Working Waterfront

Family ties fray on a Maine island

The Guest Book By Sarah Blake; Flatiron Books, New York Review by Dana Wilde Toward the very end of Sarah Blake’s insightful novel, The Guest Book, one of the principal characters is collecting mussels on the shore of fictional Crockett’s Island, which lies just across a narrows from the real… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Paul Doiron’s game warden heads north

One Last Lie By Paul Doiron, Minotaur Books The title “game warden” conjures images of men and women in forest-green fatigues with a mission to steward natural resources, which in Maine primarily means moose, bear, and deer, along with fish and fowl. Thanks to Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch mystery novel… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The beauty and wonder of seaweed, artfully rendered

The Curious World of Seaweed By Josie Iselin (2019) Just being told something seems curious makes you curious to know more about that, yes? And so Josie Iselin’s newest book, The Curious World of Seaweed, promises and delivers–probably more than you ever knew you’d enjoy knowing about seaweed. This is… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An affectionate history of Maine

However dimmed, deferred, or deleted by the coronavirus, Maine’s bicentennial marches on. The milestone is providing an opportunity to claim pride and/or acknowledge failings in our history, to draw lessons from our past, to highlight the ups and downs and in-betweens. For journalist-historian Earl Brechlin, the 200th birthday is also… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Marital tension, island-style

Kate Hotchkiss of North Haven has a novel just out, coming at an opportune time when coronavirus has complicated travel and minimized social activities. Reading On Harbor’s Edge: Book One, 1912-1913 could be a relaxing, self-isolated way to enjoy the Maine coast, whether in person or vicariously. Set on islands with fictional… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lives and homes of the artistic and famous

While we wait for Maine’s art venues to re-open—and it will happen soon—museums, community art centers, and galleries are helping to fill the visual void with virtual tours, special talks, and Zoom gatherings. First Fridays are now online as are many openings, art courses, and art camps. In Belfast, Waterfall… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Carolyn Chute returns with character-rich new novel

Review by Tina Cohen In the world of contemporary Maine literature, Carolyn Chute is a prolific and highly original author. Best known for her first novel, subsequently made into a movie, The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1985), she has written six more since then. Born in Portland in 1947, she… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Mythic story-poems of spirit and survival

Review by Carl Little In a documentary about his life and work, award-winning Native-American writer N. Scott Momaday stated, “There is no such thing as poetry in Indian traditions.” Interviewing him in March, NPR reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked him to explain. “It’s a storytelling tradition,” Momaday said, “so you have… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The wrath that follows environmental sin

Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Bill McKibben; Henry Holt and Co., New York, 2019; 300 pages, hard cover, $28. Review by Dana Wilde Recently, a lobsterman from Swan’s Island told a reporter that, despite scientists’ finding that climate change has driven lobster populations north from… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Olive ages, and faces regret

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (2019) Review by Tina Cohen You’d need a good memory or having both books (in hardbound) to realize this: Elizabeth Strout’s collection of stories, Olive Kitteridge, published in 2008, featured a single green leaf. And on the cover of her newest, Olive, Again, falling leaves… SEE MORE