Literary Review -- Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors

Literary Review is a new feature of this blog space. From time to time I will review books and magazines featuring Maine subjects. This month I will review the magazine, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors. As many of you know, the offices for this magazine are based in our own South End in the building where Naum & Adams used to be.

The particular issue which is the subject of this review is the Winter 2011 issue. I recently received a complimentary copy of this issue. I was fortunate to participate in a book signing at the Maine Boats, Home & Harbors show this past summer down at the Landing. I met some very nice people associated with the magazine, including the publisher, John Hanson.

I read all the articles and even the Letters to the Editor. I agree with the letter from Jim Scanlan, of Eliot, Maine, who chose to make Maine his home: …”The articles are full of important information that highlights both the beauty of the state and the important issues that face us as we move forward…”

Nowhere is this statement more evident than in the feature called “View From the Porch,” written by Peter Bass. The topics he covered included what you might discuss with a couple of your cronies while rocking on the front porch. He managed to include such things as the new law on lobsters which allows us to sell claws separately; a new concrete mooring developed by the University of Maine Lobster Institute which serves as a habitat for young lobsters; global warming worries as it applies to Maine; and the Tidal Energy Project.

Although I didn’t understand all the sailing terminology included in some of the articles, I could appreciate the stories centered on sailing topics including “North Haven’s Timeless Knockabouts.”

The magazine has a Down East Magazine flavor to it as evidenced in such stories as “Three Encounters with a Line Squall,” by W.R. Cheney, John Bryan, and Kent Mullikin; and the department piece called “A Postcard in Time,” by Peter Spectre, editor of the magazine, about the old quarries.

I also enjoyed the department called “Awanadjo Almanack,” by Rob McCall which began with a discussion of how it is to live in a small town. He quoted such writers, poets, and personalities as Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and John Muir. A writer who has the words of all those geniuses on the tip of his tongue is a real writer in my book.

There are many more articles of interest in this issue and I invite you to pick it up and read them. I would like to give a special shout out to John and Leila. Thanks for all your help and good luck with the show and the magazine in the future.