Down East Books - Böcker

Garden photographer Janet Loughrey has covered the vast Adirondacks region to document how people have overcome the area's challenging mountain climate to create beautiful gardens for the past 150 years. Her profiles of contemporary gardeners and landscapers and their creations are supplemented with fascinating historic photos of the lavish landscaping of famed Adirondack-style estates such as Nirvana and the Knapp Estate and grand old hotel resorts such as Scaroon Manor and Sagamore.

Sea glass connects civilization and nature, often in surprising ways. And collecting sea glass and pottery shards is more popular than ever. However, beyond simply admiring their beauty, many collectors are at a loss as to just what to do with their collections. Sea Glass Crafts is filled with ideas to turn your seaside treasures into home decor--inside and out, practical and decorative, whimsical and serious. From a sea glass chandelier to a shower curtain, or a sea glass wreath to a shadowbox, sea glass expert Carole Lambert covers thirty fun and beautiful projects. Step by step directions, explanations of everything you'll need, and color photographs accompany each project. Sea Glass Crafts is the perfect book for anyone fascinated by these jewels from the sea.

Based on the April 2012 issue of Down East magazine, one of our best selling issues of the year, this book is the only guide you need to the ultimate Maine road trip. Meet the people and places—and hear the stories—that make the 527 miles from Kittery to Fort Kent a unique and unforgettable experience. Plus at the back of each section get a short but sweet list of the best places to visit, stay, and eat along your way. From potato country to Down East, the Mid Coast to the Southern Beaches, Route 1 packs in everything Maine has to offer—and this book is a must-have trip companion.

This book is a trip-oriented guide, with each entry focusing on a specific activity at a particular location. Some examples are ·biking the Acadia Carriage Roads; ·climbing Bigelow Mountain;·or canoeing the Magalloway River.  It presents a series of trips that could comprise an entire summer of exploration or be stretched out over years. The authors present a series of day or weekend trips that could comprise an entire summer of exploration or be stretched out over years. Combined, the trips represent a broad-based discovery of the entire state of Maine. Maps, clear directions, and pertinent information are included for each trip, as well as first-hand descriptions of what you can expect to encounter along the way.

Ever wonder what lies beyond the garden wall? Now at last it's possible to peek over all those fences and gates and enjoy a close-up look at some of Maine's most extraordinary private landscapes. Photographer Lynn Karlin and writer Rebecca Sawyer-Fay take readers on a guided tour of some of their favorite gardens around the state, gardens grand as well as offbeat. Town gardens and country gardens, camp, cottage, and seaside gardens—they're all here in 248 glorious color photographs brimming with ideas and inspiration.Gardens Maine Style is nothing less than a celebration of the can-do spirit of Maine gardeners, who succeed despite extremes of weather, a short growing season, an abundance of rocks, and even salt spray. Discover where some of the most accomplishes gardeners in the Northeast buy their plants, and where they go to find one-of-a-kind containers and outdoor sculpture—garden-oriented antiques shops, co-ops, and salvage retailers are all included.A collaboration between two nationally known garden journalists, Gardens Maine Style is also your guide to acclaimed historic landscapes around the state, some still in the hands of families that designed and planted them more than a century ago. Included, as well, are legendary gardens now open to the public, among them Bernard McLaughlin's charming and highly personal oasis in South Paris, and the restored Hamilton House Gardens in South Berwick.A book for armchair gardeners, home gardeners, and garden tourists, Gardens Maine Style makes it easy to take home a bit of Maine magic, no matter where you live.

It is commonplace that poetry is the literary form that best expresses our deepest feelings. Those who seldom read poetry regularly turn to it for weddings, funerals, and other milestones. This Take Heart anthology--the second collection from Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair's weekly newspaper column--is chosen from the work of poets all over Maine, representing a wide cultural view of the state.

For whatever reason, man has always been drawn to the sea. It invigorates us, inspires our creativity and spirituality, and awakens our senses of wonder, curiosity, and exploration. People have long walked the shore in search of treasures washed up from far away. Now, visitors and residents of New England and northeast have this source to get them to them to the beach and tell them what they can expect to find. Covering the coast from Maryland up to the Canadian border, The Beachcomber's Guide to the Northeast describes every prominent beach, their makeup (whether sand or rocky,) and includes directions and pertinent facts about available amenities. The text also includes descriptions and photos of flora and fauna that might be seen, such as crabs, shells, birds, insects, even fish and whales. And of course there are the flotsam and jetsam that can be found, from driftwood to sea glass to beach stones and even shipwrecks. It's all covered here. There's even a section on pirates and pirate treasure.This is the book to bring the next time you head to the beach.

Blessed with varied topography and a mix of climate zones, Maine is home to a rich variety of wildlife. In Wild Maine, renowned wildlife photographer Bill Silliker, Jr. (he died in 2003, just before this book was published in HC) introduces us to the “grand mosaic” of natural Maine through his photographs and personal stories of his unusual encounters with wild creatures.

Acclaimed photographer Kosti Ruohomaa is widely known for his photographs of hard scrabble Yankees in mid-century Maine. No one was more acutely aware than Ruohomaa that his work was capturing a way of life that was rapidly fading. Before his work in Maine, however, Ruohomaa started out with Disney, then went on to become a freelance photographer for the Black Star Agency, where he was a regular contributor to Life, National Geographic, Look, and Ladies Home Journal. His true passion, however, was documenting the lives of the people of Maine. In this biography by curator Deanna Bonner-Ganter, of the Maine State Museum, Kosti's life and work is made relevant and important to an audience that may be unfamiliar with his work.

I’m not from Maine… but I got here as soon as I could. Six years ago, a family from Florida fell in love with “the way life should be,” and althoughthey’ve never seen a moose, the Smileys intend to stay. Because say what you will about the coldwinters and the messy mud season, there is no other place to raise a kid than in the great state ofMaine.Got Here As Soon As I Could is a collection of syndicated columnist Sarah Smiley’smost-loved columns about raising a family in Maine. In these 100 essays, readers will laugh, cryand nod their head “yes” as they remember a time when all of America was as simple and beautiful as it still is today in Vacationland.

Like many hikers who’ve completed the Appalachian Trail, Jeffrey Ryan didn’t do it in one long through-hike. Grabbing weekends here and days off there, it took Jeffrey twenty-eight years to finish the trail, and along the way he learned much about himself and made many new friends, including his best friend, who made the journey with him from start to finish. Including 75 color photos, this engaging book is part memoir, part natural history and lore, and part practical advice. Whether you’ve hiked the AT, are planning to hike it, or only wish to dream of hiking it, this is the book to read next.

Fairy Houses All Year celebrates the year-round pleasures of fairy house building. Through the use of seasonal varieties, kids and families can engage in this natural and creative endeavor through all seasons. Activities and materials found in each season are highlighted throughout the book. For example, fall fairy houses feature vibrant colored leaves, pumpkins, and late blooming flowers. Winter fairy houses are built using snow, ice, old birds’ nests, or the dried husks of milkweed and seed pods. In spring, fairy houses become abundant with early blooms, bare branches, and lots of mud! Summer fairy houses are perhaps the most decorative because choices for the summer fairy house are boundless. Filled with color photos, snippets of fairy lore, helpful advice and instructions, and lots of information about nature, Fairy Houses All Year is the ideal handbook for crafting fairy homes no matter the season.

The vast majority of visitors to Maine are not rugged outdoors types looking for adventure. Yet many of these people still want to enjoy a nice walk or short hike with their kids or parents. In this collection of hikes, Bangor Daily News outdoors reporter Aislinn Sarnacki presents dozens of hikes around the state that will let you experience the Maine wilderness, but won’t leave you gasping for breath. Most are short (less than three miles), and all are in the easy/moderate difficulty range. Color photos inform you of trail details and some of the wildlife or scenery you may see on your hikes, and clear maps make sure you make it home for dinner. It’s all rounded out with practical advice and information about access to public and private lands.

Abandoned by his father, orphaned by his drug-addled mother, and devastated by the murder of his sister, Michael McKeon was once a hardened “street dog who learned to play in traffic.” Years later, Michael is now a Bowdoin College professor with a wife and adopted daughter. When he creates a microbe that instantly cleans up any oil spill, no matter how large, by devouring the oil, that discovery should be the breakthrough that defines a career. But the microbiologist's life is ruined when The Global Group kidnaps his wife and daughter, forcing him to use his microbe to destroy all Saudi and Russian oil. As Michael races against the clock to save his family, he becomes a threat to the secret efforts of the American, Russian and Saudi governments to douse the flames in the Middle East by implementing a new Marshall Plan. Haunted by the loss of one family and determined not to lose another, Michael will do anything to save his wife and daughter, even if it means throwing the world into chaos. And heaven help anyone, even his own government, who tries to stop him. From the moment Michael's family is kidnapped, the action never stops, propelling him relentlessly from Bowdoin College’s deceptively tranquil campus in Brunswick, Maine, to a hidden laboratory in the United Arab Emirates; to Abqaiq in the desolate and unforgiving Empty Quarter; to the bitter isolation of the Sakhalin Island oil fields off Russia’s far eastern coast; and to the final showdown in an isolated dacha outside Moscow, where Michael may not survive the ultimate betrayal of discovering who is really behind The Global Group.

Winky Lewis and Susan Conley, a photographer and a writer in Portland, tried an experiment. At the start of every week for a year, Winky sent Susan a photograph: of their children, of the street where they live as neighbors, and of other green places in Maine. By the end of that week Susan sent a tiny story back that talked to the photograph. Stop Here, This Is The Place tells the story of a year in which children's arms and legs get longer, and traces of babyhood fade--a year that feels interminable to a ten-year-old looking forward and fleeting to that ten-year-old’s mother, who can always stop here, go back and remember. This delightfully evocative gift book is a reminder to stop and enjoy the precious time we have with our kids while we have them. Through Susan's recollections of moments from her childhood and the ongoing lives of her children, we’re reminded of our own childhoods, and of the necessity to stop and pay attention, to hold on.

The ultimate to-do list for Mainers and visitors alikeWhat better way to celebrate 50 years of book publishing than to celebrate the greatest things Maine has to offer. Following the popular trend in “bucket list” books, this experiential guide will help visitors and residents alike discover everything there is to do here. Taken all together, these experiences are enough to fill a life time.

A lighthearted look at moose and their mannerismsGathered here dozens of color images of moose at their wackiest, each accompanied by a silly caption from the human mind. These amusing and enlightening photographs provide a surprising insight into the character of moose. People of all ages will be delighted by this hilarious look at moose and their mannerisms.

What better way to celebrate 50 years of book publishing than to celebrate everyday life in Maine. Gathering the work of 50 photographers from all over the state, the book captures the day to day lives of ordinary Mainers. Primarily a book about people, these images are arranged to follow the course of a day, starting with morning routines, passing through the events of the day, and closing at nightIt's a stunning tribute to the extraordinary that can be found in the ordinary. Together these images compose a moving portrait of a small place at a small moment in time.