Lorelie L. (artgal36) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 471 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Greenlaw (The Hungry Ocean), known to readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the sister ship to the ill-fated Andrea Gail, gave up swordfishing to return to her parents' home on Isle Au Haut off the coast of Maine and fish for lobster. Her plainspoken essays paint a picture of a grueling life as she details maintaining her boat and her equipment, setting and hauling hundreds of traps with a crew of one (her father, a retired steel company executive), contending with the weather and surviving seasons when the lobsters don't bother to come around. She intersperses her narrative with plenty of eccentrics who live on her tiny island (there are 47 full-time residents, half of whom she's somehow related to). Among them are Rita, the inveterate borrower who's such a nuisance that Greenlaw's parents hide behind the couch when they see her coming; George and Tommy of Island Boy Repairs, who make a horrendous mess of every job they undertake; and Victor, the cigar-eating womanizer who imports a red-headed flasher from Alabama. One of Greenlaw's themes is her desire to find a husband but, according to her friend Alden, she intimidates men: she's tough talking, feisty and very self-assured, which is no doubt why the other lobstermen on the island readily accept her as one of them. Self-speculation and uncertainties such as these nicely balance her delightfully cocky essays of island life.
Helpful Score: 3
I could not put this book down - read it in a day! Fascinating details about fishing for lobsters and life in a small town. Her writing is concise but wryly funny. Her descriptions of the neighbors on this small island range from engaging to hilarious.
Carroll H. (Seahorse) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 30 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Wonderful descriptions of small town (island) Maine and the difficult life of the modern day lobster fisherman. Written with humor and love for the locale.
Covers one bad lobster season, while telling background stories. Also nice from a feminist perspective, as the author is a woman in a traditionally and still male dominated profession. She acknowledges this, while not seeming to be phased by it or feel excluded.
Enjoyable, quick read.
Covers one bad lobster season, while telling background stories. Also nice from a feminist perspective, as the author is a woman in a traditionally and still male dominated profession. She acknowledges this, while not seeming to be phased by it or feel excluded.
Enjoyable, quick read.
Christine (luvmygem) -
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a little bit easier to read than "The Hungry Ocean", as the technical side of being a swordboat captain was sometimes hard to follow, but The Lobster Chronicles is more about coming home and seeing life through older, wiser eyes as than it is about catching lobsters...although she does explain the intricacies of that quite well, too. She made her island home sound like a place I would love to see someday.
Karen K. (krin) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 407 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed reading this book about trying to make a new life back home. I especially like Linda's observations about her relatives and other Islanders.
Linda Greenlaw writes interesting tales of her life living off of the sea. I really like her books, including this one, but she has a bit of disrespect for the animals she harvests from the oceans. That attitude bothers me a bit. Overall, this is a good book, though not as entertaining as her previous The Hungry Ocean.
Helpful Score: 1
OUTSTANDING TRUE STORY OF THE LOVE OF THE SEA
Helpful Score: 1
Great book about the dramas of small town life and by a woman writting about a field few women are in- lobster fishing. Bound to make any downeasters homesick. I personally would like to meet the author. She sounds like a fun person to know and hang out with.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a great read and the reader should enjoy being able to read a few chapters at a time. it's a "day in the life" type monologue so there's no real story per se, it's the author's ruminations of life as a lobsterman. Definitely an enjoyble read!
Robin M. (robin57) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 13 more book reviews
Makes you want to visit Maine and meet these people!
CHRISTOPHER R. (exterminator) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 29 more book reviews
very good. Tells a good story about her life from her early years to where she is now. Very interresting.
Jeanne M. (silybum) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 112 more book reviews
I really enjoyed reading about the intersting "characters" on the island. What a great life.
Christine C. (redstamper) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 7 more book reviews
Great true story.
The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island by Linda Greenlaw, picks up where The Hungry Ocean leaves off. Linda has decided to give up her life of 19 years as a swordfish boat captain and move back in with her parents on the Isle Au Haut, off the coast of Maine, trap lobsters for a living, and look for a mate.
The book isn't so much the story of a lobster season as a series of biographical sketches of the islands inhabitants. The book does a very good job of describing "life on a very small island" (the subtitle) and the peculiar inhabitants who like living there.
I found this book to be very interesting reading, and enjoyable, but I was disappointed when I reached the end. Like reality, the book didn't come to a strong conclusion.
Literary Quality: 6/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
The book isn't so much the story of a lobster season as a series of biographical sketches of the islands inhabitants. The book does a very good job of describing "life on a very small island" (the subtitle) and the peculiar inhabitants who like living there.
I found this book to be very interesting reading, and enjoyable, but I was disappointed when I reached the end. Like reality, the book didn't come to a strong conclusion.
Literary Quality: 6/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
Helen T. (siamesekitty) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 33 more book reviews
very enjoyable read.
Another great book by Linda Greenlaw! One kick butt chica!
Great read,couldn't put it down!
I really enjoyed this book. The author reveals her trials and successes of being a woman is a "man's world". There was some technical info I passed over quickly.
Helen B. (hmbeesley) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 63 more book reviews
Fabulous book. I really enjoyed it!
Helen B. (hmbeesley) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 63 more book reviews
Living in Maine, I found this a fabulous little book. I laughed out loud at several parts. Great book and a quick read.
Katie K. (Luvsseattle) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 14 more book reviews
A methodical view and story of lobster fishing and life on an island. Interesting story that is sometimes more informative than story line.
Light-hearted, often funny account of life on a New England island. Linda Greenlaw is an excellent writer...would like to read more accounts of her unusual life.
Laurie Z. (Piros1) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 51 more book reviews
Fascinating!
Eileen G. (dulcimerlady) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 334 more book reviews
I found this memoir fascinating, especially since the lobster"man" is a woman, and a very strong, intelligent one at that. Good read.
The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island by Linda Greenlaw, picks up where The Hungry Ocean leaves off. Linda has decided to give up her life of 19 years as a swordfish boat captain and move back in with her parents on the Isle Au Haut, off the coast of Maine, trap lobsters for a living, and look for a mate.
The book isn't so much the story of a lobster season as a series of biographical sketches of the islands inhabitants. The book does a very good job of describing "life on a very small island" (the subtitle) and the peculiar inhabitants who like living there.
I found this book to be very interesting reading, and enjoyable, but I was disappointed when I reached the end. Like reality, the book didn't come to a strong conclusion.
Literary Quality: 6/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
The book isn't so much the story of a lobster season as a series of biographical sketches of the islands inhabitants. The book does a very good job of describing "life on a very small island" (the subtitle) and the peculiar inhabitants who like living there.
I found this book to be very interesting reading, and enjoyable, but I was disappointed when I reached the end. Like reality, the book didn't come to a strong conclusion.
Literary Quality: 6/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
Jan V. (JLVanilla) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 48 more book reviews
Interesting...I love everything Maine and this captures the essence - lobster fishermen, small island life. Good read.
Cathy A. (asante) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 22 more book reviews
Good read into a life I knew nothing about.
Sharon R. (hazeleyes) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 331 more book reviews
Greenlaw (The Hungry Ocean), known to readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the sister ship to the ill-fated Andrea Gail, gave up swordfishing to return to her parents' home on Isle Au Haut off the coast of Maine and fish for lobster. Her plainspoken essays paint a picture of a grueling life as she details maintaining her boat and her equipment, setting and hauling hundreds of traps with a crew of one (her father, a retired steel company executive), contending with the weather and surviving seasons when the lobsters don't bother to come around. She intersperses her narrative with plenty of eccentrics who live on her tiny island (there are 47 full-time residents, half of whom she's somehow related to). Among them are Rita, the inveterate borrower who's such a nuisance that Greenlaw's parents hide behind the couch when they see her coming; George and Tommy of Island Boy Repairs, who make a horrendous mess of every job they undertake; and Victor, the cigar-eating womanizer who imports a red-headed flasher from Alabama. One of Greenlaw's themes is her desire to find a husband but, according to her friend Alden, she intimidates men: she's tough talking, feisty and very self-assured, which is no doubt why the other lobstermen on the island readily accept her as one of them. Self-speculation and uncertainties such as these nicely balance her delightfully cocky essays of island life.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
This is a very sweet book that ends too soon. Now I want to know more. smr
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
This is a very sweet book that ends too soon. Now I want to know more. smr
Greenlaw's book is funny as well as enlightening about a dwindling way of life and the perils of overfishing.
I really enjoyed this autobiographical telling of Greenlaw's adjustment to life as a lobster fisherman from the captain of a swordfish boat. This includes the adjustment of returning to live to her hometown on a small island off the coast of Maine.
Good insightful story from a woman who has worked the fishing and lobster business. Good description of a very peaceful island existance, along with the ruminations of what life brings on a daily basis.
Jennifer D. (mpontalba) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 43 more book reviews
This is an interesting memoir of a less than successful lobster season on Isle au Haut off the coast of Maine. Very readable and interesting.
Ever wondered what it would be like to live nearly isolated on a tiny island making your living as a lobsterman? Linda Greenlaw, author of the New York Times Bestseller The Hungry Ocean shares her first few years with us. Interesting, humorous, and honest, it is definitely worth the read.
Krista m M. (WyoKrista) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 101 more book reviews
True stories woven together to make a quilt of family and community
Entertaining light read. Wonder what she is doing now?
I think Ms. Greenlaw is a nice person, but the book was boring. I'm sure many people will enjoy it though.
Lynne J. (Doughgirl) reviewed The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island on + 138 more book reviews
Highly recommended. The title of the book is very appropriate, because this book really is Linda's memoirs of lobster fishing (alone and with her father) and living on a very small island (only 47 inhabitants, but some of the are really characters!)
