Book picks similar to
Vermont River by W.D. Wetherell
fly-fishing
nonfiction
nature
vermont
The Salt House
Cynthia Huntington - 1999
Each chapter is like a prose poem, shedding increasing light on the challenge of finding "home" without the illusion of permanence, a quest based not on ownership but on affinity and familiarity with an area and its people. Cynthia Huntington expands her theme through images of the landscape, the shack, the new marriage.The shack, named "Euphoria," is built as a house set on stilts above the sand, to take the wind under it. Only a partial shelter, it is inhabited for only one season a year, yet it endures. The outer cape has the feel of a place for migrants and drifters -- for birds and other wildlife, and for people such as artists, fishermen, and coast guardsmen. A place where "year-round" often means several addresses. Similarly, her narrative describes improvised, fragile beginnings: a new marriage, learning to be at home in the world, becoming intimate with the natural world, without the necessity of settling down. The Salt House shares a world that is less natural history or memoir than it is neighborhood exploration -- the process of learning a place and becoming native to it.
The Fly-Tying Bible: 100 Deadly Trout and Salmon Flies in Step-By-Step Photographs
Peter Gathercole - 2003
Fly-tying is a highly prized fisherman's craft, but it's also an art form, wonderfully captured in this volume's hundreds of color photos. Each of 100 fly patterns is presented in a two-page spread: an enlarged photo and textual description on the left-hand page, complemented with a set of step-by-step, clearly captioned photos on the facing page. In addition, fishing enthusiasts will find sections on fly-tying tools and materials plus general instructions for getting started. The author, a well-known fly-tier and sport fisherman gives instructions on making traditional trout and salmon flies--all of them fish catchers of proven effectiveness in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Examples vary in complexity, with patterns to fit every skill level from novice to expert fly-tier. Here are dry flies, nymphs and bugs, wet flies, streamers, and hairwings--a virtually complete selection of traditional and up-to-date examples of the art. The book's hidden spiral binding keeps its pages opened flat, which makes it ideal for reference at the workbench. More than 600 color photos.
Outrunning the Demons: Lives Transformed through Running
Phil Hewitt - 2019
With a foreword by Dean Karnazes.Outrunning the Demons is an in-depth exploration of just why running can so often seem the answer to everything when you find yourself in extremis. Phil Hewitt has been there himself. He was viciously mugged in 2016 and left for dead. Suffering the acute symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and unable to make any sense of what had happened to him, Phil found that dedicating himself to running--and its possible healing powers--was the only route ahead.Running can take us to fantastic places. Just as importantly, it can also bring us back from terrible ones. For people in times of crisis, trauma and physical or mental illness, running is often the means by which they reconstruct fractured, fragmented identity--or indeed the means to a new identity. When normality collapses, running can put it back together again. In the very worst cases, it can actually create a new normality and offer us the chance to move on.The author's own experiences place him in a unique position as he interviews runners who have suffered similarly and worse in a wide range of scenarios. The book covers the themes of Trauma, Bereavement, Depression & Anxiety, Addiction & Alcoholism, Terrorism, Violence/Sexual Abuse, Long-term Health Conditions (cancer, stroke etc), and Eating Disorders. While dealing with heavy, harrowing subjects, this powerfully compelling, engrossing, and enriching book will ultimately uplifting and celebratory, an exploration of why running can be the key to overcoming traumatic experiences and rebuilding lives.
Why We Swim
Bonnie Tsui - 2020
We swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. We swim for pleasure, for exercise, for healing. But humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now, in the twenty-first century, swimming is one of the most popular activities in the world.Why We Swim is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club that meets in Saddam Hussein’s palace pool, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck. New York Times contributor Bonnie Tsui, a swimmer herself, dives into the deep, from the San Francisco Bay to the South China Sea, investigating what about water—despite its dangers—seduces us and why we come back to it again and again.
Turning the Tide on Plastic: How Humanity (And You) Can Make Our Globe Clean Again
Lucy Siegle - 2018
That is the legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren. Plastic flows into our lives from every direction and most of it is not recycled. Instead it is incinerated or ends up in landfill, where it will sit for hundreds of years, or enters the world's seas where it fragments into tiny pieces to become microplastics - the environmental scourge of our times. Many of us had assumed that governments, brands and waste authorities were dealing with plastic on our behalf. But the impact of shows such as Blue Planet along with national beach cleans and high-profile campaigns have resulted in a collective wake-up call. If there were plans and strategies, they have not worked as we imagined. It would be easy to feel despondent but instead we need to turn our anger and emotion into action, starting by making a big dent in our own enormous consumption. Turning the tide on Plastic is here just in time. Journalist, broadcaster and eco lifestyle expert Lucy Siegle provides a powerful call to arms to end the plastic pandemic along with the tools we need to make decisive change. It is a clear-eyed, authoritative and accessible guide to help us to take decisive and effective personal action. Because this matters. When it comes to single-use plastics, we are habitual users, reaching out for plastic water bottles, disposable coffee cups, plastic straws and carrier bags multiple times a day. If only 12 of us adopt Lucy's 'reduce, rethink, refill, refuse' approach, we could potentially ditch 3K-15K single items of plastic in a year. When we consider our power as influencers - whether at school, the hairdressers, at work or on the bus - we suddenly become part of something significant. So now is the time to speak up, take action and demand the change you want to see in the ocean, in the supermarket aisles and on the streets. It's time to turn the tide on plastic, and this book will show you how.
Ladybird, Collected
Meg Heriford - 2020
Essays from a tiny diner in the middle of the country.These are stories of love and adaptation at the broad intersection of commerce and community, and of how a pandemic changed everything and nothing about us.
A Short Book About Art
Dana Arnold - 2015
Introducing art in its international context, this accessible book explores core issues about how art is made, interpreted, and displayed, without any of the unnecessary terminology. Divided into themes, A Short Book About Art presents new ways of thinking about the relationship between artists and their work, as well as fresh comparisons between works of art from different periods and places. Thought-provoking and stimulating, it is the ideal companion for anyone who wants to learn about art without a dictionary in their hands.
It's Not About the F-Stop (Voices That Matter)
Jay Maisel - 2015
But he is also much more than that—he is a mentor, teacher, and trailblazer to many photographers, and a hero to those who feel Jay’s teaching has changed the way they see and create their own photography. He is a living legend whose work is studied around the world, and whose teaching style and presentation garner standing ovations and critical acclaim every time he takes the stage. In his first educational book, Light, Gesture, and Color, Jay put his amazing insights and learning moments from a lifetime behind the lens into a book that communicated the three most important aspects of street photography: light, gesture, and color. Here, in It’s Not About the F-Stop, Jay continues and builds on that success to take take you beyond the buttons and dials on your camera to continue to teach you how to “see” like a photographer, and how to capture the world around you in a way that delights, intrigues, and challenges the viewer. Each page unveils something new and challenges you to rethink everything you know about the bigger picture of photography. This isn’t a book about f-stops or ISOs. It’s about seeing. And there is nobody that communicates this, visually or through the written word, like Jay Maisel.
CIA Super Pilot Spills The Beans: Flying Helicopters in Laos for Air America
Bill Collier - 2017
Captain Collier teamed up with his best Vietnam helicopter pilot buddy, Gary, and the two rascals shared enough true adventure to make any novel seem lame. Flying combat in mountainous and weather-hostile Laos was some of the most challenging ever experienced by any pilot, any time, any war. Making fabulous money and having airline benefits allowed them to live an exotic lifestyle, to travel the world on their monthly R&Rs, and to chase and capture more than a few stewardesses from several different airlines.War correspondent Anne Darling described the helicopter pilots for AIR AMERICA as "CIA Super Pilots" Captain Bill Collier was one of those "Super Pilots." This is his story.
Simple Fly Fishing: Techniques for Tenkara and Rod and Reel
Yvon Chouinard - 2014
This book reveals that the best way to catch trout is simply, with a rod and a fly and not much else. The wisdom in this book comes from a simpler time, when the premise was: the more you know, the less you need. It teaches the reader how to discover where the fish are, at what depth, and what they are feeding on. Then it describes the techniques needed to present a fly at that depth, make it look lifelike, and hook the fish. With chapters on wet flies, nymphs, and dry flies, its authors employ both the tenkara rod as well as regular fly fishing gear to cover all the bases. Illustrated by renowned fish artist James Prosek, with inspiring photographs and stories throughout, Simple Fly Fishing reveals the secrets and the soul of this captivating sport. Winner, Guidebooks, Banff Mountain Book Competition 2014
Ask Polly's Guide to Your Next Crisis
Heather Havrilesky - 2017
Every crisis carries with it some kind of a gift that will make you feel more whole.” From beloved advice-columnist Heather Havrilesky comes a new collection of treasured questions and answers for those of us who have a crisis looming, who are still looking to find our joy, and who are hiding from injustice and doubt. Why doesn’t anything feel fun? Am I too anxious to ever find love? Why won’t my former friends forgive me? And, why should I keep going? To all of these questions and more, Havrilesky offers her customary wit, grace, candor, and wisdom. These are the pep talks we all need to hear to lay our egos aside and draw on the strengths we didn’t know we had.
The Naked Surgeon: the power and peril of transparency in medicine
Samer Nashef - 2015
We all have one, but most of us will never see one. The heart surgeon now has that privilege but, for centuries, the heart was out of reach even for surgeons. So when a surgeon nowadays opens up a ribcage and mends a heart, it remains something of a miracle, even if, to some, it is merely plumbing.
As with plumbers, the quality of surgeons’ work varies. As with plumbers, surgeons’ opinion of their own prowess and their own attitude to risk are not always reliable. Measurement is key. We’ve had a century of effective evidence-based medicine. We’ve had barely a decade of thorough monitoring of clinical outcomes. Thanks to the ground-breaking risk modelling of pioneering surgeons like Samer Nashef, we at last know how to judge whether an operation is in a patient’s best interest, which hospital and surgeon would be best for that operation, when it might best be performed and what the exact level of risk is. We have at last made what is important in surgery measurable. But how should surgeons, and their patients, use these newfound insights? Ever since his days as a medical student, Samer Nashef has challenged the medical profession to be more open and more accurate about the success of surgical procedures, for the sake of the patients. In The Naked Surgeon, he unclothes his own profession to demonstrate to his reader (and prospective patient) many revelations, such as the paradox at the heart of the cardiac surgeon’s craft: the more an operation is likely to kill you, the better it is for you. And he does so with absolute clarity, fluency and not a little wit.
The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway's Ghost in the Last Days of Castro's Cuba
Brin-Jonathan Butler - 2015
This book is the culmination of Butler's decade spent in the trenches of Havana, trying to understand a culture perplexing to Westerners: one whose elite athletes regularly forgo multimillion-dollar opportunities to stay in Cuba and box for their country, while living in penury. Butler's fascination with this distinctly Cuban idealism sets him off on a remarkable journey, training with, befriending, and interviewing the champion boxers that Cuba seems to produce more than any other country. In the process, though, Butler gets to know the landscape of the exhilaratingly warm Cuban culture—and starts to question where he feels most at home. In the tradition of Michael Lewis and John Jeremiah Sullivan, Butler is a keen and humane storyteller, and the perfect guide for this riotous tour through the streets of Havana.
I'm Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We All Love
Tim Kurkjian - 2016
Tim explains the fear factor in the game, and what it feels like to get hit by a pitch; Adam LaRoche wanted to throw up in the batter's box. He examines the game's superstitions: Eliot Johnson's choice of bubble gum, a poker chip in Sean Burnett's back pocket. He unearths the unwritten rules of the game, takes readers inside ESPN, and reveals how Tony Gwynn made baseball so much more fun to watch.And, of course, Tim will explain to readers why he is fascinated by sacrifice flies.