fishing – The Miramichi Reader

Rough and Plenty: a Memorial by Raymond A. Rogers

January 13, 2021 by James M. Fisher

In Rough and Plenty: A Memorial, Rogers explores the parallel processes of dispossession suffered by nineteenth-century Scottish crofters expelled from their ancestral lands during the Highland Clearances, and by the marginalization of coastal fishing communities in Nova Scotia.

Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys by Jenn Thornhill Verma

August 30, 2020 by Gemma Marr

Jenn Thornhill Verma’s Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys is a tricky text to categorize. Part memoir, part historical overview, and part reckoning, Cod Collapse traces the development and decline of the ground fishing industry in … Continue reading

In Maine: Essays on Life’s Seasons by John N. Cole

October 1, 2019September 23, 2019 by James M. Fisher

In Maine by John N. Cole is an exceptional revised edition of one of Mr. Cole's best books, that can be picked up and read again and again.

Broken Man on a Halifax Pier by Lesley Choyce

August 8, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Fifty-five-year-old Charles Howard has lost his long-time journalism job and has been swindled out of his life savings. Standing by the edge of Halifax Harbour on a foggy morning, contemplating his dismal future, his ritual of self-pity is interrupted with the appearance of the mysterious and beguiling Ramona Danforth.

Best New Brunswick Reads of 2018

January 11, 2019January 10, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Looking back on all the books I reviewed in 2018, there were plenty of good ones that came out of New Brunswick.

Before I get to highlighting just a few of them, I would like to mention how unhappy I … Continue reading

The Crackie by Gary Collins

December 7, 2018November 28, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Newfoundland’s master storyteller Gary Collins returns with a novel written in his cogent style that blends together fiction and history into a uniquely readable book that anyone would enjoy. That may sound like a marketing line you might read on … Continue reading

Bryant Freeman: All Things Fishing by Doug Underhill

January 9, 2019February 3, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Miramichi author Doug Underhill and Nimbus Publishing have truly done the Atlantic salmon sportfishing industry a service by bringing the story of Bryant Freeman to bookshelves. A quiet, unassuming man, Mr. Freeman is well-known and loved by many who fish … Continue reading

Life on the Great Northern Peninsula by Adrian Payne

July 23, 2017 by James M. Fisher

-time author and memoirist Adrian Payne has compiled stories taken from his life growing up and working in and around Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula in places like Cow Head, Parson’s Pond, and Hawke’s Bay. Born in 1940, he left school … Continue reading

The Trawlermen by Clarence Vautier

July 11, 2017 by James M. Fisher

Clarence Vautier was born in 1972 in La Poile, Newfoundland. He moved away to attend high school, and after high school, he fished with his father, Clarence Sr., and his brother Raymond for a short time. He later went to … Continue reading

The Call of the Ocean by Jim Wellman

August 2, 2016August 1, 2016 by James M. Fisher

Flanker Press has just released an invaluable book penned by Jim Wellman of twenty-eight fascinating profiles of people who are (or were) involved with the modern ocean fishery industry in one way or another. There are stories of lives lived … Continue reading

After Drowning by Valerie Mills-Milde

July 9, 2017July 3, 2016 by James M. Fisher

This is Valerie Mills-Milde’s debut novel and it is a superb one. Located on the north shore of Lake Erie where there was once a thriving freshwater fishing industry, After Drowning is a semi-psychological and vastly intriguing novel about lives … Continue reading