Sometimes it seems like you can throw a stone in Maine and hit a writer. Aren’t we lucky? We asked bookseller Josh Christie to tell us about a few books by Maine writers – fiction and nonfiction – due out this fall that have caught his eye.
“The Tiny Kitchen Cookbook: Strategies and Recipes for Creating Amazing Meals in Small Spaces,” by Annie Mahle. Storey Publishing. $19.95, trade paperback, on sale Sept. 28.
Like many folks in Southern Maine, I’ve suffered through years of tiny apartments with even tinier kitchens, which can put a serious damper on cooking aspirations. In “The Tiny Kitchen Cookbook,” Annie Mahle shares 50 recipes – along with tips and tricks – for cooking for large groups in small kitchens, and even for those without a full stove. The recipes are field-tested, developed during Mahle’s years as the galley chef aboard the Maine schooner J. & E. Riggin in its 6’ x 8’ kitchen. The cuisine isn’t compromised, featuring delights from Buttermilk Fried Chicken Salad to Ginger and Blackberry Crème Brûlée.
“Dear Specimen: Poems,” by W. J. Herbert. Beacon Press. $16, trade paperback, on sale Oct. 5.
Established in 1978, the National Poetry Series sponsors the publication of just five books of poetry every year. This year, one of those collections is “Dear Specimen,” from W. J. Herbert (who splits their time between Kingston, New York, and Portland, Maine. The book, consisting of a five-part series of interwoven poems from a dying parent to her daughter, manages to be both vast and intimate in scale – it’s about both the relationship between parent and child, and the dire threat of climate change to our species and planet.
“Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization,” by David Livingstone Smith. Harvard University Press. $27.95, hardcover, on sale Oct. 12.
With “Making Monsters,” the University of New England’s David Livingstone Smith has crafted a meditation on dehumanization that manages to be both scholarly and accessible. Smith is the foremost philosopher on the topic, and is a regular source for media around the world on the roots of racist and political violence. As in his earlier works “On Inhumanity” and “Less Than Human,” the author leaves behind jargon and roots the book deeply in history and current affairs to present a compelling case as to why humans can be so cruel as to think of each other as inhuman. While I’d often hesitate to include an academic title in a list of recommendations for a general audience, this title is simply too important to miss.
“Five Tuesdays in Winter,” by Lily King. Grove Press. $27, hardcover, on sale Nov. 9.
Portland’s beloved Lily King, author most recently of the novels “Euphoria” and “Writers and Lovers,” returns this fall with her first-ever collection of stories. Half of the stories in the collection, previously published in literary magazines, may be familiar to King’s most-devoted readers, but the other five are brand new. All 10 showcase the author’s talent for creating memorable characters and digging deeply into love and loss – as Ann Patchett put it, the book “filled up every chamber of (her) heart.” King is the rare author who improves with each new outing, and “Five Tuesdays in Winter” presents yet another high-water mark.
Josh Christie is co-owner of Print: A Bookstore in Portland, and is a freelance writer.
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