The Angler's Coast

This book's as much about fly fishing as The Big Two-Hearted River is. Without ever deviating from its straightforward purpose -- to explore the good people Chatham's met in a lifetime of flyfishing the San Francisco Bay and points north for chinook and stripers -- Chatham manages also to pen a meditation on what makes people good, and how challenge (including the challenge of fly fishing well) nurtures that goodness. The book's also a love story to a Northern California that used to be, and belongs in any Bay Area or Northern Californian's bookshelf along with Bay Area Landmarks, The Flavors of Home and other well-written celebrations of that place's home geography. And the details about fishing, in bays, estuaries and rivers, are fun. If you have any doubts about the literary value of this book, note the foreword by Thomas McGuane -- who wouldn't muck around writing forewords for trash. Loved the book, Russell.