{"id":2927,"date":"2023-10-03T12:29:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T19:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2927"},"modified":"2023-10-07T17:02:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T00:02:27","slug":"more-sense-of-place-mostly-in-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2927","title":{"rendered":"MORE SENSE OF PLACE, mostly in books"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I know I promised<\/strong> to suggest more book titles with a sense of coastal Maine, and I will, but who could pass up<\/strong> a teaser headline like this one:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Hip-Hop Was a Revolution in Music, Made by Librarians. <\/b>\u00a0
And the full title was only slightly less exciting:
<\/span>Hip-Hop Is the Music of Vinyl Librarians.<\/b><\/p>\r\n

This is a great article. It asks \u00a0you to think again about who is a librarian? and what does a librarian do?, which are always good things to think about. And, equally exciting, author\u00a0 Dan Charnas constructs the ladder of giants\u2019 shoulders that hip hop artists have based their later work on, much as Robert Merton<\/strong> did in his book, On the Shoulders of Giants,<\/b>\u00a0 wherein he parsed Isaac Newton\u2019s famous statement:<\/b><\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants\u201d.<\/p>\r\n

No doubt about it,<\/span> LIBRARIANS RULE!\u00a0 \u00a0 [Yes, Larry, they do.]<\/span><\/b><\/p>\r\n

Other news too good to ignore:\u00a0<\/b>We have a wonderful new neighbor,<\/span> Frankie <\/b>Feetsplinter troll, by Thomas Dambo, <\/b>\u00a0Danish environmental artist, who only uses already-used wood.\u00a0 Charlie and I went to the Nordic Museum for a meet and greet. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

Frankie and I have no neck, gap-toothed grins, and big tums. Fraternal twins?<\/p><\/div>\r\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/span>…………………………………………………………..
Now, as promised,<\/strong> are some favorite books that capture the sense of of place that I found as a summer person on the Coast of Maine.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Frankie\u2019s Place; A Love Story,\u00a0 by Jim Sterba.<\/b>\u00a0 Maybe my favorite sense of place [SOP] read, this book is so much more than charming, though it is that. Its review in the Grove Atlantic<\/a> says it best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Way Life Should Life Should Be, by Christina Smith Kline<\/b>.\u00a0 The novel is about young incomers to Maine, looking for something special, working hard, deciding if Maine Is the place they want to be and, if it is, then figuring out how to become part of the continuing reinvigoration of Coastal Maine.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The author knows Maine, and that matters.\u00a0 She spent summers\u00a0 on the Coast as a child, loved it from afar, then when her professor-father retired, she found a clunker of a house on the Maine coast\u00a0 and, as she continues the story,\u00a0 \u2018<\/span>It was a complete wreck but on this gorgeous piece of land, so [my parents] bought it. My dad had been a carpenter in his youth, and he fixed it up over the years\u2026.\u00a0 ell, then my other three sisters all bought houses in Southwest Harbor. One of them lives there full time; she\u2019s the town librarian. She married a carpenter, and has four kids aged zero to seven. She does the whole Maine fantasy! And now I am the last one to the party, having recently bought a place there too.\u00a0 We\u2019re all no more than five minutes away from each other.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Spoonhandle by Ruth Moore.\u00a0 <\/b>A classic tale of Maine coast, which, the author argued, is a story\u00a0 that could be set anywhere, like Fauklner\u2019s stories, some critics said.\u00a0 But, luckily, it was set on the coast of Maine, and so, incorporated an islander\u2019s ways.\u00a0 And <\/span>Spoonhandle<\/b> was made into a film titled <\/span>‘Deep Water\u2019<\/b>, which was fun to watch.<\/span> I\u2019ve just ordered her <\/span>Cold as a Dog and Other Stories: Poems and Ballads from the Coast of Maine<\/b> for Poetry Club possibilities.\u00a0 I usually find a poem I like, then figure out how to make it fit whatever assignment Gary sets.\u00a0 Even better, <\/span>Foksinger Gordon Bok.<\/b> a Maine treasure, <\/span>\u00a0recorded an album based on <\/span>Ruth Moore\u2019s ballads<\/b>.\u00a0 One of his deep bass notes into his sea shanties, and I’m sitting on my porch, overlooking the harbor again.<\/span>\u00a0 [Aside \u00a0 My\u00a0 neighbors and I are part of the \u2018Waltzing with Bears<\/b>\u2019 chorus that Gordon Bok,<\/b> et.al. recorded during a Minneapolis concert, \u00a0which is very exciting, but his \u2018Turning Toward the Morning<\/b>\u2019 is more Maine.\u00a0 Both are on You Tube.] <\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0O<\/b>ne Man\u2019s Meat by E.B. White.<\/b>\u00a0 A classic\u00a0 example of someone who lived two places, which is true of several other authors on my list, which suggests that by living two places, they may bring a KEENER awareness of their sense of Maine.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Time for a break, and Frankie the troll calls.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

\u00a0Charlie wants in. Half-brother?\u00a0 I recall fondly the tryst with the tree.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\r\n

The Snoring Bird<\/strong>: My Family\u2019s Journey Through a A Century of Biology by\u00a0 Bernd Heinrich.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>I love this book.\u00a0 While a kid, Bernd Heinrich fled Germany as the Russians were invading and after about 5\u00a0 years of living in the forests, he,\u00a0 with his family, settled on a farm in the Maine woods \u00a0 From there, he became a runner, a naturalist, a retired UVT professor, and a writer, who lives in the Maine woods. His book, <\/span>A Naturalist At Large; The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich<\/b>, which the <\/span>NYT <\/b>Review er describes as \u201cPassionate observations [that] superbly mix memoir and science,\u201d is near the top of my \u2018to read next\u2019 pile. <\/span>\u00a0Rachel Carson\u2019s Sea Trilogy<\/b> is important, but more for its addressing coastal conservation than\u00a0 for her sense of Maine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Paintings of Maine, edited by Arnold Skolnick.<\/b>\u00a0 Painters abound on the coast of Maine, and though the memories or understandings the pictures evoke and the stories they provoke vary with each appreciator, together they are the Maine I know, even though I had a John Marin print on my office wall 4 years before I had ever stepped foot in Maine, I like him still and love Maine more these 50 years later. During my Roseledge Books\u2019 days, a good daughter extolled the virtues of this book\u2019s ability to make her mother, who has dementia, smile and talk with her about the good times and sense of Maine she was recalling.\u00a0 A trip to the Farnsworth Art Museum is always good, too, but sometimes not as flexible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Old Books and Rare Friends\u00a0 <\/b>by <\/b>Madeline Stern<\/b><\/a> and <\/b>Leona Rostenberg<\/b><\/a>.<\/b>\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that towards the end of this book about two grand old women, their place in Maine is mentioned.\u00a0 But even if I\u2019m wrong, which is rare, these two women are SO worth a read and would clearly fit in the Maine I love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What I have learned so far is you not only have to have been or to be there, though that\u2019s\u00a0 a necessary beginning [Thanks, Jim.], but you have to understand and appreciate that there\u2019s a story with variations behind everything that happens, then figure out how to fit into and\/or add to those stories.\u00a0 It helps if you\u2019re subtle or Irish
\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

King County Public Poetry Contest, entry option #2<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

Coghlan Castle:<\/span> family lore, national landmark, but sense of NoDak?<\/span><\/p><\/div>\r\n

TRUTH
<\/b>My family built a fieldstone castle, on North Dakota\u2019s plains.
<\/strong>My dad read books and herded sheep from the turret \u2018midst the grains.
<\/b>\u2018There were no sheep,\u2019 the farmer said, \u2018and the windows were too high,\u2019
<\/b>So my dad was a reader, who embellished a bit.\u00a0 He\u2019s an Irish <\/b>g<\/strong>uy.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And, in case you missed it, here is my King County Public Poetry Contest entry option #1, which just might be my version of Gloria Gaynor’s, ‘I Will Survive’.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\"\"

Bald spot is a nuisance in search of\u00a0 flowers, until it’ a tonsure.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

BALDLY BLESSED\u00a0<\/strong>
The top of my head is round and bald, like tonsured monks of old. <\/strong>
Theirs were perfect, mine is not, with wiggles and bumps, I\u2019m told. <\/strong>
I’ll learn from the monks, who with the nuns, will one day coed-mix, <\/strong>
And I’ll be ever ready, as their new day ABBETRIX.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n

……………………………………………………………\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

That\u2019s all there is, folks — for now and probably for a couple of weeks. I love your comments and am finally figuring out the difference between a reply and a comment. Forgive the grammar.\u00a0 I can\u2019t reach across my keyboard, and the shift key is only on one side, which means colons, parentheses, question marks and quotation marks are trouble. Okay, we <\/span>users of colons and parentheses may be rare, but users of question marks and quotation marks are still plenty, and if they are not, ever more information-related misunderstandings will prevail, just another reason to know and be happy\u00a0 that LIBRARIANS RULE!\u00a0<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know I promised to suggest more book titles with a sense of coastal Maine, and I will, but who could pass up a teaser headline like this one:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hip-Hop … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2973,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}