Wicked Awesomology: September 2015

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Camping Maine's State Parks: A Series

A sunset view I took from Mount Blue State Park in Weld, Maine.

With the changing of the leaves and the occasional morning frosts, it’s safe to say that summer is over here in northern Maine. With it comes the end of tent camping season for me. This past summer was somewhat stressful for me personally, for reason I won’t go into here, but the frequent camping trips I took to various parts of Maine helped me keep my spirits healthy. Camping is a relatively new pastime for me, having only just gotten into doing it over the past four years or so, but in that time I have pinpointed some favorite spots to camp. Among those favorites are Maine’s many state parks.

The first of the Maine state parks I camped at was Cobscook Bay State Park in Edmunds, near Calais, back in 2012. Since then, I have camped at least once in seven others, making it a point to explore new ones with camping facilities if I get a chance during the season. As a way to relive some of the pleasant summer memories, and also to resurrect this blog, which I have been seriously neglecting for some time, I’ve decided to write a series of posts highlighting the state parks I have visited over the past few years, starting with Cobscook Bay. In the weeks to come, I will also be writing about Lamoine State Park in Lamoine, Camden Hills State Park in Camden, Bradbury Mountain State Park in Pownal, Sebago Lake State Park in Naples, Lake St. George State Park in Liberty, Mount Blue State Park in Weld, and Peaks-Kenny State Park in Dover Foxcroft.

A post with my take on Cobscook Bay will be coming soon. (Spoiler alert: I am a huge Cobscook fan.) If you have any experience camping or just visiting at any of the parks I’ve mentioned and would like to share it, I’d welcome your input. My e-mail address is chriscolter@icloud.com. Please include the words “state park” in your subject line, because that account gets rather spammy sometimes.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

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Chris's bookshelf: recently read

The Red Church

by Scott Nicholson

I actually read this back in October, and cannot believe that I forgot to post a review! It's easily one of my top five reads of the year. I am not going to summarize the plot here, aside from saying that it's a chiller that takes place i...

Wishin' and Hopin'

Wishin' and Hopin'

by Wally Lamb

Not so much a Christmas story as an Italian-American parochial school memoir, this book is fun and carefree. If you are looking for depth and poignancy, then look elsewhere. But if you want some nostalgia and laughs, the literary equivalent...

Buffalo Nickel Christmas

Buffalo Nickel Christmas

by Larry Enright

This thoroughly charming book captures the essence of what it's like to be a child at Christmas. I don't want to give out any secrets here, but this book is full of surprises. Although you will enjoy "Buffalo Nickel Christmas" no ...

The Turtle Boy

by Kealan Patrick Burke

This book has received mostly great reviews. It's good, but in my opinion really needed stretching out. The pace was reasonable for the first half, and then in the second half Burke started piling things on so quickly that you had to strug...

The Wayward Apprentice

The Wayward Apprentice

by Jason Vail

This book was okay. I have to admit that I only picked it up because it was billed as similar to "The Unquiet Bones" by Mel Starr, which I loved, and it was only 99 cents.

I won't go over the details of the plot, other t...

The Unquiet Bones

The Unquiet Bones

by Melvin R. Starr

An incredibly good historical mystery that left me wanting more. Hugh de Singleton is a very likable and interesting protagonist who the reader immediately wants to succeed. I fully intend to read more books in this series. One of my best...

From Within

by John M. Dow

You should definitely check out this book. It is far from your typical brainless zombie novel. Set in an eerie, ancient village in Scotland, it is the story of a woman, two men, a child, some hellhounds, a couple of long-forgotten deities...

Drummer Boy

by Scott Nicholson

Drummer Boy is the second novel I've read by writer Scott Nicholson. It's the story of a small southern town that still lives with the ghosts of the Civil War, literally. The primary focus is on 13 year-old Vernon Ray, a square-peg kind o...

Pirate Latitudes

Pirate Latitudes

by Michael Crichton

A terrific beach read. I can't help but wonder if the manuscript was indeed finished though. Some of the characters were not as developed as a writer of Crichton's caliber would typically have, and some of the plot lines were simpler and/or...

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer

I liked this book well enough, but I never felt like I entirely "got it". The story of the boy and his search (which I will not elaborate on for fear of spoilers) is unique and compelling. Had the novel been only about that, I w...

A King in a Court of Fools

A King in a Court of Fools

by Larry Enright

This novel is an enjoyable piece of nostalgia from the American suburbs in the 1950s. At each turn, there is a pleasant reminder of what it was like to grow up in a time when we were not so "plugged in" and there was not the feel...

Mile 81

by Stephen King

Quite good, but very short. King borrowed some ideas from his past works, and didn't really put a ton of effort into the resolution, but it's still a fun read with some tense moments. He develops characters that you identify with almost i...