25 books like Brook Trout & the Writing Life

I love this book because I like to write. 

Anne makes me feel normal when I immobilize my writing by fearing that no one will like it or, worse yet, that no one will even care to read it.  When I am pulled off my joy of writing, I re-read this book and find my joy again.

It’s 2005, and it’s my first day at The Daily Telegraph. I still couldn’t believe they had hired me as a cadet journalist. The smile I was wearing–from ear to ear–suddenly vanished when the Chief of Staff walked over and said, ‘Phelpsy, a bus has just crashed in Egypt. We have been told that there may have been some Australian tourists on board. Punch out 500 words and give it to me in an hour.’ 

I turned to my computer screen, looked down at my keyboard, and suddenly realized that I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never had any writing training, and my experience was limited to the gibber I had been submitting to the paper (for free) for the past year in the hope of landing a job. After ten minutes of writing a word or two, deleting them, and then doing it again, I… show more.

While some writing books offer nuts and bolts–the so-called rules of writing–this book from Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard teases the writer with essays that make you think.

We are invited into the world of writing with metaphor and we learn by comparison. Like the story of the inchworm stuck in the long grasses, frozen to the tall blades. Perhaps you should just jump, Dillard quips, and put yourself “out of your misery.”

True, writing can be miserable at times, but also, it can be wonderful. I like this book because it is a way to experience what it feels like to be a writer through the craft of prose. 

What better way to experience what it feels like to be a writer than to read the reflections of one of the South’s beloved storytellers?

Pat Conroy was a writer who mentored other writers, quick with a blurb and a word of encouragement. In this book, we find a compilation of his thoughts on writing and publishing from interviews, magazine articles, speeches, and letters.

I loved this book because it shows the personal side of the writer, offering up tidbits about how the internet and technology were mysteries to him, along with his deeper reflections like: “The Great Santini hurt my entire family. But if I didn’t tell the truth the way I saw it, I wasn’t worth anything as a writer.”

Southern writer Rick Bragg’s homage to Pat Conroy at the end of the book is a touching exclamation point. 

Conlan’s poignant reflections upon the vital role nature plays in all our lives will resonate with readers of all ages.

His journey tells a lyrical tale of an interesting life. The author grows from tree forts and baseball through college and peace marches in the turbulent sixties. Follow his journey to fatherhood and on to Alaska where he sails the Bering Sea and visits the Arctic Circle.

Then on to Caribbean Islands adventures with memorable characters adding to the fun. He returns triumphantly to the Great Lakes, where our protagonist becomes Captain of a Coast Guard Cutter sailing through more dangerous waters, including an epic adventure, off again to the Caribbean.

Most importantly, Conlan finds his way back home to Northern Michigan, to his grapevines, his family, and the more pleasant struggle to find the elusive brook trout.

Come “back to the simple earth,” where the author tends his modest… show more.

My good friend Ray Coppinger, who died in 2017 at age 80, was known as the world’s leading scientific expert on the behavior of dogs. As well as writing some of the most important scholarly works on dog behavior, he also penned this slim volume - the hands-down funniest book about the dog-human relationship. Ray could act impatient when people got mushy about their dogs, but in this small gem he reveals that he understood the emotional bond between people and dogs at a very deep level. 

It’s funny, for one thing, but not merely funny.

“It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us,” Maclean writes, and here brotherhood, religion, and fly-fishing bleed into one another to comprise the river flowing through this stunning novella.

Wild Paul and his measured older brother Norman seem more friends than family, mostly because they choose one another. Meditative asides abound and delight, but the tender stuff concerns memory and acceptance and forgiveness, affirming Emily Dickinson’s adage: “The soul selects her own society.”

I loved that the protagonist of Superior Justice is an unorthodox Lutheran pastor who loves fly fishing and a great cup of coffee maybe a bit more than the job he’s paid to do. While he’s not slack in performing his preaching and counseling, he does tend to have heavier things on his mind. Like the fact that one of his parishioners is in jail for a murder he didn’t commit. Finding a way to prove that to the police and courts may be the death of him. 

Unlike his namesake, Jonah doesn’t run away when the going gets tough. While this story deals with murder and other crimes, the writer’s use of light humor and romance woven throughout is a gentle respite from the otherwise dark, suspenseful thread.

I found this book to be so true to life.

Rosie’s grandfather insisted he was the one to bait the hook, cast the line, and reel in the fish, when it was Rosie’s big dream to go through the fishing process from the worm to the catch all by herself. I love how the author highlighted Rosie’s close relationship with her grandfather which helps her to achieve her dream.

Mary’s Oliver’s nature poems are like psalms: full of beauty, wisdom, and spirituality that touch my heart. I read her poems over and over again.

In particular, during a silent retreat I attended near Gloucester, Massachusetts where scripture is assigned for reflection, her poems became my meditations. Every morning in the dining room overlooking the sea, I watched the sun rise, glowing across the waves and rocks. “Hello, sun in my face…” Oliver writes and ends with, “Watch, now, how I start the day / in happiness, in kindness.”