JUST OUT A paean to ‘Shacks’ … for the uninitiated

If you’ve lived in Maine long enough to have a favorite local clam shack or lobster pound, you may not find Elizabeth Bougerol’s “New England’s Seafood Shacks” particularly revealing. On the other hand, if you are less familiar with the seafood stops in southern Maine or in the other New England states, this might be a good car book. Not to read in the car, but to keep in the car for when you’re traveling to Fenway Park or to Cape Cod and have a fried clams attack. (It happens.) Bougerol gives a touristy spin to the flavor of each rustic stop on her eating adventure. She’s a senior features editor for AOL CityGuide, and she’s from away. So it’s no wonder some of her insights swell with admiration. For most of us, this isn’t romantic food. It’s greasy, salty and defiant of every low-carb diet on the map. In other words: delicious but not worth glorifying. Still, we all run into people who want to know where to buy lobster-motif fridge magnets. If so, they probably will appreciate Bougerol’s tips on ice cream, pie, crab rolls, fish lore and the characters who make, bake and create it all. Christmas is coming. Give this to your favorite warm-weather visitors; it’ll slow them down getting to your house next summer.