Books About Fish & Fishing on The Point with Mindy Todd

This morning we had the great pleasure of having Dennis Minsky back in the studio to talk about books. Our topic was books about fish and fishing. Our apologies that the show could not be live this month, due to my schedule, but please leave us a comment with any fish book you love that you would like us to add to the list. If you missed the show, you can listen online via WCAI!

Mindy’s Pick

I’ve Never Met an Idiot on the River: reflections of family, photography, and fly-fishing by Henry Winkler

Dennis’s Picks

Fishing Around Nantucket by J. Clinton Andrews

The Hungry Ocean: a swordboat captain’s journey by Linda Greenlaw

Four Fish: the future of the last wild food by Paul Greenberg

The Run by John Hay

The Most Important Fish in the Sea: menhaden and America by H. Bruce Franklin

The Provincetown Seafood Cookbook by Howard Mitcham

American Seafood: heritage, culture & cookery from sea to shining sea by Barton Seaver

Consider the Eel by Richard Schweid

The Founding Fish by John McPhee

Jill’s Picks

“The Fish” by Mary Oliver in New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

The Shining Tides by Win Brooks

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean

The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation by Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton

My Moby Dick by William Humphrey

A Jerk on One End: reflections of a mediocre fisherman by Robert Hughes

Blues by John Hersey

Listener Picks

Even though we weren’t live for the fishing show, we got lots of books suggestions after the show! Here’s the list …

The Finest Kind : the fishermen of Gloucester by Kim Bartlett

Vermont River by WD Wetherell

Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world by Mark Kurlansky

Beautiful Swimmers : watermen, crabs, and the Chesapeake Bay by William Warner

The River Why by David James Duncan

The Longest Silence: a life in fishing by Thomas McGuane

Reading the Water: adventures in surf fishing on Martha’s Vineyard by Bob Post

Men’s Lives: the surfman and baymen of the South Fork by Peter Matthiessen

10 comments on “Books About Fish & Fishing on The Point with Mindy Todd


  1. Lawry Sager says:

    Great! Enough to keep me busy at the inter-library loan desk for awhile.

  2. William gemmell says:

    Hi Ms Todd,
    My wife and I caught the last half of your broadcast starting with “ a river runs through it” on our way back to ct after visiting friends in south Yarmouth. We both very much enjoyed the reviews, comments and enjoyed reading many of those books. I have one comment on your broadcast and one additional book to recommend. Comment: fishing and drinking are very much less correlated than your conversations implied.
    Recommendation: read “the river why” by David James Duncan .
    Thanks
    Bill

    1. Jill Erickson says:

      Hi Bill, We’re so glad you enjoyed the show, and thanks so much for your comment and your book suggestion! We think we’ll have to do another fishing shown sooner rather than later, and make sure it is live so everyone can call in with their great suggestions.

  3. Andrew says:

    Hat tip to Jill for including A River Runs Through It. I am haunted by waters, indeed!

    1. Jill Erickson says:

      I had never read it before, and it really was gorgeously written. Thanks for listening.

  4. Alex Getmanov says:

    This was great! Some suggestions: The Finest Kind by Kim Bartlett, Vermont River by WD Wetherell, Cod by Mark Kurlansky, & Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner.

    1. Jill Erickson says:

      Glad you enjoyed the show, and thanks so much for your suggestions. We may need to do a part two fishing show, and be sure it is a live episode!

  5. Out of all of the books picture the only one I’ve read is the cat in the hat. I really need to start reading more books.

    1. Jill Erickson says:

      Thanks for listening, and we hope you’ll try one of our other book suggestions!

  6. Brian says:

    Great selection. I’ll be sure to share these fishing books suggestions on my social media channels. We all know fishing can be boring sometimes, so a good book helps kill time. ha

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