Down East Books: 419 books

Joyce Tenneson,s detailed photographic studies of luminous sea shells adrift on a velvet-soft background remind us that startling beauty exists even in the most ordinary places. These surprising images give us a unique window into these secret lives of the sea. Short selected quotes from literature illuminate these ethereal portraits.

An often overlooked segment of Maine (and American) history is the story of women in the working class dance industries. Generally looked upon with a gasp of shock, burlesque and vaudeville dancing, and later taxi dancing and marathon dancing, were often the only way for women to survive (In taxi...

The beautiful carriage roads of Mount Desert Island fit so perfectly into the land it seems as though they have always been there. Actually, they are the result of decades of planning and painstaking effort on the part of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and were built by local islanders over...

Maine curmudgeon John Gould offers humorous tongue-in-cheek advice for fathers-to-be with a non-medical, non-technical, non-scientific explanation of the masculine side of the matter, with much that is useful and nothing that is wholly useless.

At its core, A Bird in the Hand is indeed about trophies, though not those ranked by size or numbers or scores, but, rather, the lasting trophies of the mind and heart. In his lyrical trademark style, Lundrigan shares vivid images and compelling thoughts over a range of personal experiences from his...

Before Thomas Edison, light and fire were thought to be one and the same. Turns out, they were separate things altogether. This book takes a similar relationship, that of time and place, and shows how they, too, were once inseparable. Time keeping was once a local affair, when small towns set their...

This is the classic series from Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novelist Kenneth Roberts, all featuring characters from the town of Arundel, Maine. Arundel follows Steven Nason as he joins Benedict Arnold in his march to Quebec during the American Revolution.

Longtime fans of Rich's writing will welcome this engaging and thoughtful biography of her life. There is also a wonderful section that includes many of Rich's essays and stories — which were published in magazines but never appeared in book form — as well as excerpts from her journal and letters.

It is a commonplace that poetry is the literary form that best expresses our deepest feelings. Those who seldom read poetry regularly turn to it for weddings or funerals. The poems in this gift-size anthology speak to the seasons of Maine, celebrating familiar scenery and events in a common language....

In 1940, the 1780-farmhouse that noted Maine essayist and curmudgeon John Gould’s great-grandfather built burned to the ground. To honor the generations that came before him, Gould there and then decided to rebuild the house in Lisbon Falls. Like his great-grandfather, Gould cut the timbers from...

Great blue herons, yellow birches, damselflies, and beavers are among the talismans by which Bill Roorbach uncovers a natural universe along the stream that runs by his house in Farmington, Maine. Populated by an oddball cast of characters to whom Roorbach ("The Professor") and his family might always...

There used to be a time when marvelous skyrockets could be purchased for a dime and the iceman came around once a week, when throwing a cap on and off took special talent and pants had watch pockets. When John Gould was young it didn't take much to amuse a boy. A boy would wake up in the morning ready...

Ranging from the 18th century to the present and from Beacon Hill to windswept Cape Ann, Holly Nadler's collection of true ghost stories from Boston and its environs offers a varied sampling of supernatural phenomena. Many of these tales offer a satisfying dose of ghoulish and frightening details; others are colored with a certain poignancy or even humor.

Holly Nadler, the ghost lady of Martha's Vineyard, won lots of attention for her collections of ghostly accounts on the island in Haunted Island. Now, in her second volume, Nadler brings her sassiness and spunk to investigating and delivering the dirt on even more eerie happenings on an island that...