Phil Hoose’s new book details the spellbinding survival story of the scrappy B95 rufa red knot.

Art “The Draw of the Normandy Coast (1860–1960),” European and American paintings and works on paper, Portland Museum of Art. 775-6148; portlandmuseum.org. Through Sept. 3. “From Portland to Paris: Mildred Burrage’s Years in France,” paintings, drawings and letters, Portland Museum of Art, Portland. 775-6148; portlandmuseum.org. Through July 15. “Maine Sublime: Frederic Edwin Church’s Landscapes of […]

• For the past 25 years, the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle has hosted ceramic artists as residents. To celebrate this long-standing tradition, Watershed and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens present “Watershed’s Legends: 25 Years of Residencies.” The exhibition will open Tuesday, and the public is invited to a reception from 6:30 to […]

I think Romanticism and the Victorian era are wildly misunderstood by virtually all Americans. This isn’t some broadside about how ignorant Americans are; rather, I think our culture has deluded itself over generations so that we now believe we are more about the settled knowledge of empirical science than about discovery, exploration, personal experience and […]

Woody Allen’s “To Rome With Love” is an affectionate but meandering comedy that contemplates romance, fame, legacy and longing. It comes with much of the lightness and love for one of Europe’s great cities that made last year’s “Midnight in Paris” so charming but little of the intellectual and emotional rigor that ultimately turned that […]

Richard Russo