Longfellow Books

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Back to the land

Digging up cathartic childhood memories
There is an idyllic pull to the homesteading lifestyle, especially when such a back-to-the-land experiment is undertaken on the coast of Maine, where rocky shores abut dense woods and merely breathing the air imparts rural spirit and pluck.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 06, 2011

Reaching a new frontier

Book of the times
Shetterly's new memoir, Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home is the story of hardships — financial, familial, emotional — not usually the stuff that inspires switching places.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 09, 2011

Sarah Braunstein's uncomfortable, beautiful hyperreality

(Bitter)sweet emotion
There's an unsettling honesty that spills from Portland author Sarah Braunstein's first novel, The Sweet Relief of Missing Children .
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 23, 2011

So you thought you were special

Literati
Reading Hannah Holmes's work is enlightening and entertaining — even when it's at its most depressing.
By JEFF INGLIS | February 16, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Further adventures in literary obsession and authenticity with Brock Clarke

Idolatry in Watertown
Reviewing Brock Clarke's last novel, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England (Algonquin), three years ago — before the author moved to Portland, started teaching at Bowdoin College, and released his new book, Exley , which he'll read at Longfellow Books next week — I admired its mischievous streak.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | October 12, 2010

Where Maine reads

A decade into Portland's indie-bookstore movement, brick-and-mortar shops are holding their own
Perhaps the most exciting part of my day working at Longfellow Books was The Spider Incident, which involved said arachnid emerging from a potted plant around 10:30 am to terrorize staff members and scurry, unscathed, underneath a shelf.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 29, 2010

Fall Books Preview: Reading list

Smartening up the seasonal transition
Even if you’re not back in the classroom, autumn inspires a desire to learn, to restore the intellectualism that was fried by too many beers and barbecues and sunburns. Fortunately, Portland is full this fall with opportunities to spark your smarts.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 15, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

‘Junk Food’ Improvement

Don’t give up the sweets
Portland native and healthful-cookie entrepreneur Laura Trice has based her career on building a better sweet tooth.
By SARA DONNELLY | May 12, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Portland’s wishes for 2010

New Year’s resolutions
Ah, these fresh moments of the new year, when our hopes and resolutions are unsullied by the rough ravages of time, politics, and the Maine winter.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 30, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Learning curve

Maine novelist teases our brains
Maine novelist teases our brains
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 23, 2009

No assignments here

An enjoyable reading list
Need a break from all that required reading this fall? You're in luck. In
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 16, 2009

Which was fine

Jessica Anthony's pleasantly disturbing Convalescent
There are probably 10 or 15 reviews I could write of Jessica Anthony's The Convalescent . Leitmotifs populate the book's 240 pages like thick, black hairs on the back of an old man's wrinkled ass.
By SAM PFEIFLE | September 02, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Back-to-school supplies

What you won't find on your syllabus
After a summer that started with a monsoon and coasted into its final lap with a heat wave, when we talked about Wilco, celebrity deaths, and Shakespeare in the park, when we feared tasers and crime sprees, and we consumed Mexican food and ice cream, we're ready to make the transition into fall.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 26, 2009

Dead like me

Tonya Hurley's high-school afterlife
"Perception vs. reality. In high school, they are pretty much the same thing." So writes Tonya Hurley, author of ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming (Little Brown), two books ostensibly written for young adults but with elements that are just as appealing to grown-ups.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 05, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Deep impact

Ron Currie Jr. has a blast with the apocalypse once more
In the most memorable piece in Waterville author Ron Currie Jr.'s 2007 debut short story collection, God is Dead (Viking), God is reincarnated as a Dinka woman in a refugee camp in Sudan, who enlists a jive-talking Colin Powell in an effort to find a young boy.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 01, 2009

Owning her identity

Portland zinester's tales become a book
After twice seeing the one-woman stage adaptation of The Passion of the Hausfrau at Portland Stage Company, and perusing several issues of the Hausfrau mutha-zine , I was curious to see how Nicole Chaison's tales of motherhood would translate to book form.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 03, 2009

By | January 01, 0001