Down East Contributing Editor Edgar Allen Beem has a new book. Backyard Maine (Tilbury House, Gardiner, Maine; paperback; 212 pages; $15) features local essays by the Yarmouth resident, most of which have previously appeared in his column, “The Universal Notebook” in the Forecaster, a Greater Portland weekly newspaper. From Americans’ reluctance to truly combat global warming to the fate of his backyard bird tree despised by his wife to the unexpectedly emotional loss of his dog, Beem ruminates on every aspect of life in Maine.