Exploring Maine, Celebrating Books

On a rainy day when you need to get kids’ imaginations activated, read them ‘Stowaways’ by Susan Vaughan.

If you’re looking to read a love letter to Maine or three, Chelsea Diehl’s Just Up the Road and Amy Calder’s Comfort is an Old Barn both fit the bill. They strike two distinct tones, with Calder having grown up in Somerset County and working as a reporter based out of Waterville. Diehl is a relative newcomer to the state on a personal journey of exploring spots on and off the beaten path throughout the state. Having read both in quick succession, I pulled out some of these writings’ striking quotes about what Maine means. 

Sleigh Magic is a children’s book that is a fun imagining of how the elves came to be at the North Pole as Santa’s assistants. It’s a clever story with a good mix of animal cuteness and the magic of Christmas that kids will love. As an added bonus to the fun story, the illustrations are absolutely beautiful! 

I love puns, so Inn Mates’ title immediately had a hold on me. If you’re looking for a book that will make you chuckle, grimace, and shake your head in wonder and worry, Inn Mates is the memoir for you. Easy to read, but not short on eventful moments, the book shares Teri and Jeff Anderholm’s story, centered around their experience buying, owning, and selling a luxury inn in Bar Harbor.

Before reading Francena Hallett’s Heart, I did a quick perusal of the book’s Goodreads page. There, a reviewer described the book as “sweet” which is a description I cannot improve upon for the bulk of the novel. No direct spoilers, but the action ratchets up at the end - in a way that readers of the entire trilogy will probably most be able to appreciate. 

Rose and Hank are headed out for an anniversary dinner in their small Maine town when their evening is interrupted. Rose sees a baby - Owen - falling from a window and likely saves its life when she catches it. This split second heroic action sets into motion events for Rose, Hank, and the baby’s mother Sophia, tying their lives together and forcing them into decisions and situations they likely never foresaw being part of their lives.

In The Toll Road North, a gunman’s actions in a Lewiston sandwich shop result in a series of events that pull main character Dee into the past, or, as the book’s opening so artfully states, “the place in her memory that she has kept locked.” 

Did you grow up romping through the woods and along the streams and rivers of New England? The setting of this book will seem familiar to you, though hopefully your experience had less tragedy than that encountered by the characters of Sarah Beth Martin’s In The Vanishing Hour. 

Russian mobsters. A hitwoman. The local cops. A strong-willed and capable teenager. An antagonistic newspaper reporter. If this cast of characters doesn’t grab your interest, Hunger Hill might not be for you.

Having read most of the Rizzoli & Isles books, I was excited to crack open The Spy Coast, Tess Gerritsen’s newest book. However, after reading the summary, I was a little worried it might be trying too much to take on the general idea behind Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. I was pleasantly surprised that it did not feel dependent on Osman. Instead, The Spy Coast has its own distinctive tone, plot, and characters, even though it does use the retired senior citizen spy as a main character.