This is the authorized guide to the Maine Birding Trail, which opens in 2009. The book features more than 260 sites in Maine and includes bonus material on Campobello and Grand Manan islands. Unlike most guides, which emphasize species identification, this book highlights the sites themselves. Bird enthusiasts will count on it to lead them to the best birding locations in Maine and to list the species they will most likely find at each destination.
Going gluten-free? Go here first. Whether you've been diagnosed with a gluten-related condition or you're just striving for a healthier diet, you know that adopting a gluten-free lifestyle is easier said than done. Beth Hillson, president of the American Celiac Disease Association, was diagnosed forty years ago, and she knows these challenges firsthand. For decades, she has been a guru in the gluten-free community, answering questions about everything from diagnosis to food to lifestyle. Now, Beth combines her personal expertise with the latest research to offer: Essential info on celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, wheat allergy, and other gluten-related disorders Advice on choosing a doctor, getting tested, and exploring treatment options The basics of the GF diet, including setting up a safe kitchen and simple recipes Guidance on living as a blended-diet family and raising gluten-free kids Frank answers to personal questions on topics from "gluten smooching" to gas
The Old Town Canoe Company has a rich and diverse history now spanning a century, and its story is told here in rich and colorful detail, from the earliest wood-and-canvas canoes to today's sleek polymer models. Wonderful illustrations and motifs have been selected from a hundred years of Old Town Canoe Company catalogs, along with stunning photographs, past and present, of Old Town's canoes, launches, runabouts, dinghies, sailboats, kayaks, and more.
Winner of the 2021 Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award Winner of the 2021 Maine Literary Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics John Leonard Prize for Best First Book Finalist for the 2021 New England Society Book Award Finalist for the 2021 New England Independent Booksellers Association Award A New York Times Editors’ Choice and Chicago Tribune top book for 2020 “Mill Town is the book of a lifetime; a deep-drilling, quick-moving, heartbreaking story. Scathing and tender, it lifts often into poetry, but comes down hard when it must. Through it all runs the river: sluggish, ancient, dangerous, freighted with America’s sins.” —Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland Kerri Arsenault grew up in the small, rural town of Mexico, Maine, where for over 100 years the community orbited around a paper mill that provided jobs for nearly everyone in town, including three generations of her family. Kerri had a happy childhood, but years after she moved away, she realized the price she paid for that childhood. The price everyone paid. The mill, while providing the social and economic cohesion for the community, also contributed to its demise. Mill Town is a book of narrative nonfiction, investigative memoir, and cultural criticism that illuminates the rise and collapse of the working-class, the hazards of loving and leaving home, and the ambiguous nature of toxics and disease with the central question; Who or what are we willing to sacrifice for our own survival?
Lifelong fisherman Kevin Tracewski deals in depth with which are the best of Maine's myriad lakes, rivers, streams, and brooks to fish; how to get there; and what techniques and tackle to use. Organized by region; supplemented by detailed maps and comments from area anglers.
In Downeast, Gigi Georges follows five girls as they come of age in one of the most challenging and geographically isolated regions on the Eastern seaboard. Their stories reveal surprising truths about rural America and offer hope for its future. “It’s almost impossible not to care about these fierce young women and cheer for their hard-won successes” (Kirkus) in this “heartfelt portrait” and “worthy tribute” (Publishers Weekly). Nestled in Maine’s far northeast corner, Washington County sits an hour’s drive from the heart of famed and bustling Acadia National Park. Yet it’s a world away. For Willow, Vivian, Mckenna, Audrey, and Josie—five teenage girls caught between tradition and transformation in this remote region—it is home. Downeast follows their journeys of heartbreak and hope in uncertain times, creating a nuanced and unique portrait of rural America with women at its center. Willow lives in the shadow of an abusive, drug-addicted father and searches for stability through photography and love. Vivian, a gifted writer, feels stifled by her church and town, and struggles to break free without severing family ties. Mckenna is a softball pitching phenom whose passion is the lobster-fishing she learned at her father’s knee. Audrey is a beloved high school basketball star who earns a coveted college scholarship but questions her chosen path. Josie, a Yale-bound valedictorian, is determined to take the world by storm. All five girls know the pain and joy of life in a region whose rugged beauty and stoicism mask dwindling populations, vanishing job opportunities, and pervasive opioid addiction. As the girls reach adulthood, they discover that despite significant challenges, there is much to celebrate in “the valley of the overlooked.” Their stories remind us of the value of timeless ideals: strength of family and community, reverence for nature’s rule, dignity in cracked hands and muddied shoes, and the enduring power of home. Revealed through the eyes of Willow, Vivian, Mckenna, Audrey, and Josie, Downeast is based on four years of intimate reporting. The result is a beautifully rendered, emotionally startling, and vital book. Downeast will break readers’ hearts yet offer them hope, providing answers to what the future may hold for rural America.
Old Town, situated in north-central Maine, sits snugly along the mighty Penobscot River. Taking advantage of the river's vibrant woods and watershed, Old Town would become the country's leading producer of timber in its early history. Penobscot Indian tribes had inhabited the land for more than 6,000 years, but the area's resources were so vast that, by 1836, the first railroad in Maine had established a line from Bangor to Old Town, with many eager to access the town's wealth. Since its separation from the town of Orono in 1840, Old Town has developed a robust industrial base, including Old Town Canoe Company, Penobscot Chemical Fibre, T.M. Chapman & Sons, the Bickmore Gall Company, Jordan Lumber, LeBree's Bakery, and the James W. Sewall Company. Today, Old Town has lost much of its industrialized base, but nonetheless, its strong ethnic and religious communities, which have worked together for more than 175 years, stand ready to prepare the river town for a bright future.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.
In this book, Lee Shai Weissbach offers the first comprehensive portrait of small-town Jewish life in America. Exploring the history of communities of 100 to 1000 Jews, the book focuses on the years from the mid-nineteenth century to World War II. Weissbach examines the dynamics of 490 communities across the United States and reveals that smaller Jewish centers were not simply miniature versions of larger communities but were instead alternative kinds of communities in many respects. The book investigates topics ranging from migration patterns to occupational choices, from Jewish education and marriage strategies to congregational organization. The story of smaller Jewish communities attests to the richness and complexity of American Jewish history and also serves to remind us of the diversity of small-town society in times past.