Review of Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay (Paperback)

As a kid in Marblehead, Mass. I liked to catch crabs off the rocks.When I grew up a bit, I learned to eat them too---a very succulent food that I still love.But, I must confess that I never thought of reading booksabout them until one day I ran across William Warner's BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERSin a college bookshop.This wonderful work contains all you ever wanted toknow about the life cycle of one particular kind of crab that lives inChesapeake Bay (the kind you probably smashed with mallets if you ever wentto that area).Surprisingly, for most of its life, the Atlantic blue crabhas nothing to do with beer.Taking it for a focus, Warner drawsconnections with the sea, the rivers, the crab-friendly environment thatproduced such a wealth of the creatures, and then the people who live fromthat wealth, the islanders who lived isolated for centuries, but are nowfirmly within the web of modern life.Warner tells of the marketing ofcrabs, the catching of other Chesapeake products like oysters, and even offestivals like a Miss Crustacean contest ! You can learn about esotericalike crab pots, the Waterman's Union, the religious heritage of crabbers,and lots more. My edition came with a number of excellent pencil drawingsof crabs, crabbers, and maritime scenes from the area.I was disappointedby only one thing----reaching the end of this great book.

Product Description
William Warner exhibits his skill as a naturalist and as a writer in this Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the pugnacious Atlantic blue crab and of its Chesapeake Bay territory. Penguin Nature Library.

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Review of Naked (Paperback)

This book is classified as a memoir, and it's the funniest one I've read to date.Growing up Greek in North Carolina couldn't have been easy, but adding to the mix a crazy grandmother and a sibling with a penchant forusing towels as toilet paper makes it that much harder (and funnier, tous).

David was struck with enthusiastic OCD as a child, only to findways to "cure" his tics in college.His stories of life afterschooling include apple-picking and packing, working with jade (not tomention a crazy, hypocritical Christian), and refinishing woodwork with aJew-hating Lithuanian and a somewhat confused black guy.He hitchhikeswith all levels of human decapitation until a rowdy truck driver combsthicket by the roadside looking for him.

Not all of the fifteen storiesare side-splitting funny."I Like Guys" highlights accepting hishomosexual feelings, and an undercurrent of seriousness lines the story. "Ashes" tells of his mother's cancer, and a sense of tragedyseems to sober his usually razor-sharp satirical style.

The last (andtitle) story, "Naked", tells of his experience with a nudistcolony.It's written in more a journal form (the others are written in a'flashback' form) and by the end, you feel strange in your ownclothing.

I definitely plan on recommending this book to my friends.Idon't see how you could live your life without picking up a Sedaris book.



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