WHAT IS A MAINE BOOK?

A Maine book has to have within it whatever the reader knows Maine to be. I don’t know if it’s better for the book be an anticipatory read, a withdrawal read, or a reminder that “away” places of the heart exist, even in the midst of Minnesota snowstorms.

Fig. #12. A Maine book needs the big picture.

Kathy mentioned that author Julia Spencer-Fleming lives in ME, but the stories with a female Episcopalian priest detective take place in upstate NY. (She’s also won a lot of mystery writer awards and has a blurb from Lee Child, both pluses.) Definitely worth a try.
Spencer-Fleming, Julia. All Mortal Flesh. St. Martin’s Press, 2006

I am not extending the lives-in-Maine criterion to Nicholson Baker who has a new book out about WW II drawn from stories in his rescued newspapers and, I think I read, now lives in South Berwick, ME, even if South Berwick was the home of Sarah Orne Jewett who surely set her classic novella, The Country of the Pointed Firsin Tenants Harbor.

My niece is reading a Dennis Lehane mystery that mentions Maine, which is good, but she didn’t include the title. A ME-mention is a good reason for Roseledge Books to have that particular title in books or series set elsewhere.

Fig. #13. A Maine book needs details. Great yarn colors, too.

Connolly, John. The Unquiet. NY: Pocket Star Books, 2007
I know from the NYTimes Bestseller List that a Maine PI is the series character, and I’m guessing that the mystery is mostly set in ME, even though author John Connolly lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Tim sent me the 2007 Annual Report of the Town of St. George, Maine, the Mainest book I know, and it is the perfect reminder of names, deaths, and taxes paid and that soon I’ll be back in Tenants Harbor for the summer.

Fig. #14. A really good Maine book needs a reminder of perfect summer days (especially during this April night’s Minnesota snowstorm), e.g. Roseledge Books from Tenants Harbor.