BlogMarcs

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

To Walk a Mile

Kerry Hardy notes early in his book, Notes on a Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki Nature that a reader is rightly suspicious of a book about Native Americans written by a Euro-american. He is also painfully aware that his own native soil in Lincolnville, Maine, is what he calls "taken land" – taken, that is, from the Lobster Clan of the Penobscot People. This book springs in part from his wish to make a remembrance of those who came before and remain what he calls "rightful heirs" of the land of N'Dakina. But it springs as well from the admiration Hardy holds for those he calls "a family of real people" whose descendants "are not anonymous, imaginary, or untraceable." Hardy's own background in environmental studies, landscape architecture, and education, combined with a love for nature and a people who once lived completely within its realm, is what led him to walk this walk in another's moccasins.

And you can take that walk, too. While this book would serve as a more than adequate armchair excursion into Wabanaki history, anthropology, and sociology, it is, as its subtitle suggests, a field guide. A little too large to fit into a breast pocket, it nonetheless will supply an able companion – replete as it is with drawings, photographs, maps, and tables on nearly every page – on field trips across miles and miles of landscape still very much alive with the presence of our Wabanaki predecessors. Come in and take a look! For more information or to buy yours now, take this link.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Nobody Does Anything About It

Charles Dudley Warner's famous quip that "Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it" is not quite true, as revealed in Conditions May Vary: A Guide to Maine Weather by Greg Zielinski. The former State Climatologist and University of Maine professor may not have yet managed to change the weather, but he and many others have been studying and documenting its vagaries for decades. This book is clear enough for the casual weather conversationalist to benefit from it, but substantial enough to please even the geekiest of weather nuts. Topics range from "The Culture of Maine's Weather," a discussion of how Mainers are affected by and adapt to Maine's climate, to "Where the Numbers Come From," an examination of how weather data is gathered and analysed, to "The Big Event," which includes a Top Ten of severe weather events over the last century or so (guess what's #1?). No one who talks even occasionally about the weather should be without this handy guide. (You might even terrify some flatlanders by sending them a copy!) Lavishly illustrated by photographs, charts, and maps. Come in and take a look! For more information or to buy yours now, take this link.

Friday, May 8, 2009

The Jewel of the Midcoast

There's more to Penobscot Bay than lobster and gunk holes. The Bay's reach throughout the world and human history is long, including supplying the vehicle for George Washington's first victory in the Revolutionary War, the first ship in the U. S. Navy named for a hero of the Vietnam War, stones for the Brooklyn Bridge, and venues for Hollywood on more than one occasion. And then there's lobster and gunk holes. Penobscot Bay: People, Ports & Pastimes by Harry Gratwick tells some of Penobscot Bay's many stories – great and humble – in text and illustrations. Gratwick was a summer visitor from Philadelphia, who absorbed much of the Bay's uniqueness and significance over the years. Come in and take a look! For more information or to buy yours now, take this link.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Gone Fishin'

Two recent books about fly fishing in Maine take a first-person tone in their respective approaches. Fly Fishing Maine: Rivers, Brooks, and Streams by Bob Leeman offers tips on "where to go, how to fish, and flies to tie" based on a lifetime of experience. And J.H. Hall tells the kinds of stories one normally hears only around the fire in True Stories of Maine Fly Fishermen. Whether you're about to put on the waders and go forth with pole in hand or whether you'd just like some good "armchair angling," both are worth the candle. Come in and take a look! For more information or to buy yours now, take this link for Leeman or this link for Hall.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Bangor Before The Fire

With the 98th anniversary of the Great Fire just days away, the arrival at BookMarc's of Wayne Reilly's latest book couldn't be more timely. The conflagration which consumed much of Bangor's eastside downtown – and, with it, many of eastern Maine's cultural and architectural treasures – changed the course of Bangor's history. In just a few hours, residents were faced with decisions about recovering from its greatest single disaster – including whether to rebuild at all. Those decisions led to the city as we know it today, but what was life in the Queen City like before the fire? Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before The Great Fire is this local historian's answer. Assembled from Reilly's articles in the Bangor Daily News and lavishly illustrated (with many contributions from fellow historian Richard Shaw), Remembering Bangor will sweep you away into an era long gone but, in many ways, still with us today. Come in and take a look! For more information or to buy yours now, take this link.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Images of Bangor

Local historian Richard Shaw's two books about Bangor, published in the Arcadia Press "Images of America" series, are both back in print! Bangor and Bangor, Volume II: The Twentieth Century are in stock at BookMarc's, as is Shaw's Bangor In Vintage Postcards. Each of these books contain some 200 images of Bangor's past people and places. Come in and see for yourself, or use the links to browse and buy through our secure shopping system.