Most important: ROSELEDGE BOOKS IS OPEN, 2-6pm daily.
The “open” signs are hanging from the porch, (but not in the picture), the flowers are growing, some brand-new and lots of other years’ new books are on the shelves, two book orders (bestsellers and selected titles) are on their way to TH, and the lawn chairs are ready for those with you who mind the dog as you browse.
Fig. #26. Reading, watching the harbor, and waiting for you to come by on a two-shirt, short skirt, sockless day in early June.
Reply to Commenter (and sis), Charyl: Okay, I get the message (see post “Catching Up #1) and I agree. The Icelandic detective is wanting. He is too much enveloped by dreary: his daughter, apartment, childhood, reading tastes, and prospects — all dreary. But the killer point for me is that in these Icelandic novels, there is no mention of the sea or seafaring, so there is no reason to think my sailor customers will want to read them. If I were in my native North Dakota with its Icelandic community, I might decide differently.
Thanks to Commenter Sis, I have read in a row and liked two more Harry Bosch mysteries (Michael Connelly’s City of Bones
Is Julia Spencer-Fleming, who lives and studied in Maine, a Maine author? Friend Kathy asked and after reading her All Mortal Flesh
Fig. #27. The tide moves out(here) and in as the mudflats grow and shrink, the returning lobster boats off-load their catches into lobster cars, and the water changes color with the sky. The harbor dance will be the same when you come by, probably with more boats.
Now I’m reading Michael Gruber’s The Book of Air and Shadows
A final note to one “exposed” to Edith Wharton — which I trust is different from “immersed:” Roseledge Books has — and has had since 1987 — 3 copies of Louis Auchincloss’s Skinny Island: More Tales of Manhatten. The pages might be a tad yellow, but they aren’t yet brittle and it only costs $3.95. Louis Auchincloss introduced me to New York City as I was growing up in Wahpeton, ND and allowed to check out from the Leach Public Library anything I wanted. A biography of Hetty Green, my first miser, helped, too.
The webcam was off, but now it is on.
and Linda Greenlaw’s 
. Ms. Greenlaw’s book is about Isle Au Haut (Remember Gordon Bok’s song, “The Hills of Isle Au Haut?”), but Coastal small town life and lobsters is more like Tenants Harbor than different. Mr. Woodward’s book doesn’t mention Tenants Harbor on map, in text or index, but he has a good bibliography and discusses at length Monhegan, which is close via Port Clyde, and where, with Tenants Harbor, Jamie Wyeth lives.
may be helpful. Certainly those of us offering advice about which we knew nothing were not.
(a biography by Bill Lofy)* on my desk at Roseledge Books is quite exciting.
for Mary with whom I earlier loved Lillian Beckwith’s books about her years with the crofters on the Hebrides (e.g. 
is next, a book for Elizabeth’s second-year-in-college gift after James Watson’s 
last year, and finally Suzanne Stremper Shea’s 
, a book about bookstores for the group that comes each summer and asks for a Roseledge Books withdrawal read. (By Chapter 9, Sheridan Hay’s 
became more an English major’s novel than a bookstore read.) I love thinking about the readers that special request shelves suggest are near.
because it was a mystery set in Maine with (I think) a series P.I., Charlie Parker, based in Portland and a NYTimes Bestseller to boot. Surely Roseledge Books should have this. But of the idea of Maine, there was no there there (with apologies to Gertrude Stein on Oakland, CA). Characters are Mainers in name only and the Maine terrain reads like a guidebook embellished by a visit, e.g. the breakfast crowd in The Porthole in Portland or the visit to Supermax in Warren. So Roseledge Books will not have this as a “Maine” book, but maybe I ought to have it as a mystery just to enjoy the argument with a reader who differs.
. The book was okay, but not special enough to spend time reading about her or Los Angeles. (Montana of the title is an avenue in Los Angeles. I really like the real Montana. Where are you Jamie Lee Harrison?) FBI agent Ana Grey was compared [by NYT Book Review] to Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, and I’m not that wild about Ms. Millhone either. Maybe it’s the evidence presented in the cases; I like obscure records and aberrant flow of information. Thanks to my sister’s introduction, Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch has LA covered for me, but few Roseledge Books readers ask for Pacific Ocean seaport reads, though if I have them, they sometimes buy them, e.g. Paul Gauguin’s 
, Captain Bligh’s Log of the HMS Bounty 1787-1789, Dana Stabenow’s 
, an Alaskan crabbing mystery.
. He “understands the nuances of [the CIA] trade (says George Tenet) and “the world of CIA operations in the Middle East” (says Seymour Hersh). I like him after reading his “seminal” spy novel set in Beirut of the early ‘80’s.
, which is set among al-Qaeda in the mountains of Pakistan. It was a NYTimes Bestseller, but even better for quality control, it won the Edgar Award.
, and — hark! — I liked him. He’s not bleak, but he’s no bundle of peppiness, either. He’s dogged, smart, outraged, avoiding his diabetes, willing to risk new friends, and a really good group leader.
, joins his former military team in a search for the killers of their former colleagues. This is a group of peers, almost interchangeable, hugely trained, and well-experienced nine years earlier. Reacher understands how and when to stand back, take charge or join in.
) which is good because Roseledge Books only has a picture-less guide to Maine places where birds might be. But that wasn’t what I meant either.
, the latest John March paperback mystery. I like John March. I like his decisions, dialogue, NYC detail, and I like author Spiegelman’s continuing background of family, finance, friendships, maybe especially finance. Since Paul Erdman died, I’ve had no one so able to teach me about finance through fiction, and learning about money is part of knowing how the world works — my most major reading goal.
, though I have liked them until now. And Millie and Kathy both thought Tony Hillerman’s 
, his latest paperback with Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, was a little less. So were the last two Stephanie Plum “numbers” by Janet Evanovich. I thought each needed one more escapade, and it’s time to settle the Joe/Ranger issue. Do authors get bored with their characters after a while? I think I remember John Sanford saying he did. Do readers? I do.
in Tenants Harbor.
