Introduction

Welcome to the August 2012 edition of the newsletter highlighting titles by Mainers and/or about Maine recently added to the Maine State Library's collection.

Click the "Check Library Catalog" link next to any entry to check on availability of a title. If that title is not available, use the request function in URSUS to place a hold or check MaineCat.

In This Issue

Armchair Travel
Biography and Memoir
Fiction A to Z
History and Current Events
Home, Garden and DIY
Nature and Science
Popular Culture

Armchair Travel

Maine coast memories - David Middleton

Publisher: Countryman Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/07/2012

ISBN-13: 9780881509878
ISBN-10: 0881509876

Maine Coast Memories is a photographic essay of Maine; an album of photos as one would have taken them while on vacation here. It includes images of wildlife, rocky vistas, lighthouses, lobstermen, Acadia National Park, Old Orchard Beach, Kennebunkport, Bar Harbor -- all the sights and places that one associates with a memorable trip to Vacationland.

Maine : an explorer's guide - Christina Tree and Nancy English

Publisher: Countryman Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/04/2012

ISBN-13: 9780881509649
ISBN-10: 0881509647

Think that, as a resident of Maine, you have no interest in a Maine travel guide? You might be surprised! This, latest edition of Explorer's Guide Maine has 32 detailed maps and listings for the best of everything in Maine, including galleries, seafood shacks, local celebrations and much more. With the price of gasoline, why not explore closer to home? This book will lead the way.

Table of Contents

Lobster Shacks : A Road Guide to New England's Best Lobster Joints - Michael Urban

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/04/2012

ISBN-13: 9780881509991
ISBN-10: 088150999X

A lighthearted, road-trip-style guide to 75 top-recommended shacks in New England features historical and biographical data, menu highlights and driving directions as well as lobster shack lore and feature recipes.

Table of Contents

Biography and Memoir

Joshua L. Chamberlain : The Life in Letters: The Previously Unpublished Letters of a Great Leader of the Civil War - Thomas Desjardin and James McPherson

Publisher: Osprey Pub Co
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/22/2012

ISBN-13: 9781849085595
ISBN-10: 1849085595

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain has been a central character in two feature films (Gettysburg and Gods & Generals), a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (The Killer Angels), and an inspiration for Ken Burns' production of the highly acclaimed PBS series The Civil War. Chamberlain won national fame at the Battle of Gettysburg for his key role in fending off the Confederates at Little Round Top on day two of the battle. This new volume brings to public light 300 never-before-seen letters from Chamberlain's personal correspondence, from his college years in 1852 to his death in 1914.

Table of Contents

When We Were the Kennedys : A Memoir from Mexico, Maine - Monica Wood

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/10/2012

ISBN-13: 9780547630144
ISBN-10: 054763014X

An account of the 1963 death of the author's father against a backdrop of JFK's assassination describes how her mother, three sisters and she were financially dependent on her father's wages and how their loss and Catholic faith resonated the experiences of the nation. By the award-nominated author of My Only Story. 25,000 first printing.

First Chapter

Fiction A to Z

Last summer - Holly Chamberlin

Publisher: Kensington Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/2012

ISBN-13: 9780758235084
ISBN-10: 0758235089

When her daughter, a pretty high school freshman, is targeted by bullies and suffers an emotional breakdown after her best friend Meg's betrayal, Jane Patterson, blaming both Meg and Meg's mother Frannie, tries to help her daughter while dealing with her own guilt and anger. Original.

First Chapter

Radiant days : a novel - Elizabeth Hand

Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/12/2012

ISBN-13: 9780670011353
ISBN-10: 0670011355

When her girlfriend commits suicide, Meredith, a 17-year-old aspiring artist, is devastated and plans to seek the same fate, but when she stumbles on a magical wall painting that can transport people through time, her life is forever changed when she meets teenaged poet Arthur Rimbaud, an inspiring young artist from a different era.

History and Current Events

Maine : the wilder half of New England - William David Barry

Publisher: Tilbury House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2012

ISBN-13: 9780884483335
ISBN-10: 0884483339

Almost the size of the rest of New England, Maine was the first colonized and is the most forested, sparsely settled, and perhaps the most independent-minded of New England states. This concise, solid, and surprising overview traces 500 years of Maine history, from first contact between Native Americans and European explorers to the achievement of a Down East identity, national political power, and worldwide cultural identification. Changes in the economy, religion, ethnicity, arts, leisure, and education have all shaped Maine and Mainers -- with some intriguing results.

Stories from the Maine coast : skippers, ships and storms - Harry Gratwick

Publisher: History Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/08/2012

ISBN-13: 9781609492496
ISBN-10: 1609492498

The history of Maine has always been inextricably tied to its coastline. The sea first brought settlers, and the rich fishing and shipbuilding industries sustained growth. The Atlantic also connected Mainers to the rest of the world. Goods and ideas traveled the maritime routes that originated in populous Portland and more isolated places like Carver's Harbor and Deer Isle. From Searsport's sailing masters to the burning of Royal Tar, author Harry Gratwick relates the adventures of the skippers and their crews. Read about the search for the Smithy Boat and other tales from Maine's shipping lanes.

Table of Contents

How to catch a lobster in Down East Maine - Christina Lemieux Oragano

Publisher: History Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/22/2012

ISBN-13: 9781609496029
ISBN-10: 1609496027

What is it like to live in Down East Maine and work in the lobster industry? The extreme weather of the Maine coast, unreliable fishing seasons and an ever-present element of danger are just a few of the challenges encountered by lobster fishermen. They must adapt to constant change and balance exploiting the natural resource for personal profit with a duty to conserve lobster stocks for future generations. Despite the challenges, most would not trade the benefits of their job -- from independence to unique pastimes like lobster boat races. From a family of four generations of lobster fishermen, Christina Lemieux Oragano provides a glimpse inside these lobstering communities and celebrates it for those lucky enough to live it -- the trials, triumphs and even a few favorite lobster recipes from Down East.

Table of Contents

Baxter State Park and Katahdin - John W. Neff and Howard R. Whitcomb

Publisher: Arcadia Pub
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/21/2012

ISBN-13: 9780738576626
ISBN-10: 073857662X

The character of Baxter State Park and the great mountain at its heart can be powerfully conveyed through two words: forever wild. The mountain was known at Ktaadn, or "The Greatest Mountain," to native peoples who first frequented Maine's interior northern forest. They were followed by colonial adventurers who explored its cirqures and massive granite walls, by those who studied its geology and flora and fauna, and later by loggers who came to extract the virgin timber from nearby valleys. Finally, recreational climbing and camping led to an effort to protect the rugged beauty of these mountains, lakes, and valleys. When calls for preservation went unheeded, former governor Percival P. Baxter, beginning in the 1930s, purchased some 201,000 acres over a period of 30 years and gifted them to the state. Today, Baxter State Park is the guardian of this vast wilderness area for all to enjoy. Baxter State Park and Katahdin draws on rich collections of archival images dating back to the 19th century.

Home, Garden and DIY

The Maine garden journal: insider secrets from Maine people who love to put their hands in the dirt - Lisa Colburn

Publisher: Fern Leaf Publishing Co.
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2012

ISBN-13: 9780984710300
ISBN-10: 0984710302

After ardent gardener Lisa Colburn moved from her home in St. Agatha, ME (Zone 3) to downstate Orono (Zone 5) she was challenged to find trustworthy information to help her be successful in her new location. She reached out to the Maine gardening community for help. Passionate gardeners throughout the state were delighted to share their hard-earned strategies for gardening success. The Maine Garden Journal contains the living stories and vital experience, generously told, of over one hundred knowledgeable and experienced gardeners from all over Maine. Written in a down-to-earth, neighbor-to-neighbor style, the survey respondents are quoted liberally throughout the book. Full color photos bring the plants vividly to life and make the book a valuable resource for all home gardeners.

Sea glass crafts : 28 fun projects you can make at home - C. S. Lambert

Publisher: Down East Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/16/2012

ISBN-13: 9781608931781
ISBN-10: 1608931781

Sea glass connects civilization and nature -- often in surprising ways -- and collecting sea glass and pottery shards is more popular than ever. However, beyond simply admiring their beauty, many collectors are at a loss as to just what to do with their collections. Sea Glass Crafts is filled with ideas to turn your seaside treasures into home decor--inside and out, practical and decorative, whimsical and serious. From a sea glass chandelier to a shower curtain, or a sea glass wreath to a shadowbox, sea glass expert Carole Lambert covers thirty fun and beautiful projects. Step by step directions, explanations of everything you'll need, and color photographs accompany each project. Sea Glass Crafts is the perfect book for anyone fascinated by these jewels from the sea.

Fairy house handbook - Liza Gardner Walsh

Publisher: Down East
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/16/2012

ISBN-13: 9781608931736
ISBN-10: 1608931730

A fun craft and lore book whose main focus is a step-by-step guide to how to build a fairy house, what tools and materials to use, and many ideas on different details you can add to your fairy house. Also included are bits of fairy lore, fairy dos and don'ts, fairy wisdom, and other fairy crafts and activities. Heavily illustrated with hands on photos of fairy house building, and photos of steps for some of the specific details.
ne with a child's heart.

Fresh from Maine : Recipes and Stories from the State's Best Chefs - Michael S. Sanders and Russell French

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/15/2012

ISBN-13: 9780984477524
ISBN-10: 0984477527

More than 80 recipes, nearly half of them new to this edition and all brought to life by Maine photographer Russell French, capture the true bounty of this land and its waters. Each chefs cuisine is very much his own, but they share one thing: they all work in the sustainable idiom with local farmers, animal raisers, and fishermen to bring the best, all-natural food, much of it organic, to their tables. Join us in discovering culinary outposts and innovative chefs all over the state, from Fryeburg to Hallowell, from Bangor to Brunswick and coastal Maine from Kittery to Mount Desert.

Nature and Science

Life everlasting : the animal way of death - Bernd Heinrich

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/19/2012

ISBN-13: 9780547752662
ISBN-10: 0547752660

The award-winning author of The Mind of the Raven describes his investigation into the animal world's treatment of death to glean ecological and spiritual lessons, from animal burial and prey disposal behaviors to the important role of humans as scavengers.

First Chapter Table of Contents

Popular Culture

Alex Katz : Maine / New York - Carter Ratcliff

Publisher: Distributed Art Pub Inc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/30/2012

ISBN-13: 9788881588305
ISBN-10: 8881588307

Maine/New York surveys six decades of paintings by Alex Katz. A quintessential New York artist, Katz has summered in Maine since the 1950s, and his paintings range from landscape to cityscape, from rural vignette to Manhattan interior. In this volume, published for an exhibition curated by acclaimed critic Carter Ratcliff at the Colby College Museum of Art -- where the largest public collection of Katz's art resides -- the luminous haze of city afternoons is juxtaposed with the flickering greens of a rural path; the buzz of a fashionable social occasion with the dusk as it descends on a pond in the Maine woods. Along the way, incisive portraits of the artist's family and friends picture a cosmopolitan world at work and play. Describing his subject matter as "quick things passing," Katz is a painter of those intensely perceived moments when the world manifests itself in all its vividness and variety.

Island : paintings by Tom Curry - Terry Tempest Williams, Tom (Tom J.) Curry and Carl Little

Publisher: Down East
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/16/2012

ISBN-13: 9781608930036
ISBN-10: 1608930033

When artist Tom Curry first moved to Maine, his house overlooked a small, uninhabited island in Eggemoggin Reach. One day, while rowing across to the island, his boyhood fear of water came crashing in on him. So he decided to explore his fear head-on, and began painting the island “as a way to delve into my own darkness and seek a way back to the surface.” That series of paintings, capturing the island in all lights, weathers, and moods, forms the basis of this book. But the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. These paintings represent an ongoing narrative: “island as escape and entrapment, island as longing and memory, island as sanctuary, island as self in a sea of turmoil.” The paintings are accompanied by essays by Terry Tempest Williams, exploring Curry's spirit of place, and Carl Little, establishing Curry's art within the field of landscape painting.

Table of Contents