THE PERFECT NUMBER: ESSAYS & STORIES VOL. 1 JIM BAUMER

With The Perfect Number: Essays & Stories Vol 1, Maine author, Jim Baumer, embraces the essay effectively to write about being raised in the Catholic Church (The Altar Boy), he offers a paean to the late John Gould, one of Maine s most notable writers (Writing About John Gould), as well as tracing the decline of small towns in Maine, like his hometown of Lisbon Falls (Goin Back). He also shares his own Dilbert-like take on life in a cubicle for one of the state s largest insurance companies(Moscow Mutual), along with the road trip he and his wife made to Texas and back across the South to see his son, who was walking across America in 2010 (A Northerner s Journey Crossing the South). His other two essays, making up just the right number and amount of narrative deal with losing a dog (A Dog s Life), along with his essay detailing the importance of reading and how it led to his emergence a bit later than many (Reading Is a Journey) as a successful writer. The Perfect Number: Essays & Stories Vol. 1 captures the culture of small town Maine and does so with perfect pitch. Paperback: 178 pages