Each section includes “Maine Rest Stops” where Brechlin spotlights some element of Maine…

It is the most erotic punctuation save, of course, the exclamation point.

Why was there a triangle of trade between Africa, New England, and the West Indies?

Her steady recounting of a different history punched me in the heart…

I learned that my childhood had been part of a grand experiment.

He may shine in a lobster boat—tough and tenacious—but not in a marriage bed.

I struggled … while watching money flow out of poorly insulated lobster holding tanks…

Dave Macy describes his theology as “to the left of moderate. I try to be biblically correct as I was taught in seminary,” but that’s tempered by working to respect the range of individual beliefs.

I was nursing my second beer and anticipating that favorite dinner I’d ordered a few minutes earlier. Two young people entered and settled in...