Brown Bag Lecture Series 

The Brown Bag Lecture Series features best-selling authors from Maine and New England as well as from across the nation and world. Programs are scheduled from noon-1:00 pm in the Rines Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Bring your lunch and enjoy...Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be provided. 

All programs are free and open to the public, and are fully accessible to people with disabilities.

The 2007-2008 Brown Bag Lecture Series 

is Generously Sponsored by 

Special thanks to our Coffee provider

Books on sale at each lecture courtesy of Longfellow Books, who generously donates a portion of the proceeds to the Portland Public Library.  

    Questions about our Brown Bag Lectures or to be added to our weekly calendar e-mail, send us an e-mail!

Upcoming guest speakers include:  

May 7, John Robinson, A Concise History of Portland --RESCHEDULED, NEW DATE TBA

May 14, Miriam Colwell, Contentment Cove

Meet Dot-Fran, Hilary, and Mina, three residents of a Maine coastal village in the 1950s.  Dot-Fran, the youngest, is a native; she runs the town’s drugstore.  Hilary, middle-aged, is a worldly artist.  The wealthy Mina and her husband retired to the town after being enchanted with its chard during a one-night visit.  Their disparate lives become entwined and, eventually, clash tragically.  While Maine native Colwell infuses Contentment Cove with humor, it is nonetheless a novel that deals with serious issues that remain relevant today, none more compelling than the erosion of one way of Maine life and the evolution of another.

May 21, Michael Henderson, See You After the Duration, and Brian Barlow, Only One Child  

Join Henderson and Barlow as they explore their experiences of being evacuated from London during WWII, and how the decisions they made since that time of uncertainty have helped shape their lives.  Brian Barlow is a Brunswick resident.  His story, Only One Child, enlightens us about the WWII British children evacuees and educates us about the chaotic condition of Britain during the war.  Michael Henderson's insightful story, See You After the Duration, sheds light on an aspect of WWII that is little known on either side of the Atlantic.  It is a saga of separation, a story of unashamed patriotism, and a contribution to the literature of WWII.

May 28, Jeff Shaara, The Steel Wave

Jeff Shaara returns with The Steel Wave, the second volume of his acclaimed New York Times bestselling World War II trilogy.  This time out, Shaara takes us to the most famous chapter in WWII:  D-Day and the battle for Normandy, plunging his readers into the minds of the commanders who gave the orders and the soldiers who carried them out with the rifle and bayonet.  From GI to general, this novel carries the reader through the events of the most crucial weeks of the War--events that shifted the tide and, ultimately, changed history.  Shaara is the New York Times bestselling author of To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure--two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic The Killer Angels.

June 18, Meg Wolff, Becoming Whole

Meg Wolff of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is a two-time cancer survivor. She lost a leg to bone cancer at age 33, and had a mastectomy for invasive breast cancer at age 41. After radiation and chemo, she was so close to death that doctors offered no hope. By a life-saving chance, she learned about the macrobiotic diet (based on whole grains, vegetables and beans), and got to work trying it. Many family members and friends considered her pathetic for believing that dramatically altering her diet could save her life ... yet nine years later, at age 50, she is far healthier than most people.

Becoming Whole is a memoir about her journey back to health and happiness that also contains many easy-to-make healthy recipes and a wealth of helpful resources. 

June 25, Marc Songini, The Lost Fleet: A Yankee Whaler’s Struggle Against the Confederate Navy and Arctic Disaster

It’s the mid-19th century and the American whaling fleet, the wonder and envy of the maritime nations of the world, is struck by one hammer blow after another. Yankee whalers are contending with icebergs, storms, rogue whales, sharks, hostile natives, and disease. Now conditions are getting even worse, and the chances become ever slimmer a whaling master and his crew will return from a voyage safe and profitable. The scarcity of whales, the increasing dangers of going further into the Arctic, and the roving Confederate privateers are making this already difficult profession ever riskier. Many whalers give up the life—but some carry on the vocation.  One such man is a tall captain from Wethersfield, Connecticut, Thomas William Williams. Not only does he go out on voyage after voyage, but he even takes on board with him his tiny wife, Eliza, and his infant son and daughter. The Lost Fleet thrilling narrative recounts Williams' remarkable career, including a daring escape from the Confederate cruiser Alabama and a daring rescue and salvage of lost ships off Alaska's coast. A family saga, a true narrative of adventure and death on the high seas and a detailed and well-researched look at the demise of Yankee whaling–Songini has crafted an historical masterpiece.