CHECK IT OUT New Maine guide covers a lot of territory quite well

Most handbooks, cookbooks and guidebooks about Maine make me cringe. They paint a quaint picture of the state as a place of blueberries, lobster, strawberry shortcake, kayakers, popovers and funny accents. It gets old. But a new book by Hilary Nangle is perhaps one of the best I’ve seen on Maine’s most popular coastal areas. Don’t be misled by the title, “Acadia National Park,” put out by Moon Handbooks. Nangle, who grew up near Portland, hits the important notes about Acadia, but she also covers a lot of territory outside of the park: Mount Desert Island, Schoodic and Blue Hill peninsulas, Deer Isle, Ellsworth and Trenton. She includes tributes to state treasures including the Sea Coast Mission, boat builder Ralph Stanley in Southwest Harbor, and MacArthur “genius” grant awardee Ted Ames of Stonington. Her writing is lively and literary. With her recommendations about hikes and haunts, she makes me want to be an adventurer in my own backyard. Maps and informative blurbs are assuring that I will make the most of the experience. A “resource” section provides interesting details about natural and human history. Nangle’s photographer husband, Tom, contributes the appealing images. At first I thought this might be a good book to give houseguests or out-of-state Maine-o-philes. It is. But it’s also a book I want on my shelf. You can be sure it will have tattered pages before I’m done with it.