I adore Redmond O'Hanlon and his self-effacing and irreverent ramblings. He goes where few dare to tread-- here he boards a North Sea Trawler in winter, whether he's fully prepared or not. He brings you with him with boundless humor and a knack for revealing the most extraordinary people.

Bill is one of my mentors, but I'm not just trying to get brownie points here. Wooden Nickel is a gritty, warts-and-all look at a middle-aged Maine lobster fisherman whose marriage is falling apart. It's not for the faint of heart, but it's entertaining, intense, funny, and compelling.

This is one of the best novels I have read in years, but hardly anyone in the US has heard about it. It's the story of a Newfoundland outport, its people, the land, and the sea. Very Faulkneresque, both narrowly focused and detailed, yet sweeping and immense, like life in a Newfoundland village by the sea.

Philbrick is not only a careful historian, he is a terrific storyteller. He recounts the story of the Essex, holed and sunk in an attack by an irate sperm whale, then he follows the fates of the shipwrecked crewmen.

Written by a fisherman-turned-writer who lives near me in Maine. His prose is, as the title says, reflective and melancholy, clearly drawing the gritty, cold and hard life of a fisherman, at once grinding you down and drawing you in.

Payne is a pioneer of whale research and a staunch advocate. This beautifully written autobiography chronicles his life among whales all over the world.

As I show in Entanglements, the North Atlantic right whale is at a tipping point. Having come near to the brink of extinction and teetered there for centuries, people can now make choices that will determine the right whale's ultimate fate. In this book, the people who have spent their lives studying the urban whale speak about the creatures they have known in an array of voices.

A fascinating tome about the strange creatures, mostly figments of ancient imaginations, that graced the edges of maps in the regions of the unexplored seas.

A must-read for anyone who wants to know about the history of coastal New England.