I âfellâ into being at sea by chance, through my fatherâs insistence I join him on a Scottish fishing boat for a week. I discovered I adored exploring unknown islands and lonely beaches, discovering wildlife and resilient small communities. In the 1990âs a female working amongst fishermen and commercial shipping was unknown, it was a wholly male, chauvinistic world. Using these skills I found a job being paid to explore â a dream job, pioneering but frequently lonely and dangerous. It resulted in my expanding the range and world of small expedition ships into areas with no infrastructure, unexplored and uncharted, lonely, empty coasts from the Arctic to Singapore.
This is one of the most eye-opening and fascinating books I have read.
Having spent much of my life amongst the islands and coastal communities of the British Isles I was intrigued learn more about the fish and I did learn so much. We all know the fishing industry has shaped these islands, but the author delves deeper into what has created and influenced the many varied communities of coastal Britain, as well as illustrating the development of our many styles of fishing vessels.
On these rain-swept islands in the North Atlantic man and fish go back a long way. Fish are woven through the fabric of the country's history: we depend on them - for food, for livelihood and for fun - and now their fate depends on us in a relationship which has become more complex, passionate and precarious in the sophisticated 21st Century.
In Silver Shoals Charles Rangeley-Wilson travels north, south, east and west through the British Isles tracing the histories, living and past, of our most iconic fish - cod, carp, eels, salmon and herring - and of the fishermenâŚ
As someone who loves my work, Iâve noticed that in fiction when a woman is successful at her career, often that career mainly functions as a source of guilt or stress. Fictional working women spend a lot of time second guessing their choices, and, hey, it is hard to balance work and family. Women are torn in multiple directions. But I also believe itâs okay to love your job. Itâs okay to find joy in it and to not beat yourself up. I find deep satisfaction in writing, and I enjoy reading about characters who know the rush of doing a job well.
Oh, this book is perfect from the first page. It captures motherhood wonderfully and specificallyâin this case, mothering two teenage boysâand it just as successfully captures the Maine coast and the complicated, sometimes fragile ecosystem of a marriage.
Jill is a documentary filmmaker whoâs temporarily a single parent to her boys while her husband, a fisherman, recovers in a hospital from a boating accident. Thereâs nothing flashy about the storyâitâs a smart, lovely, often funny look at one womanâs life. Itâs a deeply contented life, by the way, which means the stakes are very high when the foundation of it starts to look shaky.
This beautiful portrait of a family in a fishing village in Maine is "a fresh look at marriage, motherhood, and the wondrous inner lives of teenagers. A truly beautiful and unforgettable love story of a family on the brinkâ (Lily King, author of Writers & Lovers). A must-read from the critically acclaimed author of Elsey Comes Home.
âI loved Landslide. You are right there with them in a fishing village in Maine, feeling the wind, the sea, the danger. Smart, honest, and funny, this is a story you won't forget.â âJudy Blume, best-selling author of In the Unlikely Event
I have loved dogs since I was a kid and have been fascinated by a scientific approach to animal behavior since I was in college. About fifteen years ago I found a way to meld my love of dogs with my scientific expertise in animal behavior by studying how and why dogs love people. My quest to understand the human-dog relationship has taken me around the world: from hunting with native people in Nicaragua to examining the remains of a woman buried with a dog 12,000 years ago in Israel. And yes, I really do get to cuddle puppies for a living!
My good friend Ray Coppinger, who died in 2017 at age 80, was known as the worldâs 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.
If you're familiar with the world of hunting, you know how important dogs are in the field. Less known, however, is how vital these canines are to fishermen. For many anglers, packing your tackle and wading through the river without a trusted fishing dog is a recipe for disaster.
In Fishing Dogs, Raymond Coppinger sheds light on the true value of fishing dogs of every size, shape, and color. Monsoon dogs, for example, lay in the bilge of boats until they are disturbed by the shipping of water. At that point, they rise up out of the bilge and unleashâŚ
As a longtime outdoors editor of a Mississippi newspaper, I actually got paid to paddle local rivers. Over the decades, I expanded my territory to adjacent states, the South, the continent, and other countries. I parlayed my experiences into several books on rivers. As a paddler and writer, I naturally love to read about adventures on the waterânot only classics like Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi River and Paul Theroux's Happy Isles of Oceania but also the many less-known but highly praiseworthy books like those listed here.
I could have selected any of Don Jackson's four books for this list. Each is a collection of essays about his outdoor adventures spanning locations from Arkansas to Alaska to Borneo. Many, if not most, of the places he writes about involve rivers, which is unsurprising since he's a retired fisheries professor.
I met Don when I was researching a river for a newspaper article. We hit it off and made several canoe trips together. While his books reveal his considerable knowledge of biology, hunting, and fishing, what really sets them apart is a strong sense of the spiritual, as the subtitle of this book indicates.
In Deeper Currents, Donald C. Jackson guides us on a journey into the cathedrals of wild and lonely places, those sacred spaces where hunters and fishers connect with the rhythms of the earth and the spirit that resonates within us. Jackson explores hunting and fishing as frameworks - sacraments - for discovering, engaging, and finding meaning. He invites readers to consider connections with wilder realms of being.
Hunting squirrels on an autumn morning, probing the woods, rifle in hand, Jackson reveals an attention to nature too often neglected. Following a bird dog into the damp and mysterious places where woodcockâŚ
So many people want perfection. There are so many books out there where boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married, and have a happily ever after. But the books on my list show you that not everything is perfect. Life isnât perfect. Things arenât always good or happy. I like when something beautiful is born from something ugly, and every book on this list is exactly that. Perfect with imperfections.
I loved this book by Kelly Moore because of how emotional it was. I love when books are written so well, it makes you feel like youâre living the story, rather than reading about someone else. I love a book that you donât want to step away from, and this was one of those books.
I loved the character development, the overall story, Kelly Mooreâs writing style, but most of all, I loved how the emotions jumped off the page and right into my chest.
Maeve Archer's heart was caught between two brothersâEvan, who stole it in a chance encounter at the market, and Danny, the charismatic one who won her over when Evan inexplicably stepped aside for his brother to marry her.
Two years after Danny's tragic demise during a fishing trip with Evan, Maeve struggles to piece together her shattered life. Angry and abandoned by Evan's disappearance, she pours her emotions into letters, receiving no reply. Eventually, she resigns herself to moving on.
A celebration of life brings Maeve face to face with Evan, the man who has always owned her heart. However,âŚ
I am a recovering trial lawyer (after 35 years of law practice) who took up fiction writing in my late 50s and became so interested in learning what itâs like to be a writer â and how to write better â that I began a podcast designed to encourage authors to open up about their writing lives. After more than 500+ author interviews, I remain fascinated by the many different ways that writers approach their craft and how they turn their âwhat-ifsâ into interesting stories. The writing books that I am recommending are books I used to guide me in my interviews. I hope they will provide insight and inspiration in your writing journey.
I was drawn to this book by the title but also the subtitle: The intermingling of fishing and writing in a novelistâs life.
As a fly fisherman and writer myself, I have often thought about the connection between fishing and writing, and more particularly, the similar experiences that come from both, so when I learned about this book, I had to read it. Craig Nova does not disappoint.
Fishing is about good stories, and Nova tells them in this book, but he also reveals how fishing and writing have common needs, such as the need to be in the moment.
He also is honest about the challenges of being a writer and he uses the stream to remind us that when, as he says, âthe literary weather is going to take a turn for the worst, what is needed, more than anything else, is the ability to calm down.â
In this memoir, novelist Craig Nova explores the interconnections between his work as a writer, his personal life, and his passion for fly fishing. Nova leads the reader into his courtship, marriage, the birth of his children, and his life as a father, husband, writer, friend, citizen, and angler. Just as the author observes the life of the elusive and beautiful brook trout in the tea-colored streams, he finds interconnections to his daily life--he teaches his daughter to build an igloo; he deals with the disappointment of a very public mean-spirited review of his much-anticipated novel; he gazes at hisâŚ
I have worked and lived at sea for months at a time, and I have many memories of the sea, good and bad. I have lived through extreme Alaskan storms, fished in remote coves, and worked beyond exhaustion over and over. Working at sea taught me some important lessons about life and the possibility of sudden death. I experienced the romance of the sea from a young age, and it has inspired my writing.
Spike Walker is another writer that has inspired me. Working at sea in Alaska is to tempt fate amid the savage spectacle of nature in raw form. Men are trapped on boats for weeks and even months. Even a safe journey can drive men to the edge. However, in Alaska, disaster can arise at momentâs noticeâand often does. Walker tells Alaska sea stories better than anyone. In Nights of Ice, he shares seven amazing stories of disaster and survival. The stories come alive, as Walker has worked on the edge himself. Now he tells some of the greatest Alaskan sea stories ever.
Spike Walker has spent more than a decade fishing in the subzero hell of Alaska's coastal waters. This collection--coming on the heels of his classic memoir Working on the Edge--is a testament to the courage of those who brave nature's wrath each fishing season, and to the uncontrolled power of nature herself.. The crewmen in Nights of Ice face a constant onslaught of roaring waves, stories-high swells, and life-stealing ice. Tested by the elements, these seamen battle for their vessels and their lives, on every page evincing a level of courage and a will to live seldom found elsewhere inâŚ
When I start a new book, my aim is to write something completely different from what Iâve written before. Itâs challenging, but also important to keep things fresh. To me, a blank slate before each story is thrilling. To start with nothing, and end with something wholly original. This Never Happened, my third book, began with a feeling weâve all had before: the feeling of not belonging. I asked myself, âWhat if I really didn't belong here, but was meant for somewhere else entirely?â From there, I created a character who grows increasingly unsure of his own identity and reality, themes that are also present in my selection of books below.
A man is driving to some oceanside cliffs to end his life. On the way, he stops for a night at a B&B in a small fishing village. He meets a girl, who has disappeared in the morning, and the man thinks, âWhat the heck. Iâll just stick around here and pretend Iâm the girlâs boyfriend (who no one in the village has met before) and wait until she returns.â The villagers grow increasingly suspicious (about everything, it seems) and the man is soon caught in an uncontrollable deception of his own making.
This is a really odd, really well-written Gothic tale by an author Iâd never heard of (who doesnât seem to have written anything before or since), but I picked it up because its vagueness intrigued me. Itâs the interplay of the main character trying his best to pretend heâs someone heâs not, for reasons even heâsâŚ
A gothic tale of dark longings and fragile fantasies 'I used to look across the street from my window through the windows of others, but none faced me directly so I could never see more than thin slices of rooms. People appeared from time to time, like pearl divers, briefly coming back to the surface for a breath of air...I was in love with life after dinner, beyond windows that weren't mine, of people I didn't know' As a young man drives hard through the night to reach the sea, he is stopped by the harsh wind and by aâŚ
For the last 19 years, I have worked narcotics K-9s for a private company called Sherlock Hounds Detection Canines. I recently retired from the K-9 work, but over the years, I loved seeing how dogs solve crimes in real life. Not only do they help us solve crimes, but dogs have a way of reaching people and changing lives. Dogs are quite literally âmanâs (or womanâs) best friend,â and because of that, they become the best partners for many characters in books. Thereâs nothing better than discovering a new K-9 series that depicts the real-life love and bond between K-9 and handler.
I am so happy I discovered Griffithâs Sam Rivers Mystery Series. While each book reads great as a standalone, I recommend starting with the first book in the series, Wolf Kill. Dead Catch, the fourth book, continues the story of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Sam Rivers and his faithful four-legged sidekick Grayâa wolf-hybrid. I love that Griffith has a wolf-hybrid as his fictional K-9 character.
Griffith weaves environmental issues into each book. Dead Catch explores the world of poaching walleye, which I found fascinating. But adding to the mystery is the relationship between Sam and his childhood friend charged with murder. I appreciated the theme of giving those we love a second chance and reviving a friendship years after a tragedy.
A murdered conservation officer and a multi-million-dollar poaching business-how are they connected to Sam Rivers' childhood friend?
Holden Riggins is an expert outdoorsman and a known poacher. He's made a small fortune by exploiting nature's bounty. So it's no surprise when two conservation officers (COs) from the Department of Natural Resources come upon Holden's fishing boat, anchored beside an illegal walleye net.
What is a surprise, though, is Holden's condition: nearly frozen to death on the bottom of his boat. That's not the COs' most shocking discovery. Twisted and tangled within the twines of another nearby net is the deadâŚ
I was a goofy-looking kid growing up. My ears were so big that someone once said I didnât need an alarm clock because I could hear the sun coming up. On top of that, I was also very average at everything I tried. However, I found that being funny made people like me. I also realized that, as long as God loved me and had a plan for me, I could be a superhero despite being average at everything. So when Focus on the Family asked me to start writing, I knew exactly what Iâd write aboutâŚme! Average Boy!
I grew up way out in the country. We had to drive 9 miles before we got to something called âa paved road.â So I spent my childhood roaming the woods fishing, hunting and camping. Then someone gave me A Fine and Pleasant Misery.
This book combined my two favorite things-laughing and the great outdoors. This book is a collection of funny stories about Pat as he takes us all back to nature with a hilarious look through a kidâs eyes who had never seen a video game but did run into some strange creatures. (Spoiler alert: giant mosquitos)
âA hilarious compilationâ (Los Angeles Times), A Fine and Pleasant Misery gathers twenty-seven witty, cautionary tales of the outdoor life from beloved humorist Patrick F. McManus in a collection edited and introduced by Jack Samson, long-time editor-in-chief of Field & Stream.
The great outdoors have never been rendered as hysterically as in the reminiscencesâtrue and exaggeratedâof Patrick F. McManus. If youâre thinking about getting back to nature, the surreal adventures chronicled here will make you think twice about giving it all up for a life of camping, hiking, and hunting.