Thomas Jones Teaches Knot Tying

IMG_5937 2.jpg
IMG_5938 2.jpg
IMG_5940 2.jpg
IMG_5941 2.jpg
George and Lucas.jpg
Chris and Liam.jpg
IMG_5934 2.jpg
IMG_5935 2.jpg
IMG_5937 2.jpg
IMG_5938 2.jpg
IMG_5940 2.jpg
IMG_5941 2.jpg
George and Lucas.jpg
Chris and Liam.jpg
IMG_5934 2.jpg
IMG_5935 2.jpg
IMG_5937 2.jpg
IMG_5938 2.jpg
IMG_5940 2.jpg
IMG_5941 2.jpg

MacMahan Reads – August 2022

The book we are reading for the August MacMahan Reads is Beneficence by Meredith Hall.  It is the selection for READ MAINE, a program sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council in cooperation with the Maine State Library.  Readers and Reviewers have called Beneficence “hauntingly beautiful”, “a page-turner and an artistic triumph” and” a masterpiece of compassion”.  

The discussion will take place August 12, 10 a.m. at the cottage of Annsi Stephano.

The author, Meredith Hall, will be speaking at the Patten Library in Bath, 33 Summer Street,  on July 27th at 5:30 p.m.  You can attend in person or on Zoom.  Zoom participants must register at the following site:

Author Hall will also be speaking at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick on August 23rd at 1p.m.  Registration is required for this in-person only event.  

The literary committee

2022  MacMahan Reads

July 21, 2022   10a.m.   at the  cottage of Susan and Warren Lammert.
We will be discussing:
Downeast:  Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America by Gigi Georges “Through the gripping sagas of five young women, Georges not only unsparingly documents rural poverty, joblessness, and opioid addiction, but details how so many people in the rural community have nonetheless kept right on coping, hoping and caring for each other  through grit, goodness, and faith.  Here is the whole truth about America’s rural towns and cities.” —John Delulio—  

August 12, 2022  10a.m.   at the cottage of Annsi Stefano
We will be discussing the August selection of Maine Reads:
Beneficence by Meredith Hall
Beneficence is amazing in its vision.  Luminous.  With wisdom and compassion, Hall writes about the capacity for atonement.  Beneficence, then.  Goodness.  Generosity to see deeply, to live through fear and pain on your journey toward the awareness of splendor.” —Ursula Hegi—

The Literary Committee

MacMahan Reads 2022

The following titles have been chosen for the coming summer, 2022.  Specific times and places are yet to be announced.  The July meeting will take place during the third week of July, the August meeting during the third week of August.  
For July:
Downeast:  Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America by Gigi Georges. (non-fiction)
Georges follows five girls as they come of age in one of the most challenging and geographically isolated regions of the Eastern seaboard — Washington County, Maine.  These stories reveal surprising truths about rural America and offer hope for its future.   
For August:
Beneficence by Meredith Hall.   (fiction).  The Maine Reads (READ ME) selection.  Maine Reads is co-sponsored by the Maine State Library and the Maine Humanities Council.
The story of a farming family, the Senters, whose quiet lives are upended by tragedy, and who must find a way forward, together, or apart.  Joyce Maynard has said this book may break your heart, but will put your heart back together.  
Hall will be speaking at the Curtis Hall Library in Brunswick on Tuesday August 23rd and will be giving a statewide author talk (via Zoom) on August 25th.  
Both books are available in paperback, hard cover, as well as in digital format.  Happy Reading!

The Literary Committee
“We read books to find out who we are.  What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel…is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”                                                              –Ursula LeGuin–

MacMahan Reads Reminder

Hey Readers,
This is a reminder that we will be discussing Mill Town by Kerri Arsenault on July 15th at 10:00 a.m. at the Lammert cottage.  This book was chosen by the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine State Library for READ ME.  2021. We hopefully will find a spot where we can zoom with the author at 6p.m. that evening.  

“This profoundly important book reports on the way so many parts of America are killing the people who love them.  Tender, angry, full of respect and bewilderment, it is a complex love letter to a hometown.  It’s also a powerful glimpse of how corporate power, small-town pride, and death are entwined in America:  a vivid insight to the unbuilding of an American dream.”
                   –John Freeman, author of Dictionary of the Undoing–

Thanks.
The Literary Committee

MacMahan Reads 2021

MacMahan Reads 2021

For our July selection we are joining Read ME, a statewide summer reading program offered by the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine State Library.

July 15, 2021, 10:00a.m. at a cottage TBA Discussion of Mill Town by Kerri Arsenault
Arsenault explores mill town culture (focusing on Mexico, Maine) and the human cost of its irreplaceable
prosperity. (non-fiction)

July 15, 2021 6:00p.m. – 7p.m. The Playhouse. We will gather for cocktails and a Zoom discussion with
the author of Mill Town.

August 19, 2021. 10:00a.m. at a cottage TBA. Discussion of Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Winner of
the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.
An exploration of a once prosperous industry town in Maine and the struggles of the people who must
adapt to the new post-industrial reality. (fiction)

August 19, 2021 — 8p.m. at the Playhouse. Movie — Part 1 of the HBO series of Empire Falls
August 20, 1921 — 8p.m. at the Playhouse. Movie — Part II of the HBO series of Empire Falls

Thank you.
The Literary Committee