“A View From The Corner,” by Lew-Ellyn Hughes; Seaboard Press, Rockville, Md.; 145 pages; $13.95.

This is a work made up of columns Lew-Ellyn Hughes published in various newspapers around the state. The subject touches on motherhood up through old age. It’s from a woman’s point of view and will interest both sexes.

Women are, of course, the caretakers of society. They nurture children and bond with them. They do the housework, cook the meals, pay the bills and also earn money to pay the bills. It’s what “A View From The Corner” is about. A few columns are poignant, but most are humorous.

Each chapter concentrates on a specific theme. Chapter 1, for example, relates to settling down in the town Hughes has moved to: Stratton, Maine.

She found her farmhouse when she spied a pigpen beneath a barn. In big green painted letters on the wall was the word, “PIG.” Hughes decided the simple sign was what she had searched for in a home. Living the life of simplicity, and the sound of silence.

“We love this place that is so profoundly quiet that sometimes the only thing we hear is nothing.” She gives words to a Maine experience.

Chapter 5 is on aging. One of Hughes’ ambitions is to be a typical old woman. This includes driving at top speeds of 35 miles an hour in town and on Interstate 95.

“I’ll be forced to shuffle to keep my slippers on.” “I’m going to let my three chin hairs grow and I’ll absentmindedly twist them.” “I’ll start smoking thin cigars.” (I suspect these are forms of rebellion.)

On a more serious note is going to the dentist and finding out you don’t have a cavity but that your bones are melting. Wrinkles on a woman’s face are a sign of life experiences, and not necessarily good ones.

There are wacky episodes. Hughes’ grandson has a ladybug party only to find out it’s really a ladybug funeral (You had to have been there.). Another is dump road rummaging. To prevent neighbors from seeing you walking and rummaging on the dump road, go to an embankment and hide, or you can roll down the same embankment out of sight. (You had to have been there, too.)

Her tales are lighthearted, poking fun at herself and her family with all that the reader can identify, such as daughters who pierce more than their ears. Nose rings are mentioned here. One essay is titled “Being fair to a blonde.” It’s more her confessions than excuses. She is fair-haired.

This is a book to read in stages, an essay on a winter’s morning or a summer evening. One essay is titled “Peace.” “I love these cold winter’s mornings when I can stay home.” Who hasn’t stayed home alone for some reason? And instead of feeling lonely, you curl up in an easy chair and read, glance up and watch a storm for a while, then take a sip of tea and resume reading. Hughes lets us enjoy that, lets us just stare out the kitchen window and think.

In the beginning, it’s one reason why she moved. “… I opened the curtain in our townhouse, only to see the tenant across the courtyard doing the same.” (It’s happened to me, and I still live in the city.)

A bit of green goes a long way, and that is why the city person longs for a different sort of life. Hughes moved, and this book itemizes her love for her new/old home.

There is a downside to residing in a town in the country, however – meeting someone from “away.”

Sitting at a lunch counter in Stratton Plaza a man from away quizzed the owner and Hughes about their life and how do “you people” earn a living, where do “you people” go shopping, where do “you people” go to a doctor.

The bottom line is country living just might have a leg up on the so-called conveniences of city life. For one, I can walk to the post office, except it’s not easy crossing the street to it once I get there.

I give the book three stars.

Freelancer Edward M. Turner of Biddeford wrote “Rogues Together,” which won the Eppie Award for best in action/adventure.