As part of the annual READ ME program, we discuss books and hear from different authors about their recommendations for good summer reads. READ ME is a statewide community reading program in which one well-known Maine author recommends two books by other Maine authors. This year, author Lily King ("Writers and Lovers," "Euphoria") has chosen "Roughhouse Friday" by Jaed Coffin and "The Vigilance of Stars" by Patricia O’Donnell.
Guests
Lily King, award-winning author of five novels. "Writers and Lovers" was published in March, and "Euphoria" (2014) won the Kirkus Award and other national acclaim. She lives in Maine.
Jaed Coffin, assistant professor of creative writing at the University of New Hampshire. His first book was "A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants," and his latest book is "Roughhouse Friday," about the year he won a title in a barroom boxing show in Alaska.
Patricia O’Donnell, professor of creative writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker and other publications. She has written a memoir, a short-fiction collection and two novels; the latest is "The Vigilance of Stars."
Martha White (call-in), writer and editor; granddaughter of E.B. White; she wrote the introduction for the new book "Chicken, Gin and a Maine Friendship," about the correspondences between writers E.B. White and Edmund Ware Smith.
Resources
- Maine Humanities Council Read ME program
- Droll Wit And Delightful Details Make 'Writers & Lovers' A Winning Read
- Fighting as Conversation: On Jaed Coffin’s “Roughhouse Friday”
- The Vigilance of Stars: A UMF professor’s tribute to home
- Who Was Edmund Ware Smith? A new collection of E. B. White letters helps shed light on another classic Maine writer
- Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between the World and Me’
- Is My Dark Vanessa the most controversial novel of the year? Author Kate Elizabeth Russell speaks out
- "An American Marriage," by Tayari Jones
- "The Revisioners," by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
- "The Other Language," by Francesca Marciano
- "The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga Of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During The Blitz," by Erik Larson
- "Beloved," by Toni Morrison
- "Song of Solomon," by Toni Morrison
- "Men We Reaped: A Memoir," by Jesmyn Ward
- "After the Eclipse," by Sarah Perry
- "This America: The Case for the Nation," by Jill Lepore
- "The Detective in the Dooryard: Reflections of a Maine Cop," by Timothy A. Cotton
- "One Last Lie," by Paul Doiron
- "Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace," by Ashley Bryan
- Alexander Pope
- "Straight Man," by Richard Russo
- "Barkskins," by Annie Proulx
- "Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life," by Christina Marsden Gillis