A MARRIAGE MADE AT WOODSTOCK, by Cathie Pelletier, Crown, 276 pages, $22. Accountant Frederick Stone prides himself on being the earliest riser in his neighborhood. Frederick Stone grocery shops with an alphabetized list and knows exactly what Consumer Report has to say on every item. Read More
THE ARTIST’S MOUNT DESERT, by John Wilmerding, Princeton University Press, 195 pages, $49.50. Trying to capture the beauty of Mount Desert Island on canvas is like attempting to bottle the power of the ocean itself. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
“Dance Naked” (Mercury) — John Mellencamp On his latest release, Mellencamp harkens back to the stripped-down sound of “Hurts So Good.” googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i… Read More
SCOTT FITZGERALD: A Biography, by Jeffrey Meyers, HarperCollins, 400 pages, $27.50. Literary lodestar of the Jazz Age, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, was the darling of the unfettered postwar generation of World War I. He made the leap to fame at age 24 with his first… Read More
THE LAST LIGHT BREAKING, by Nick Jans, Alaska Northwest Books, 224 pages, $21.95. On a whim, Nick Jans went to Alaska in 1979. He was a recent graduate of Colby College; he left a girlfriend in Maine behind. He thought, after his Alaskan adventure, he… Read More
If you’re scared of the unknown, then Agatha Christie’s play “Ten Little Indians” will be a fitting end to your summer of theater-going in Maine. The Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville, which is offering up Christie’s “Ten Little Indians” as the finale to its summer… Read More
When Walter Nowick says goodbye, there’s no telling what language he will use. On Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, he orchestrated a recital-type concert to bid adieu to his friends from Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and America, all of whom gathered to… Read More
You can’t help but be in the mood for good music when you drive to Kneisel Hall, which sits in a grove of trees above the village of Blue Hill. From any direction, you encounter curvy back roads, lush mountains and coastal overlooks getting to the chamber music… Read More
We’ve been ravenous in Bangor. Hungry past a growl. Hollow to the core. Clean starved — and all for a taste of Shakespeare. But famish no more, O gentle theatergoers! googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var… Read More
Concertgoers at the Bangor State Fair only got one chance to listen to country singer Martina McBride Friday. But they didn’t go away disappointed. McBride, the fair’s opening act, had been advised to play only one show, because of her pregnancy and a vocal condition. Read More
It has no particular plot, no scathing social commentary, no juicy characters, but Noel Coward’s play “Hay Fever,” which opened this week at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville, is nothing to sneeze at. It relates the story of a weekend during which each of the four members of… Read More
Here are some items you rarely see in July: candy corn, witch’s hats, trick-or-treaters, and gorilla masks. But the Unusual Cabaret in Bar Harbor is in a time warp — if not a bit of a mind warp — with Jeffrey Jones’ ghoulish comedy “Seventy Scenes of Halloween,”… Read More
“It’s almost like coming home,” Bonnie Raitt told an audience of more than 6,600 at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland Tuesday night. And the welcome that the audience gave her was like one reserved for a member of the family everyone’s been wanting to see: as… Read More
The Arcady Music Society plunged into the summer’s coastal music schedule Monday with a concert by the Philharmonia Lawrencia, an all-female orchestra from New York. Performing at the College of the Atlantic’s Gates Center, the society’s new summer home for its Bar Harbor concerts, the… Read More
If it has been a while since you’ve had a good, long, hearty laugh, go at once to Acadia Repertory Theatre’s production of Ken Ludwig’s “Lend Me A Tenor.” Playing through July 24 at the Somesville theater, this farcical play offers about as much gut-tickling fun as you… Read More
“So Far, So Good” (BNA) — Kim Hill A former award-winning contemporary Christian artist, Hill has made an impressive country-music debut. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i… Read More
ANCESTORS: In Search of Human Origins, by Donald Johanson, et al., Villard Books, 339 pages, $27.50. “Ancestors” is the companion volume to Donald Johanson’s recent Nova TV series of the same name and covers the same ground but in greater detail. googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
THE JOCKEY CLUB’S ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THOROUGHBRED RACING IN AMERICA; Edward L. Bowen; Little, Brown and Co., New York; $60. Readers with a fancy for horses, especially thoroughbreds, will find a treasure in “The Jockey Club’s Illustrated History of Thoroughbred Racing in America.” googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
THE CHAMBER, by John Grisham, Doubleday, 486 pages, $24.95 In his four previous books, John Grisham has made a name for himself by combining the thrills of an action-packed adventure with enough legal maneuvering to find a way to get O.J. Simpson off a double-murder… Read More
HITTER, by Ed Linn, Harcourt, Brace & Co., $12.95. Ted Williams was not my boyhood hero — an uncomfortable confession for a Maine boy. But I just happened to fall in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1949 season and spent many a summer… Read More
Do the woes of the world got you down? Are you tired of lawyers and politicians and everyone but you making the important decisions about how you live your life? Well, then you have the same problems as Pithetaerus and Euelipides, the lead characters in… Read More
D-DAY: JUNE 6, 1944, The Climactic Battle of World War II, by Stephen A. Ambrose, Simon and Schuster, 655 pages, $30. Military history tries to make sense of the inherent confusion of war, giving the reader a sense of the importance of a specific moment… Read More
THE QUOTABLE MOOSE: A Contemporary Maine Reader, Wesley McNair, editor, University of New England Press, $15.95, 253 pages. “The Quotable Moose: A Contemporary Maine Reader” offers a mix of short stories, essays and poems set in Maine. Selling “regional” literature in the region it deals… Read More
HEALING LOVE, by Helen Nichols, Windswept House Publishers, 152 pages, $10.95. For more than a century Bangor’s Eastern Maine Medical Center has shone like a bright beacon of hope and healing to the region’s ill and injured. Founded in 1892 as Bangor General Hospital, it… Read More
THE CIRCUS OF THE EARTH AND THE AIR, by Brooke Stevens, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 435 pages, $23.95. When Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope who brought music to the ancient Greeks, fell in love with Eurydice, a tree nymph, the gods rejoiced. googletag.cmd.push(function… Read More
“Where It All Begins” (Epic) — The Allman Brothers Band For its 19th album, the Allman Brothers Band went back to its roots. Following an approach which worked on their classic first two albums, “The Allman Brothers Band” and “Idlewood South,” the group fine-tuned new… Read More
If you’ve heard yodeling coming from the general direction of Ellsworth, it’s not because you’ve been eating too much strudel lately. It’s because The Grand is alive with “The Sound of Music,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved musical about the von Trapp family singers. The show opened last weekend… Read More
Now that Stephen King’s TV miniseries “The Stand” is over, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my evenings. This may seem like a trite statement to you, but when you’re not a TV person, when you get no kick from sitcoms, then you have to… Read More
“Buster’s Happy Hour” (Forward/Rhino) — Buster Poindexter Poindexter stakes a strong early claim for the title of most politically incorrect album of 1994. With such titles as “I Got Loaded,” “Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style” and “Drunk,” Poindexter is happily out of step… Read More
MARY CASSATT: A LIFE, by Nancy Mathews, Villard Books, 383 pages, $28. American artist Mary Cassatt (1845-1926) has earned the critics’ laurel for being “one of the best women painters of all time.” In this elegant biography, Dr. Mathews, pre-eminent authority on Cassatt, tears aside… Read More
“The Stand” has finally found the proper video medium in which to flourish. At 1,153 pages, Stephen King’s epic adventure has too much going on to be condensed down into a two- or three-hour movie. ABC’s eight-hour miniseries, airing at 9 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday… Read More
They’re light. They’re colorful. They’re dancing for miracles. And that’s enough to recommend the show presented both this weekend and next by dancers of the Robinson Ballet Company. The program is a benefit for Eastern Maine Medical Center and the Children’s Miracle Network, but the payoff is really… Read More
Wynonna came to town Thursday night itching to prove to a sellout audience at the Bangor Auditorium why she had been named Top Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music Tuesday. And she proceeded to do just that. Showing no ill effects of the… Read More
Dennis Post doesn’t want to be transferred to St. Louis. He likes his job down in assembly, putting all the fancy colored wires into place and being a regular low-level employee at Jericho Inc. But he’s got it in his mind that he’s being sent… Read More
Lorrie Morgan is working to stake her claim as heir apparent to the title of first lady of country music. As Morgan showed a near-capacity crowd Sunday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center, she has many of the necessary tools, including a striking physical presence,… Read More
Sitting still was not such an easy task after hearing the Bangor Symphony Orchestra play Sunday under guest conductor Christopher Zimmerman. The concert, which was performed to a near-full Maine Center for the Arts, started out big, got bigger and then ended that way. And Zimmerman managed to… Read More
ESCAPADE, by Jane Aiken Hodge, St. Martin’s Press, 231 pages, $18.95. This period adventure-romance is a merry romp. Dashing through its pages are the intrepid, toast-of-London actress, Beth Prior, and Charlotte Cromyn, the runaway teen-ager and rebel heir to a banking fortune. Charlotte, restive under… Read More
“A Date With the Smithereens” (RCA) — The Smithereens The four members of the Smithereens have gone back to basics on their RCA debut. Reuniting with Don Dixon, who produced the group back in 1985, the Smithereens crackle with new-found energy on the 12 cuts… Read More
Carroll F. Terrell, a professor at the University of Maine, and Dorothy Clarke Wilson, an Orono resident and author, recently have published memoirs. UNION IN DIVERSITY — The Story of Our Marriage, by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, self-published, 134 pages, $12.95. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
If you usually find your nose in the history or political sections of your favorite bookstore, you might find these new releases interesting. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, A LIFE, by Nathan Miller, Morrow Books, 624 pages, $27.50. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
THE TRAVELS OF FRANK FORRESTER, by Carl Osgood, Vista House Publishing, P.O. Box 169, Surry 04684, 197 pages, $15. Carl C. Osgood’s “The Travels of Frank Forrester” is historical fiction, but the author’s admission of combining fact with fiction downplays the strength of a narrative… Read More
Chances are that if you saw “The Wizard of Oz” last night at the Maine Center for the Arts, you are still somewhere over the rainbow thinking about Dorothy and her dreamland adventures. If you weren’t there, then you missed one of the largest productions ever to take… Read More
It would be fair to say that the musicians of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields have a hilarious time with their work. Playing to a half-filled Maine Center for the Arts on Sunday, the England-based ensemble of 18 strings and a whole lot of smiles… Read More
Sixty years after its premiere in New York, “Porgy and Bess” is on the stage again, this time with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in a 70-city tour. Last night, the momentous drama about summertime life in Catfish Row came to the Maine Center for the Arts and played… Read More
While facing the possibility of closing for good at the end of this month, Mad Horse Theatre Company in Portland is having what may well be its last laugh with the comedy “Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning Juliet).” Written by Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald, this crazy contemporary piece plops… Read More
Adriano Jordao isn’t really a Monday night pianist. He’s more of a Friday and Saturday night performer. Or maybe even Thursday if you’re really daring. Nevertheless, Jordao performed Monday night as part of the Arcady Music Festival winter concert series at Bangor Theological Seminary, but… Read More
If you think you have problems, meet the cast of Keith Reddin’s play “Nebraska.” Major Gurnery is a washed up Air Force leader. His wife, Carol, is an alcoholic adulterer. Newly appointed missileer Dean Swift is going out of his mind. His infantile wife, Julie, has already gone… Read More
Stephen Gunzenhauser, candidate for the position of music director at the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, conducted Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts. And one word comes to mind after hearing his performance. Finally. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var… Read More
FUTURE IMPERFECT, THE MIXED BLESSINGS OF TECHNOLOGY IN AMERICA, by Howard P. Segal, The University of Massachusetts Press, 245 pages, $15.95. In a recent television ad, a British lass on a deserted seashore sweetly discusses the benefits of the information highway, perfectly natural, mere child’s… Read More
BOSTON MARATHON: The History of the World’s Premier Running Event, by Tom Derderian, Human Kinetics Publishers (Box 5076, Champaign, Ill.), 594 pages, $21.95. Author Tom Derderian has researched with a champion’s diligence, thoroughness and unwavering concern for detail, and run his marathonlike, book-writing race with… Read More
MAINE TO THE WILDERNESS — The Civil War Letters of Private William Lamson, 20th Maine Infantry, by Roderick M. Engert, Publisher’s Press Inc., North South Trader’s Civil War, P.O. Drawer 631, Orange, Va. 22960, 108 pages, $15.95. Perhaps the most impressive Civil War book to… Read More
Two picture books by a Maine husband and wife team and a pair of new novels for older readers provide interesting reading material for children. WE GOT MY BROTHER AT THE ZOO, by John and Ann Hassett, Houghton Mifflin, 32 pages, $14.94 googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
DISCLOSURE, by Michael Crichton, Alfred A. Knopf, 504 pages, $24. The issue of sexual harassment in the workplace is one of the most fervently debated topics of this decade; it was only a matter of time before a well-known writer produced a popular novel with… Read More
CHOSEN, by Eta Fuchs Berk with Gilbert Allardyce, Goose Lane, 140 pages, $9.95. In “Chosen,” Eta Fuchs Berk raises her voice to drown out those who deny the Holocaust occurred, a major reason she decided to write this memoir. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
WITHOUT CONSCIENCE: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, by Dr. Robert D. Hare, Pocket Books, 236 pages, $21. This is a chilling, compelling profile of the whited sepulchres (evil persons feigning goodness) who walk among us, wearing masks of deception. Many are true… Read More
BEHIND THE TIMES, by Edwin Diamond, Villard Books, 437 pages, $24. At last — a book about The New York Times that doesn’t perpetuate the vastly overworked myth that that newspaper is bigger than life; a book that reassures us that the editors and reporters… Read More
DAPHNE DU MAURIER: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller, by Margaret Forster, Doubleday, 457 pages, $25. In July 1937, the 30-year-old English novelist Daphne du Maurier accompanied her husband, Maj. Tommy “Boy” Browning, to his army post in Egypt. In the heat of the… Read More
If you saw the Martha Graham Dance Company perform Saturday at the Maine Center for the Arts, you saw the very last group of dancers to be guided personally by this most American of choreographers. At the hand of the master, these movers learned the signature twirls, jerks,… Read More
If you plan on seeing “The King and I,” which is playing this weekend at Peakes Auditorium, have a good strong cup of coffee before you go, bring Lifesavers for the kids, and allow for at least three hours running time. This a long, long… Read More
Drums were banging, singers were screaming, and the flowered skirts of dancers were flailing as the African Heritage Tour, a group of performers with various roots in African music and dance, stormed through town Saturday with a show at the Maine Center for the Arts. Read More
In this process of finding a new music director for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, local patrons of the symphony have had the treat of hearing a 20th century piece, a romantic piece and a Beethoven symphony for each of this season’s concerts. On Sunday at… Read More
PORTLAND — A slightly reserved crowd greeted Jackson Browne with polite applause as he strummed his guitar a few times to kick off his concert here at the Cumberland County Civic Center Tuesday night. Two hours, seven minutes, 21 songs, and three encores later, that… Read More
Who says nothing new ever happens in Machias? Danny Hatt, owner of the year-old Mad Capp Cafe on Lower Court Street in Machias, served up a fresh pot of musical and culinary treats Monday, by opening his doors to the area’s first Cabaret Dinner Theatre. Read More
I knew he was going to leave her. I knew he was going break her heart. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if… Read More
PETTICOAT WHALERS, Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920, by Joan Druett, Collins, New Zealand, a division of HarperCollins, 213 pages, $29.95. “SHE WAS A SISTER SAILOR”: Mary Brewster’s Whaling Journals, 1845-1851, Joan Druett, editor, Mystic Seaport Museum, 449 pages, $39.95. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
A SMALL COLLEGE IN MAINE: Two Hundred Years of Bowdoin, by Charles C. Calhoun, published by the college and available at the Moulton Union Bookstore and by mail, 294 pages, $37.95 (hardcover), $21.95 (softcover). On June 24, 1794, Samuel Adams, patriot, firebrand of the American… Read More
WHAT IF THE MOON DIDN’T EXIST?, by Neil F. Comins, HarperCollins, 291 pages, $20. Anyone who has raised children is familiar with the question that begins “What if?” It was incessant “What if” questions from his son that spurred Neil Comins, a professor of astronomy… Read More
SEE, I TOLD YOU SO, by Rush Limbaugh, Pocket Books, 364 pages, $24. A merry heart doeth good like medicine. Not, however, when the practitioner is jolly Rush Limbaugh and the patient is a liberal. But I digress. Suffice to say that the nation’s No. Read More
BRAZIL, by John Updike, Knopf, 272 pages, $23. More than 60 years ago, Virginia Woolf shocked and delighted readers with her pseudo-biography of Vita Sackville-West, “Orlando,” in which the title character, a 16th century male poet, achieves fame and longevity in an adventurous, amorous life… Read More
MAD BOYS, by Ernest Hebert, University Press of New England, 216 pages, $22. “The inspiration for `Mad Boys’ came from a photograph I saw of a boy who had been raped and murdered. I thought: this is the Huck Finn of our time; what if… Read More
MERRY MEN, by Carolyn Chute, Harcourt Brace & Co., 695 pages, $24.95. In many ways, Carolyn Chute’s third novel, “Merry Men,” is a surprise — the first being the length of the book — 695 pages!! — the second being a clear but subtle shift… Read More
The Reduced Shakespeare Company gives a warning with each of its performances. It is a high-speed, roller coaster-type condensation of Shakespeare’s plays and therefore not recommended for people with tricky hearts, weak bladders, and other iffy ailments. I feel I should give a warning about… Read More
When George Bernard Shaw heard Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” he dismissed it as dull, ponderous and “patiently borne only by the corpse.” Brahms, he added, was a morose fellow, who on the best of days would utter, “The grave is my goal.” Too bad… Read More
For most people, coming up against a wall can be a very flattening experience, but for DynamO Theatre of Montreal, a wall can be the backboard for an extraordinary theatrical event. Last night at the Maine Center for the Arts, the five-person troupe cut loose in “Mur-Mur,” a… Read More
Here’s an outline of “Three Postcards,” a musical play at Portland Stage Company through Jan. 29: three 30ish women who have been friends since childhood get together for dinner and discussion at a chichi bistro in Manhattan. That’s as much plot as we get from… Read More
ONCE UPON A FARM, by Lloyd Crossland, Joyce Morgan, Fern Stearns and Gail Parent, Fiddlehead Follies, 180 pages, illustrated, $14.95. Snowy days in Maine are made for reminiscing, and if you can’t conjure up enough of your own memories to suit you, then I’d recommend… Read More
3 WORLDS OF LARISSA: A Story of Survival, by Larissa Koteyva, Biddle Publishing, P.O. Box 1305, Brunswick, 287 pages, $16.50. Larissa Koteyva, now a resident of Brunswick, was born in Russia in 1922 just after the Bolsheviks had seized power. Because Larissa’s family included former… Read More
REVOLUTION DOWNEAST, by James S. Leamon, copyright 1993 by the Maine Historical Society, published by the University of Massachusetts Press, 302 pages, $29.95. According to Maine history as I remember it being taught in a Penobscot Valley school system, only three major incidents happened in… Read More
I TOOK A LICKIN’ AND KEPT ON TICKIN’ (And Now I Believe In Miracles), by Lewis Grizzard, Villard Books, 243 pages, $19. As a guy who has read many of Lew Grizzard’s 19 books, I well remember the early morning blurb on the radio one… Read More
AUDUBON: LIFE AND ART IN THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS, by Shirley Streshinsky, Villard Books, 407 pages, $25. All his life John James Audubon was driven by the compulsion to draw birds, and when he emigrated from France to America at age 18 he made the resolve… Read More
PRONTO, by Elmore Leonard, Delacorte Press, 265 pages, $21.95. “And for what it’s worth, I have my background; googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++)… Read More
BOMBSHELL: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow, by David Stenn, Doubleday, 370 pages, $22.50. When Jean Harlow, the “blonde bombshell,” was introduced to the widow of England’s Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, Margot Asquith, the former persisted in pronoucing the “t” in her first name. Read More
GARLIC GALORE, by Minnette Cummings, self-published, 132 pages, $12.95. Good news, all you lovers of the stinking rose — here’s a cookbook packed with hundreds of absolutely garlic-drenched recipes for everything except dessert. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes… Read More
THE FBI: Inside the World’s Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency, by Ronald Kessler, Pocket Books, 492 pages, $22. Most books written these days don’t grab headlines. But most books written by Ronald Kessler not only make headlines they also can make or break a career. Read More
THE CHRISTMAS STORE, by Ray Sipherd, St. Martin’s Press, 214 pages, $17.95. In this charming collection of 12 stories the charisma of Christmas alters the lives of ordinary people — shoppers and employees — in a large department store during the pre-Christmas crush. The tales… Read More
GOOD OLD MAINE, by Will Anderson, self-published, 7 Bramhall Terrace, Portland 04103, 106 pages, $16.95. Portland writer Will Anderson, who has published such topical books as “Was Baseball Really Invented in Maine?” has produced “Good Old Maine,” an interesting and nostalgic look at a Maine… Read More
THE CIVIL WAR LETTERS OF CAPT. JOHN FRANKLIN GODFREY, by Candace Sawyer and Laura Orcutt, 90 pages, illustrated, $15 (available from the Bangor Historical Society). It has been a good year for Civil War buffs and enthusiasts across the Pine Tree State. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
DEADLINE, by Gerry Boyle, North Country Press, 306 pages, $17.95. A warning to newpaper reporters in Maine, especially those of you who write for weeklies: If you don’t like taking your work home with you, don’t read Gerry Boyle’s first book, “Deadline.” googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
Consider giving a book to the children on your Christmas shopping list. You’re sure to find something to suit any child’s fancy among these fine titles. For the picture book set – ages 3-8 googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var… Read More
GHOST LIGHT, by Rick Hautala, Zebra Books, 512 pages, $4.99. As he has done so often in the past, Rick Hautala zeroes in on the apparent and hidden secrets of family life, where ordinary men, women and children are thrust unexpectedly into danger by sources… Read More
Keeping Christmas in our hearts all year long isn’t the easiest task. Bills pile up. Responsibilities wear us down. People disappoint us. It’s plumb hard to stay charitable, merciful, benevolent. But if anything can remind us about the spirit of the season — and how… Read More
The story of “The Nutcracker” is probably as well-known to middle America as is the original Christmas story, so there’s hardly ever anything new to be found in its dreamy plot line. Yet when the Robinson Ballet performed its annual “Nutcracker” Friday night at the Maine Center for… Read More
The search for a new music director continued Sunday with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s second concert of the season, this time featuring Neal Gittleman of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The event was sold-out, which is the first time a BSO classical concert has done so at the Maine… Read More
Joe Pass, Paco Pena, Pepe Romero and Leo Kottke showed up for a “guitar summit” last night at the Maine Center for the Arts and played a concert that was of peak quality, delicacy and style. Pass, now in his 63rd year, began the show… Read More
Describing a night of live music by Wynton Marsalis and his septet is like trying to describe the history of jazz in one sentence. All you can really say is (and I have to confess that I steal this line from one of Marsalis’ recordings): So this is… Read More
In celebration of National Children’s Book Week, Nov. 11-15, why not pick up one of these new titles for children? Several are by Maine authors or illustrators. THE STORY OF LIGHTNING AND THUNDER, by Ashley Bryan, Atheneum, 32 pages, $14.95, ages 4-8. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
LASHER, by Anne Rice, Knopf, 578 pages, $25. Loyal Anne Rice fan though I am, I can only hope that with “Lasher” the Mayfair witch clan is out of her system. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = [];… Read More
THE ROBBER BRIDE, by Margaret Atwood, Nan A. Talese-Doubleday, 542 pages, $23.50. To delight, as William Blake would venture, is what Margaret Atwood aims to do for her readers, and in her newest novel, “The Robber Bride,” she indeed delights, inspires, engages, and surprises us… Read More
NOTHING BUT GOOD TIMES AHEAD, by Molly Ivins, Random House, 255 pages, $23. Molly Ivins, the well-known syndicated columnist and Texan “arthur,” reminds me of that unique guest who always shows up at the family reunion — you know the one I mean. googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
TALKING PEACE: A VISION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, By Jimmy Carter, Dutton Children’s Books, 192 pages, $16.99. Historians and plumbers might be able to argue the merits and legacy of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, but few can challenge the work he has accomplished on behalf of… Read More