Maine Reads

Maine Reads

A Portrait to Paint

A Portrait to Paint

That is what poetry sometimes must be — a woven tapestry of necessary conversations coming from all the rooms of a world, horrid, beautiful and resilient. All of it here in this collection sweeps us to a better understanding, a better place, if but for a moment.

More Than Meets The Eye: Exploring Nature and Loss on the Coast of Maine

More Than Meets The Eye: Exploring Nature and Loss on the Coast of Maine

Life and loss amidst the surreal natural wonder that is coastal Maine are here in real-life moments that confirm the perpetuallity of life. It truly does not end if we open our self to the healing power of a place, its people and its natural wonders. Nature indeed will speak to you about the nature of life.

Mountain Girl: From Barefoot to Boardroom

Mountain Girl: From Barefoot to Boardroom

What do we keep with us when everything around us is changing? In her story Mountain Girl, Marilyn Moss Rockefeller answers that nothing changes unless you allow it to, you are you and that is carried with you forever. This is the very thought I had as I closed this wonderful memoir.

Notes on the Landscape of Home

Notes on the Landscape of Home

Time. It is in everything. It holds onto everything and sometimes it folds in on itself allowing a much-needed pause in life. This was my first thought as I closed the book Notes on the Landscape of Home by Susan Hand Shetterly. It is an exceptional collection of essays from a writer undoubtedly grounded in both time and place.  

A Countryman’s Journal: Views of Life and Nature from a Maine Coastal Farm

A Countryman’s Journal: Views of Life and Nature from a Maine Coastal Farm

These essays are not a memoir of a person but that of a person’s relationship with a place — a coastal farm tucked between folds of wooded fields and the sea. The words take you there, sit you down on a rock or a stump amidst shadows of sunlight and fog trails and reveal the unfolding life of a farm, the farm Barrette named “Amen Farm.”

Take It Easy – Portland in the 70s  &  From the Mountains to the Sea

Take It Easy – Portland in the 70s & From the Mountains to the Sea

Two books found me. One took me back in time with black-and-white images of a city during a decade I often think about. The other informed me of  “what might have been” by showing me in text and color images of what eventually became reality for a river. Both books, separately and together, are about Maine.

Landslide

Landslide

Bring together a life-changing moment, the challenge of raising two teenage boys and a mother realizing life could have been different, amidst a Maine fishing community struggling to contain its way of life, and you have the makings of a good story.

Talk Radio

Talk Radio

In his debut novel, Talk Radio, author Ham Martin brings a daily radio program — station prompts, quirky commercials, theme music and all — to life. Even those annoying glitches are included for realism. Of course, the “talk” portions of the program are the real gems. Presented along a storyline that is both unique and unpredictable — just like radio can be — this book was a pure joy to read.

Ernie’s Ark

Ernie’s Ark

Between these bookends of exceptional stories are more exceptional stories. All are connected, yet separately strong, unique and remindful of who we may be or people we may know as a friend, neighbor, confused teenager or loving husband, father or grandfather.

The Exiles

The Exiles

The gift of a necklace from a mother to her daughter, words from a father to his daughter about the rings of a tree — both offer the same lesson: We live making our story by remembering those that came before us giving us theirs.