If I were asked to name the most common flowers in this part of Maine, it would be daylilies and black-eyed Susans. Native to North America, Black-eyed Susans or Rudbeckia hirta are now found in the lower 48 states.
A close third would be the many varieties of cone flowers.
We made another visit to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens this week. After checking off another troll on our list (we’ve seen three of the five), we enjoyed wandering in the children’s garden and through the senses garden. Everything seemed especially lush and leafed out (probably all the rain here in July) and as always, it was lovely.
Here on Southport, there are daylilies in the garden and when we walk the neighborhood, we spy more of them. Especially prevalent are the yellow and cream ones.
Cream daylilies at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
CHALLENGED DETECTIVE
The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert K. Galbraith
I missed some of the hoopla when J. K. Rowling published her first crime novel as Robert K. Galbraith. I’m only now discovering this work, thanks to the recommendations of Patricia and Rebecca. The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first of five novels featuring detective Cormoran Strike. Strike is a former soldier who served in Afghanistan. At the outset, he is hard up, soon to be homeless, and slowed down by the loss of part of one leg in the war. After the apparent suicide of Lula, a famous model, Strike is hired by the model’s stepbrother to investigate her death. His new temp Robin is efficient, motivated, and tactful in ignoring the travails of Strike’s personal life. Together they wind their way through false leads and questionable tactics to arrive at the truth.
I enjoyed getting to know both Cormoran and Robin but was less taken with the unsavory characters of the celebrity world. The book is very well-written (one probably wouldn’t expect any less) and clever, but long. I picked it up and put it down and then resumed. The more I got into it, the more I found it satisfying and engaging. Therefore, after a break, I will probably read the next title in the series.
Last year we were disappointed in the lobster rolls we ordered, no one of them was outstanding. Not only is the amount and type of lobster important, having the right kind of roll (split hot dog bun toasted) is key. On our quest this year for a great lobster roll, we are more pleased.
According to Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, “the lobster roll originated as a hot dish at a restaurant named Perry’s in Milford, Connecticut, as early as 1929. Its popularity then spread up and down the Connecticut coast, but not far beyond it. In Connecticut, the sandwich served warm is called a ‘lobster roll’; served cold, a ‘lobster salad roll.'”
Lobster rolls eventually spread beyond Connecticut and today are a New England favorite particularly associated with the state of Maine. Anyone who cares about lobster has surely heard of the award-winning Red’s Eats in Wiscasset. Red’s has a great PR operation in addition to offering huge lobster rolls. They started serving their lobster rolls as far back as 1970. Drive by today and there is usually a line of eager eaters, often a long line, waiting to order. A confession, I’ve never had a Red’s roll.
We had very good cold lobster rolls at Coastal Prime last week and the other day at Harborside 1901. We had intended to try Shannon’s Unshelled, an outdoor shack with picnic tables located near the Boothbay Harbor footbridge, but they were delayed in opening. And it was very hot out. We thought that the Tugboat Inn started lunch and lobster rolls around 11:00, but they didn’t open until 12. Our last option, apart from waiting for Shannon’s to go live, was Harborside.
Harborside lobster roll & cole slaw
We’d eaten there a few weeks ago but didn’t order lobster that time. This was the day, and this lobster roll was probably the best all-around I’ve had this year! Before we end our Maine time, however, we will try Shannon’s on a cooler day. After all, she advertises lobster from trap to table.
BOOKS OF THE WEEK
IMMIGRANT SCIENTIST
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Author Gyasi (penguinrandomhouse.com)
I was very taken with Gyasi’s first novel, Homegoing, even though it was a challenging read. This novel about the immigrant experience is much more accessible and straightforward. Gifty is a Ghanaian immigrant who moves to Huntsville, Alabama with her mother and brother. Told in the first person, Gifty looks back on her early childhood in Ghana and then how she and her family stood out in the white South. She is a Ph.D student in neuroscience at Stanford, obviously successful academically, but struggling to come to grips with her brother’s death from a drug overdose. At the same time, her mother, deep in depression, is staying with Gifty.
Gifty is a scientist, but she’s also a product of evangelical Christianity who puzzles over questions of faith. She reflects on how the hymns and Bible stories taken literally as a child might become meaningful in a different way as an adult. Her research with mice on reward-seeking behavior grows out of her strong desire to understand her brother and her mother.
In many ways, this is a quiet novel. And although it’s Gifty’s voice the reader hears, she keeps herself at a bit of a remove as if she needs what appears as detachment to process her extreme grief. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)
FRIENDS AND LOVERS IN ITALY
Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly
Just as classical musicians sometimes transition to pop music, so authors of one genre take up a different genre, often with a pen name. J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame wrote as Robert Galbraith when introducing a new detective series for adults. So successful was the first Cormoran Strike mystery, The Cuckoo’s Calling,that she wrote four more. I have just started this series but am reserving judgement until I finish the first book.
Mary Bly is a professor and Shakespeare scholar at Fordham University. Some years ago, she began writing historical romances set in the Georgian era in England under the name, Eloisa James. She purposely used a pseudonym to not intrude upon her academic reputation. These books gained wide readership and after a while, she revealed her identity.
This novel is set in the present and the first one published under her real name. Thirty-two-year-old Lizzie is a professor and cancer patient who travels to Italy with two male friends, a novelist and an actor, to assist with research for a film of Romeo and Juliet. There she quickly meets Italian chef Dante, who has a 12-year-old daughter.
Lizzie and Dante are the center of this love story, but not the entire focus. One element is Lizzie’s reflections on what approach to take to living her life. Other elements, which add to the novel’s richness, are the rounded depiction of the secondary characters, Grey, Rohan, Etta, and Ruby, and the role that singing and poetry play in their individual lives. A quick read! (~JWFarrington)
Author Benedict has created a niche for herself writing novels about women, notable women whose contributions to society have often been overlooked. Previous novels focus on Albert Einstein’s wife, Andrew Carnegie’s personal maid, and Clementine Churchill. These novels are well researched and engaging reading; I’ve read the one about Andrew Carnegie.
Hedy Lamarr (the guardian.com)
This latest novel is about Hedy Kiesler, known to most Americans of a certain age as actress Hedy Lamarr. Austrian by birth and an aspiring stage actress in 1930’s Vienna, Hedy is romanced by entrepreneur and munitions dealer, Fritz Mandl. She is beautiful, and his attentions are pronounced, his determination evident. Hedy appreciates the finer things he offers. As Austria battles to stay out of Nazi German’s arena, marriage to him is a politically wise step for herself and her Jewish parents. What this marriage entails, how Fritz controls her activities, and what Hedy learns hosting high level business dinners becomes both valuable and dangerous. This is a multi-faceted Hedy Lamarr who takes risks to help in the war effort.
I enjoyed this novel but found myself wishing that the author had included an epilogue about her life after World War II.
CRIME IN DENMARK
The Sommerdahl Murders (Season 2 on Acorn)
Flemming, Marianne &
Dan (rotten tomatoes.com)
Dan Sommerdahl, his partner Flemming, and his wife Marianne return for a second season of crime, Danish style. Set in the waterfront town of Elsinore, there are eight episodes, and each case is solved over the course of two episodes. What makes this series appealing is as much the dynamics between the three principals as it is the intricacies of solving the case. Dan and Marianne have been married for 25 years, but the marriage is on the skids, Flemming has feelings for Marianne, and Marianne feels she’s taken an unfulfilling detour in her choice of career. Plus, she’s attracted to an old suitor. Each of them is attempting to define a satisfying personal life.
The culture of a particular country is reflected in a crime series. The behaviors and attitudes in this one seem especially Scandinavian. Good entertainment!
LOCAL CUISINE
The Thistle Inn
One of our favorite Boothbay Harbor restaurants of long standing, the Thistle offers comfortable dining indoors and out. Its dark wooden booths and bar inside are especially welcoming on a cold wet night. During the summer, dining on their porch is airy and made magical by little lights strung in the trees.
We’ve already dined outside twice this year and were pleased with old favorites and new choices on their menu. Their crab cakes are always delicious as was the baked haddock with cherry tomatoes and sautéed greens and their New England clam chowder. I especially enjoyed the seared diver scallops over a lemony risotto with spinach and bacon bits.
I liked their concept of shrimp scampi over pappardelle but wished that the pasta had been a little less sticky. For dessert the other evening, we shared the special pistachio crème brulee, a different twist. A very popular place making reservations essential!
Along with the the Brandywine River Museum outside Philadelphia, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland has one of the largest collection of works by the Wyeth family. Here are works by Andrew Wyeth of Cristina’s World fame, by his son Jamie Wyeth, by Andrew’s father, N. C. Wyeth, and some by other Wyeth relatives. This year’s featured exhibit is works from Betsy Wyeth’s estate, a gift to the museum. Betsy, wife of Andrew, died in 2020 at the age of 98.
Islander by Jamie Wyeth
Fisherman’s Family by N. C. Wyeth
Wicker by Jamie Wyeth
I was also struck by a couple of works in their permanent Maine collection, a striking woman in white and a still life of intense golden flowers.
Kym in White by Alex Katz
Orange Prince by Beverly Hallam
Another highlight for me this year was the Women of Vision exhibit. It focuses on thirteen women who are either artists or patrons of the art whose work and/or philanthropy has ties to Maine. Some are historical figures like Edna St. Vincent Millay, one was a Passamaquoddy basket weaver, while others like photographer and gardener Cig Harvey are actively working. I was particularly struck by a charming strawberry basket.
By Molly Neptune Parker
PERFECT FOR AN AIRPLANE FLIGHT
A Good Mother by Lara Bazelon
Author Bazelon is a law professor who also spent seven years as a federal public defender in Los Angeles. She knows how the federal court system works and has penned a fascinating and gripping courtroom drama set in LA. This is her first novel.
Lead defense lawyer Abby Rosenberg is a bit of a hot shot who utilizes bold and sometimes questionable techniques to win her cases. She is also a new mother still on maternity leave. Her client, Luz Rivera Hollis, is a nineteen-year-old accused of murdering her soldier husband at an army base in Germany. She too is a new mother to infant Cristina. Abby’s co-counsel, Will Ellet, is young, ambitious, and unsettled in his marriage. You may wonder about the ethics and behaviors of these lawyers, but their actions make for a good story! What exactly constitutes being a good mother?
Note: Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo is cone flowers at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
