Maine-ly for Adults
An elderly matriarch reminisces about her life as she awaits the arrival of her granddaughter at the Maine summer colony of "Retreat." A classic Anne Rivers Siddons story her fans will surely love!
The author, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, recounts his adventures over the course of an extended summer at his wife's family home on Mt. Desert Island off the coast of Maine. Especially fun to read if you have visited Acadia National Park or anywhere else on MDI.
Though Maine is not specifically mentioned, you *know* it's there. Miss Rumphius travels the world, but her last task is to make the world more beautiful. She does, and we learn how. This is a "children's" book, but one which adults will love, too. Why should kids get all the pretty illustrations and graceful sentiments?
Also available with a read-along CD narrated by Claire Danes.
"Maine. Antiques. August. Maggie Summer, owner of the antique print business Shadows, is thrilled when her old college roommate, Amy Douglas, invites -- almost begs -- her to come to the coast of Maine to see her new house. August is the perfect time for antiquing and, as it turns out, for murder. Amy and Drew Douglas have just bought a creaky but gorgeous eighteenth-century house in the little town of Madoc. Built in 1774, the house sits high on a hill overlooking the river. The house is great, but not the neighbors, who seem to think that the property should never have been put up for sale. Until now, it's always belonged to one formidable Maine family. Amy and Drew are New Yorkers. What are they doing here, where they don't belong? Hostile neighbors are just the start of their problems. Who is behind a series of strange fires and bizarre accidents? Where is the baby that Amy hears crying in the night, and why do she and Drew want so obsessively to have a child of their own? And what is the relationship between Drew and an attractive teenager named Crystal? As Maggie searches for answers, she runs into fellow antiques dealer Will Brewer, a man with whom she once hoped for a romantic future. But can she trust him now?"
Also available in large print.
On two remote islands off the coast of Maine, the local lobstermen have fought savagely for generations over the fishing rights to the ocean waters between them. Young Ruth Thomas is born into this feud, the daughter of one of the greediest lobstermen in Maine. Eighteen years old, as smart as a whip, and irredeemably unromantic, Ruth returns home from boarding school determined to throw her education overboard and join the "stern men." As the feud escalates, she helps work the lobster boats, brushes up on her profanity, and eventually falls for Owney Wishnell, a handsome young lobsterman.
In 1916, Roberta Jewett and her three daughters return to her family home in Camden, Maine. Because she has divorced her husband, the townsfolk quickly reject Roberta. Her outspoken manner adds further fuel to their disapproval, and when she develops a close friendship with Gabe, a widowed contractor, the people of Camden are outraged.
Also available on audio.
A "coming of age" novel from the year 1896. Lovely stories written in lovely prose, this short description of life and people in one small Maine town is part of an anthology that includes four additional short works by a gentlewoman from the coast of Maine.
Also available as an eBook and in large print.
A fascinating study of lobsters and their sex lives (!), trapping lobsters and studying lobsters and lobster wars and lobstermen and.... You get the idea!
Beginning in 1847, Henry David Thoreau made three trips to the mostly unexplored Maine woods. Along the way he recorded his observations on the wildlife (flora and fauna), the weather, terrain, and on the nature of the people he met along the way, including loggers, rivermen, and his Abnaki guides. In Thoreau's Maine Woods, photographer Dan Tobyne captures the essence of the Maine Thoreau discovered and described in his book. The combination of short excerpts with stunning imagery carries Thoreau's work to a higher level, presenting it in both glowing words and pictures.
