with illustrations by Richard Egielski. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952) is known as a prolific author of children’s books. Less well known is her association with Vinalhaven, where she spent many summers beginning in 1938. Happy to leave Manhattan behind, she bought an abandoned quarrymaster’s quarters near Long Cove and The Basin,
Sylvia’s Recipes for All Cooks: Many Maine Dishes from Maine Folks
(self-published) $28.95 “If I can get the younger generation into the kitchen then I will have done what I hoped to do,” said Sylvia Hocking, who has just published her second cook book, Sylvia’s Recipes for All Cooks, Many Maine Dishes from Maine Folks. The South Thomaston author baked for the rich and famous after
Weekending in New England: 22 Complete Getaways to Pursue Your Passions
Woodstock, Vermont: Countryman Press, 2003. First of all, let’s define the author’s use of “passions.” If you picture that as indulging in purely sensual and possibly decadent pursuits, that’s not what this author is going to help you with. But if you enjoy the creature comforts of small hotels, inns, and bed-and-breakfast joints set in
3 Ocean Books Reviewed: No Good News and a Fair Amount of Bad
The Empty Ocean: Plundering the World’s Marine Life By Richard Ellis Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books www.islandpress.org In a Perfect Ocean: The State of Fisheries and Ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean By Daniel Pauly and Jay Maclean Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books www.islandpress.org Hierarchical Perspectives on Marine Complexities: Searching for Systems in the Gulf
Island: The Complete Stories
The island of the title refers to Cape Breton, which is separated from the rest of Nova Scotia by the Strait of Canso. The author, born and raised there, wrote his 16 poignant stories of the Scots and Irish, mostly fishermen and coal miners, between 1968 and 1999. Each story is written with love and
No Great Mischief
Norton: New York, 1999 ISBN 0-393-04970-1 $23.95 In No Great Mischief, Canadian short story writer Alistair MacLeod has written a great, sprawling novel of enduring connections and family loyalty. The 20th-century MacDonalds, still known in Cape Breton as clann Chalum Ruaidh, in Gaelic, (pronounced Kwown calum rooah), “the children (or the family) of the red
Slow Monkeys and other stories
ISBN 0-88748-379-8 Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2002 $15.95 In 1991, Jim Nichols took a fiction-writing course through the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance after having had a story published in Esquire magazine. No one in that class imagined it would take him 11 more years to get a book published. We all knew he’d be
“How Brilliant She Was!” Islesboro’s Ruth Draper had an Uncanny Ability to Impersonate People
Jamie MacMillan, caretaker of Islesboro’s Free Will Baptist Church, was putting the church to bed for the winter when he came across a forgotten box sitting on top of a high bookcase. There wasn’t much in it, but four dusty, 3″ x 4″ glass slides caught his attention. The slides, somewhat crudely hand-lettered with a
History In the Making: Vinalhaven Teacher Recalls a Great Civil Rights March
Each January, around the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, students across the country learn about King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, given on Aug. 28, 1963 in Washington, D.C. Few teachers, however, have the perspective Vinalhaven history teacher Karol Kucinski has, for he was there 40 years ago, and heard the speech
Needs Assessment Makes Recommendations for Island Libraries
“Libraries are vital to island communities,” writes Emily Graham in her introduction to the recently completed 2003 Maine Island Libraries Needs Assessment, conducted by the Island Institute with funding from the MBNA Foundation Library Grants Program. “They not only act as information centers,” she continues, “but as community centers. In many cases these libraries are