Maine Books

Creative Coastal Cooking by food and restaurant design writer Terry Ward Libby presents a series of high quality recipes drawn from twelve different contemporary Maine restaurants. Selected for their distinctive flavor, these dishes range from Cold Cucumber and Avocado Soup; Mushroom Bread Pudding; and Braised Short Ribs of Beef; to Myrtle's Buttermilk Pie, Pine Nut Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts; and Indian Pudding, to offer delightful taste sensations straight from the experience and wisdom of some of the best of Maine's culinary professionals.

I love this little gem. For a small book it is loaded with useful information. Shows icons for tracks, relative size of mammal to human, icons for when the animal is active and on the bird pages, the type of nest each bird builds. There is also a life list where you can place a check by each critter you've seen. Excellent reference book for your library and also great to carry with you on field trips.

In this taut and elegant collection, Nikia Leopold's deeply felt poems about her father's final years are made with palpable detail, drawing on nature and memory with a controlled tone. The intensity of voice suggests an underlying dread and the poet starts from what's about to go wrong. In the opening "Lilies," we meet her sitting "on the back stoop/nerves humming with coffee,/" thinking of her parents and observing that "...it seems their merely being/covers an opening/I could float through."

Rapt attention and lyrical detachment serve the theme of loss well. In "Worship," the father suffering from dementia ".. moves his wheelchair/toward any woman." In "Quicken," he remembers fireworks and asks, "That night...weren't /those flowers in the sky?"/ The father "...can quicken sparks/to petals, flesh them into bloom."

In "Increments," the dark feathers of the title are revealed to be the father's ashes. The poet observes "It seems we've been/ waiting in winter forever."

The drift to and from the distortion of memory and its darkening into disorientation is made all the more poignant by the fact that life will go on after all, even after incalculable loss. "The trellis gleams from black shadows,/fleshed with moonflower vines,/yet to bloom."

As the author says in the luminous "Still," "When I blew the votives out/one fought back, kindling from my breath/an unformed wish;/let something resist." These poems, opening out into insight and even grace, honor both a man and the process of grieving.

This delightful book takes you back to a time that is being forgotten. Brenda, or Peggy as she calls herself, was raised by her elderly grandmother and a father old enough to be a grandfather, on a poor Maine farm. In spite of the isolation, the mystery about her mother, and the poverty, she emerges as a bright, self directed, sucessful young woman. The book is full of detail which gives one a sense of the time. The honest account of the authors coming of age should appeal to young readers. This book is a good read and should sell widely. It also would make a good movie. Don't miss it!

This is a lovely story of World War II widow Phillipa who travels to Bennett's Island to work as a teacher. Leaving behind her own young son, she focuses on reaching the students living on an isolated island off the coast of Maine. There, Phillipa confronts prejudice against a handicapped child, as well as learning things about herself.

Along with Ogilvie's usual wonderful descriptions of life on an island in the years following the war, the reader also gets a warm and simple love story of two lonely, independent people. As usual with Ogilvie's writings, there is a twist at the end and the seeming tranquility of island living really hides intense passions. A wonderful book I have read several times.

Discover the White Mountains of New hampsheris is an excellent introduction to the many wonderful outdoor activities in the area. The narrative and descriptions are a joy to read and the activity suggestions are very easy to follow. This book offers excellent suggestions on hikes and bikes and padles in the area. If you are new to the area this book is a must have. If you are an old pro in the White Mountains you will like the easy style author uses to delicately describe the various trails and adventure you will undertake. Even someone very familliar with the area may discover some new and exciting places to hike, bike and paddle. I've read many booka on hiking in the Whites and Discove the White Mountians is amoung the best I've found. The book is a real page turner or just put into the library for easy referance when you are in the area. Excellent!

Discovering America is a fascinating account of one woman's growth in political awareness.It is a personal memoir that transcends the personal, branching out to become an incisive analysis of important events in recent American history. Intensely involved with a number of causes--civil rightd, women's rights, labor issues,anti-war activities--Mary Wentworth has written a book that displays both clarity and passion, a rare combination.

This is SUCH a beautiful book. I actually bought my copy at the Globe Theater in London. I have written several novels set in Elizabethan London, and have many times haunted the old churches of the city, that is, the old city which was within the walls. Mrs. Thomson has sketched so many of them, each accompanied by a diary entry of doing it...how a verger brought her a cup of tea, how someone xeroxed a drawing for the organist, if the day was rainy or hot, or the street crowded, or if she found the very same bird in a church garden she had previously recalled. The drawings are also inset with a few lines about the church from the great Elizabethan city enthusiast John Stow, whose memorial is in St. Andrew Undershaft. It is one of my most precious, personal books: some other person than I wandered to these churches and gardens, some many hundred years old, and found and took away something personal. I tried to get in touch with the artist to tell her how much I loved it, but did not succeed. The drawings are exquisite. I am going back there again with her book in hand. Thank you, Mrs. Thomson. I hope these words reach you and many others!

I've never been one to enjoy reading historical writings very much, but I loved this book. Ruth searched and found many great writings, along with photos to go with them, that tell the stories of early settlers, the "cottagers" and the year round residents of Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor/Acadia is my favorite spot in New England and we will return their again this summer. I will have a better appreciation of the life these people lived in the late 1800s and will better appreciate how fortunate we are to have Acadia as protected natural lands.

Written by a political organizer, strike strategies, and health and safety educator, Divided We Fall: The Story Of The Paperworkers' Union And The Future Of Labor is fascinating and lesson-filled true story of the struggle of the Paperworkers' Union to improve the living and working conditions of its members. Especially focusing upon the 1987 strike in which over 1,150 union members participated, and which was ultimately lost, Divided We Fall tells of the need for a social movement to bring together working classes, the uphill battle for justice in the workplace, human foibles and follies, the notion of collective rights, and much more. A passionate yet expertly researched account of unionized human efforts and the lessons that can be learned from them.