hundred is a charming story based upon a historical account of how World War II German prisoners of war were temporarily settled in this rural area of Maine. Author Ethel Pochocki teaches readers about the nature of forgiveness. This is a marvelous lesson for today's young people who hear about so much violence throughout the world today. Pictures are by Mary Beth Owens. There's also a neat surprise at the end, a recipe for German Stollen. Terrific Holiday gift for children and adults as well.

What an entertaining book! Believable, down-to-earth characters with real-world problems. The story is balanced with humor, strength and a positive outlook. I couldn't put it down.

My take on this book is that it can easily be made into a screenplay. I can see this story on the big screen. The Hammond sisters & their friend, Gabby, run a romantic adventure dating service, with their own love stories unfolding along the way. Toss in a hunky pirate for comic relief. Definitely, the makings of a good date movie. Pirate Shirt Dot Com held my interest from cover to cover.

I happened to get this title as a Christmas present and, though I am not usually a fan of romance novels, I decided to give it a shot. What a fun surprise! Witty, delightful, and sexy, this book simultaneously evokes romance novel archetypes and pokes a little fun at them at well. I hope there is a sequel!

In the literary genre' of romantic mysteries this is certainly a winner. "A Rocky Path" does an excellent job of combining both a gentle yet torrid love story with a thrilling and creative plot line. With lot's of metaphysical pizzazz and characters that you will come to love, this book is a wonderful addition to its class. I will wait eagerly for the next book by author Lauralynn Elliott.

A Rocky Path is a delightful read by a new author. Ms. Elliot tells of new beginnings for Emily Adams in Maine. A new job, new surroundings, and a new interest find Emily with more complications than any one person should handle. Throw in the forbidden love of a mysterious man to the mix and Emily's life almost goes on tilt.
Ms. Elliot writes a love story with complications and background to keep the reader interested and turning pages to see how many new twists her subject gets to face. Her description of Maine, the house, and Emily's surroundings place the reader in the center of the action and keep them reading for the finish. I am looking forward to the next book from this author.

This is a really great book from a new author. There are quite a few surprises revealed that you wouldn't think would be in the story (not goint to spoil it for you here, you'll have to read it)! I hope to read more by this author soon.

I recently met bg Thurston at a sheep show and we had a delightful visit together. Shepardesses we are! She shared this book of poems with me and as I thumbed through the pages I fell on one poem "My Mother's Stroke". I dashed the words and I knew I'd traveled this poem with her. Bg's poems are poignant, forthright, real, spiked with light. A lovely addition to anyone's collection and it has a wonderful bookmark included!

I received this book as a gift and it has been one of those rare gifts that I continue to enjoy and use. BG Thurston paints such vivid pictures of life, birth and nature that you feel as though you are standing next to her in her yard or kitchen. I highly recommend this work.

The poems in bg Thurston's 'Saving the Lamb' all possess a beautiful resonance between human nature and the Natural World through a delicate dialogue between the two realms; the rhythm of daily life set forth in the form of simple routines and a patient relationship with Nature are transformed into a mantra that reveals glimpses into the subtleties of our humanity. I enjoyed this book immensely, as there is a warmth to Thurston's writing which openly invites the reader into a mutual journey of self-illumunation and enlightenment with the author through the reflections cast from her life's imagery. Highly recommended!

I was fascinated throughout. Sounds and looks "dry" when you see it on the shelf, but so full of juicy bits that make his life very real. You cheer for him when he manages to think his way around the obstacles that apartheid and his own nature put in his way and you are continually forced to confront the "What would I have done here?" question.



Yes, it is long. But when you are through you want to know still more. What has happened to the rest of the family since the book was published? What was the effect of those years of scrutiny on their "real" lives?



I stared at the pictures and studied the faces. I have been selectively pushing the book on all the thoughtful people I know. It wakes up your brain.

The daily life of Kas Maine over 90 odd years on the high veldt of South Africa says more about the history of that part of the world than all the history books and newspaper articles and military actions that could ever be recounted. I felt as though I myself had lived those same 90 years, breathed the dust, lost my crops, driven my livestock from farm to farm trying to find sharecropping work, put up and taken down my corregated metal shack, been hounded by bureaucrats, maintained my dignity and kept my family together against incredible odds. Although the place names and indigenous family names were difficult and their abundance presumed some familiarity with South Africa, I learned to visualize rather than pronounce them, and they became like one of Kas's stony fields in the story and I liked the "rough footing." A unique experience in book form.

I have been taking my time with this book, savouring it while I can. The rhythms of the prose and the world it describes are so seductive, that I have often found myself reading "just a few more pages" at 3AM despite having to get up for work the next day. If you wish to have a sense of what life in rural South Africa was like over the past century, I can't think of a better book (or any other book for that matter). Kas was an exceptionally gifted farmer, a traditional herbalist and healer, and a patriarch who struggled against the almost impossible odds of being a black man in South Africa. As the insanity of apartheid took hold, he and his family were forced to move from place to place, his dreams of agricultural success and land ownership gradually eroding. Yet the book also portrays the rich, multicultural environment of the Transvaal, the varied relationships between Blacks, Boers, Englishmen, Jews and Asians; the shift from a paternalistic but, in many ways more egalitarian society to a racist police state. Kas is a complex man: wise, cruel, patient, tender, pragmatic, apolitical, opportunist, and honourable. The portrayals of his relationships with his ever expanding family are as complex and engaging as one could wish from a fine novel. Van Onselen makes no apologies for him: he simply gives us the man and, above all his humanity. Perhaps his greatest achievement with this book is in bridging the gap between the Western reader and an illiterate African farmer, in underlining our human commonalities rather than our differences. Despite occasional passages that are a tad purple, the author's prose is clear and flowing. He manages to make the ebb and flow of the seasons with their triumphs, tragedies, and ignominies absolutely gripping. I never thought that I could be enthralled by descriptions of the complexities of plowing and harvesting, or the purchase of agricultural equipment, but I was. No it's not too long as the reviewer in the New York Times claimed. In fact one often wishes that one could know more about this extraordinary yet very ordinary man.

Nan Lincoln's real-life story of finding a young seal is both heart-warming and informative; interspersing a history and background of Mount Desert Island amongst the story of Cecily. A very intersting and all-around wonderful book.

Nan Lincoln's story of the summer she spent raising (with the permission of the authorities) an abandoned seal pup is the most endearing story I think I've ever read. Her tale of her struggles to get it to eat, swimming with it, riding around with a seal in the car, carting Cecily to the shore in a wheel barrow, then, finally, successfully integrating it back into nature is destined to be a classic. Ms. Lincoln has a wonderfully readable prose style and the story is absolutely unique. I can't imagine anyone not being delighted with it. A friend called it "a little jewel."

This is not a children's book, although it contains both photographs and sketches of her amazing experience and will be enjoyed by all ages. The youngest children won't be interested in her bits of history about Mount Desert Island, I suspect. Mom or Dad can skip those parts when reading out loud.

This should be a movie. Where's Michael Eisner when we need him

You're on a beach- the tide is coming in- you see an abandoned seal pup halfway under a rock. What would you do? When Nan Lincoln sees the pup on the beach in the early summer of 1976 she feels like she should adopt it, six hours later she decided to and she did. She named the pup Cecily. She keeps Cecily for the summer and finds ways to make her life as similar as it would be to the life of other pups. Cecily has an attitude that is expressed by Nan (in English not seal language) and is very funny to read about. In the first chapter however Nan mostly writes about the setting and her family which is also explained in chapter 2. Soon the book heats up and she finds Cecily and you are brought along on the ride of your life as you go through the summer with Cecily, Nan, and Nan's family. Each chapter brings a new laugh to the scene.
Nan has a unique writing style that is very descriptive and specific. She has written a very unique book that would be perfect for a 4th Grade read-aloud or an independent reading book for other grades as well as 4th Grade. Her writing style is also sometimes straying to short sub-topics of the story to help you understand other parts of the story. All in all I would give this book 5 star rating.

-- Caroline Miller

i loved this book i grew up there but later on i think that my mother is the helen in the book she remembers all these guys at salisbury rewnting a house when here nad her girlfriends rented a house and one had leukiamia she loved it also

Spouse and I both left a stack of bestsellers to gather dust while we devoured "A Summer with Charlie." We laughed. We cried. We were deeply moved. We recommended it to all our reader friends. You can't ask for better from a book than that.

I enjoyed the book very much because it brought back memories of my own younger years. It was written with sensitivity and wit, and showed the effect Charlie had on friends and family in a life cut too short. A very entertaining read.

Delightful! The correspondence of 19 years between White and Lawrence is insightful, informative and elegant! Their letterse (far more elegant than e-mail) give us glimpses into life in the 60's and 70's and beyond. This book, which is expertly edited by Emily Herring Wilson has inspired a perennial garden at our Wisconsin home and a renewed interest in the writings of E.B. White, not to mention the writings of Katharine White and Elizabeth Lawrence. These two career women and ladie were supportive and encouraging of one another for 19 years!

As the editor of TWO GARDENERS/KATHARINE S. WHITE AND ELIZABETH LAWRENCE, I welcome hearing from readers. I am now writing the biography of Elizabeth Lawrence and would benefit from hearing others' understanding of her, both in these letters and in her books. Emily Herring Wilson

The TWO GARDENERS in question are Katherine White of New Yorker fame and Elizabeth Lawrence who wrote a garden column for years for the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. White's columns on gardening written for the New Yorker magazine were compiled by her husband E. B. White (CHARLOTTE'S WEB, STUART LITTLE) and published after her death in 1977 in the book entitled ONWARD AND UPWARD IN THE GARDEN. Lawrence wrote a number of books, including THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE and THE LITTLE BULBS. Her book THE MARKET BULLETINS was completed by the New Jersey gardener Alan Lacy. The market bulletins were wonderful publications farm women in the South used to communicate information about seeds, plants, animals, receipts (what they called recipes), and other items they for sale or being sought. Elizabeth shared a good deal of information about the market bulletins which were not published north of Virginia with Katherine whose one interests lay with garden catalogues when their friendship began.

Lawrence and White corresponded for several decades. The two women discussed their gardens, their columns, their books, and their lives. In the early part of their correspondence, they often wrote each other by return mail. Toward the end of Katherine's life, the letters were few and far between as illness began to affect her movement and ability to see. In spite of their suffering, they continued to observe the world around them and relay how things were going in the garden-the latest blooms, the ravenous mice, the unexpected cold snap, the new greenhouse. Their words remind me of the hope and comfort women have long experienced when a letter from a loved one arrives. As my 87-year old aunt with whom I still correspond says, it doesn't matter what you write, the smallest thing matters.

The editor of this collection of letters Emily Wilson, quotes a librarian who remarked after having read the letters Elizabeth and Katherine wrote to each other, "I got a feeling of moral interdependence on a creative level. Somehow I had viewed the creativity of successful people as a strong force that perhaps needed channeling but not encouragement. Now, on this new-to-me-plane, I see again that no man is an island."