If you're having trouble viewing this email, you cansee it online.
Welcome to the Mid-October edition of MWPA's Ex Libris Maine.
This edition offers new books by Maine authors in the categories ofFiction, Crime Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Memoir, and Children's, and Young Adult/Young Readers.
For more information on any title below, simply click on the book's cover.
In the golden age of Athens, as democracy takes its first uncertain steps, a remarkable cast of characters shapes the future of human thought, living their everyday lives. From the agora to the theater, from the heights of power to the margins of society, here is Athens in all its glory and contradiction–a city where justice and beauty compete with violence and ambition, where tradition clashes with progress, and where gods still walk the earth. Through the lives of politicians and philosophers, priests and playwrights, soldiers and slaves, experience the birth of democracy and the dawn of Western thought. The first book of an epic series chronicling the myriad minds of the Golden Age of Athens through the lifetime of Sokrates, Athens weaves history and imagination into a tapestry as rich and complex as the city itself.
North End of Casco Bay (Circa 1900). Samantha, the little orphan ruffian from A Place of Herons, is all grown up. She is a poised young woman, coming of age at the turn of the century, and she has been summoned to Wiscasset, Maine to meet her biological mother. Captain Jim's nephew Patrick is now a charismatic young man. He prepares to take over the family business, finding himself in the same maritime area, earning his U.S. trade license. But Samantha and Paddy do not resemble the children they remember from their last meeting. Their lives crisscross through the Kennebec and Sheepscot Rivers region of Phippsburg and at the resorts of Popham Beach. When the two rediscover each other, skyrockets fly!
Who’s killing the cancer researchers? A leading clinical investigator is butchered in his hotel room hours after receiving a prestigious award for cancer research. Weeks later, a second researcher is the victim of an apparently random mugging in a parking garage. Unexpectedly, crime scene DNA establishes that the two men were killed by the same woman. But her identity remains unknown, her motive is mysterious, and the connections between the victims are scant—except they were both collaborating with Professor Brad Parker at the Maine Translational Research Institute. When the killer strikes close to home, Brad and his fiancée—state police lieutenant Karen Richmond—are drawn into a nightmare of maniacal revenge until Brad sets a trap for the killer. . .or falls prey to a trap the killer has set for him.
Murder Came Easy: Annie's Revenge
C. A. Loveitt
Sigma Publishing
Murder Came Easy is a dark, emotionally raw account of a young woman who, abandoned as an infant, survives a life of abuse, trauma, and betrayal. As she pieces together the truth about herself, she is faced with walking a fine line between sanity and survival and what it takes to reclaim power after a life of violation.
Caterpillar Island is off the central coast of Maine―beloved vacationland of lobster bakes and quaint fried clam shacks, kayaking and country houses. At night, though, by the light of a headlamp, the island is alive with cash, guns, and poachers. Oxy addicts, struggling retirees, and unemployable deadbeats dip their nets in the creeks to catch elvers―two-inch-long baby eels that fetch $2000 a pound on the international black market. Into this dark and dangerous world falls Jeanette King, who has, up to this moment, been earning her meager living mainly by picking and packaging peekytoe crab meat for shipment to New York and Boston. As Jeanette gets drawn into a fast-moving story of risk and violent consequences, she enlists the aid of a local policeman and an Indigenous activist.
Factory Town
Ramona Rowe
The Telling Room
Jordie lives a normal life―an android stealing from the human world for a secret underground factory, observing the eccentric friends with whom he shares a hive mind. Everything changes when his team encounters Tien, a rogue android secretly bargaining with aliens for a new world order. A runaway now living as a wealthy human in Worcester, Massachusetts, Tien is a threat to the factory and its inhabitants. Sent after him, Jordie is faced with uncomfortable truths about connection, isolation, and coffee with pepper. Factory Town, with its cast of lovable androids, turns a winking eye on humanity, with humor, dark honesty, and gloriously obscure references.
The Letter is the story of a mother and daughter, told through reflection, discovery, and the unexpected power of finally asking the questions that have waited too long. It’s a memoir, but it reads like a conversation. Sometimes tender, sometimes sharp, always honest. It’s about the things we carry, the things we haven't said, and the quiet ways love can live beneath it all. And, it's about family. The imperfect family we all call our own.
Candle on the Tree
Sophia Tyutyunnyk
The Telling Room
In this tender and observant coming-of-age memoir, American daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, Sophia Tyutyunnyk, writes about the anxious and formative months she spent living in Ukraine during the final stages of her family's path to legal residency in the United States. Named for the chestnut flower that is a symbol of Kyiv, Candle on the Tree takes the reader on a journey through loss, homesickness, realization, and resilience as Tyutyunnyk discovers the motherland of her parents. But even as the shy nine-year-old from small-town Maine finds deep roots in Ukraine, she copes with the agonizing uncertainty of being uprooted. Against the backdrop of a war that has been raging for years, Tyutyunnyk introduces the reader to the resilient and creative people of Ukraine and the culturally rich tapestry of the country's capital city.
Wander is an exploration of the daily life of a bear waking from hibernation, foraging and meandering across the seasons, and returning to hibernation at the end of the year. A blend of dreaming and waking, Wander illustrates the richness, complexity, and validity of all life, in a story told from the bear’s perspective and imagined via glyphs representing the bear’s language. A full glossary of pictographs serves as a language reference to check your understanding.
In this smart-kid adventure, 13-year-old Isabelle Night travels to the Middle East with her archaeologist mother to help solve a mystery with their friend Gunther Braun. Legends of demons and treasure surround the ancient palace he's excavating, and the travelers arrive to find Daniel Carmichael at the digsite, which means added drama. Carmichael and Isabella’s mother hate each other. . .or so they claim. Within hours of their arrival, a murder occurs, Isabelle is kidnapped, and thieves commandeer the dig. Can Isabelle escape her kidnappers? Can their team find the treasure—if it exists—before the thieves do? And Carmichael is on a first-name basis with the thieves. What's up with that? Isabelle Night and the Demon's Flute is a fast-paced adventure, entertaining and fun. Book One in the Isabelle Night series, this tale contains "well drawn characters on a rousing adventure reminiscent of Indiana Jones' exploits," in the words of Kirkus Reviews.
SUBMISSIONS If you are a current Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance member, and you would like to announce your new book in ExLibris Maine, click HERE. If you are not a member, click HERE to learn more about our member benefits.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
