Catching Shrimp With Bare Hands

Catching Shrimp with Bare Hands is the true story of Luong La, a boy growing up in the Mekong Delta in the midst of the Vietnam War. When the 1968 Tet Offensive forces Luong's family to flee the countryside, his mother continues to travel back and forth to their island farm despite threats from the Viet Cong and nearby firefights. Out on their farm in the middle of the Mekong River, Luong wants to catch fish and slingshot birds, but Viet Cong, called mysterious misters by the villagers, stop by his family's hut and stay. "The frog dies because of its big mouth," his mother warns. The mysterious misters behead a neighbor, and Luong's aunt goes missing. Luong plans to join the Army as soon as he's old enough to fight, but the war ends before he has a chance. Communism descends, pulling him back in time to a land without electricity or fuel where his family has to hide the books that haven't already been burned. Propaganda that "kneads their skulls," neighbors spying on each other, and the threat of starvation drive Luong to escalating acts of defiance. About to get caught by the authorities, he drops out of school to help his family build a boat to escape.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS & EDITORS Book Award, Finalist 2014 "Greenberg’s breezy, engaging style weaves history, politics, environmental policy, and marine biology." --New Yorker From the acclaimed author of Four Fish and The Omega Principle, Paul Greenberg uncovers the tragic unraveling of the nation’s seafood supply—telling the surprising story of why Americans stopped eating from their own waters in American Catch In 2005, the United States imported five billion pounds of seafood, nearly double what we imported twenty years earlier. Bizarrely, during that same period, our seafood exports quadrupled. American Catch examines New York oysters, Gulf shrimp, and Alaskan salmon to reveal how it came to be that 91 percent of the seafood Americans eat is foreign. In the 1920s, the average New Yorker ate six hundred local oysters a year. Today, the only edible oysters lie outside city limits. Following the trail of environmental desecration, Greenberg comes to view the New York City oyster as a reminder of what is lost when local waters are not valued as a food source. Farther south, a different catastrophe threatens another seafood-rich environment. When Greenberg visits the Gulf of Mexico, he arrives expecting to learn of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s lingering effects on shrimpers, but instead finds that the more immediate threat to business comes from overseas. Asian-farmed shrimp—cheap, abundant, and a perfect vehicle for the frying and sauces Americans love—have flooded the American market. Finally, Greenberg visits Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the biggest wild sockeye salmon run left in the world. A pristine, productive fishery, Bristol Bay is now at great risk: The proposed Pebble Mine project could under¬mine the very spawning grounds that make this great run possible. In his search to discover why this pre¬cious renewable resource isn’t better protected, Green¬berg encounters a shocking truth: the great majority of Alaskan salmon is sent out of the country, much of it to Asia. Sockeye salmon is one of the most nutritionally dense animal proteins on the planet, yet Americans are shipping it abroad. Despite the challenges, hope abounds. In New York, Greenberg connects an oyster restoration project with a vision for how the bivalves might save the city from rising tides. In the Gulf, shrimpers band together to offer local catch direct to consumers. And in Bristol Bay, fishermen, environmentalists, and local Alaskans gather to roadblock Pebble Mine. With American Catch, Paul Greenberg proposes a way to break the current destructive patterns of consumption and return American catch back to American eaters. The Washington Post: "Americans need to eat more American seafood. It’s a point [Greenberg] makes compellingly clear in his new book, American Catch: The Fight for our Local Seafood...Greenberg had at least one convert: me.” Jane Brody, New York Times “Excellent.” The Los Angeles Times “If this makes it sound like American Catch is another of those dry, haranguing issue-driven books that you read mostly out of obligation, you needn’t worry. While Greenberg has a firm grasp of the facts, he also has a storyteller’s knack for framing them in an entertaining way.” The Guardian (UK) “A wonderful new book” Tom Colicchio: "This is on the top of my summer reading list. A Fast Food Nation for fish.”

Melanesia has been the research focus of some of anthropology’s legendary names. In the best tradition of Melanesian scholarship, Jane Goodale writes here of the Kaulong who live in the deep forests of New Britain, an island in the vast territory of Papua New Guinea. Even in the last half of the twentieth century, the Kaulong’s contact with the outside world through government patrols and missionaries has been minimal. Their story enhances our understanding of Melanesia and adds new and significant material to the comparison of Oceanic cultures and societies. In the course of her fieldwork with them, Goodale recognized that everything of importance to the Kaulong--every event, every relationship, every transaction--was rooted in their constant quest for recognition as human beings. She addresses here questions central to Kaulong society: What is it that makes an individual human? How is humanity, or personhood, achieved and maintained? In their consuming concern with their status as human beings, the Kaulong mark progress on a continuum from nonhuman (animal-like) to the most respected level of humanity--the political Big Men and Big Women. Knowledge is the key to movement along the continuum, and acquiring, displaying and defending knowledge are at the heart of social interaction. At all-night “singsings,” individuals compete through song in their knowledge of people, places, and many other aspects of their forested world. The sacrifice of pigs and distribution of pork to guests completes the ceremonial display and defense of knowledge and personhood. While To Sing with Pigs will be welcomed by anthropologists and area specialists, it will appeal on a broader level to anyone interested in this still remote part of the world. Goodale's analysis of songs and their ritual context adds unusual depth to the ethnography. Fascinating field photographs and readable text prove again that anthropology can be both scholarly and lively.

Raised in the Wild is a non-fiction book about growing up on an uninhabited barrier island along the South Carolina coastline. The island was privately owned by Richard Reynolds of Reynolds Aluminum Company and only accessible by boat. In 1954, Mr. Reynolds hired my grandfather as caretaker and allowed him and my father to build a small, out of the way house to watch over and maintain his occasional weekend retreat. A few months later our home was complete; a tiny two-bedroom wood structure with gaps in the walls and floor. The domicile was built on top of concrete blocks at the southwestern tip of the island. Twice a month on either a full or new moon, the rising tide brought saltwater over the bank and under the dwelling. Our home was very primitive. We had no indoor plumbing, phone, TV and only minimal power provided single gas generator. All meals and heat source came from a single potbelly wood-burning stove. We were the only residents on Dewees, except for occasional guests of the Reynolds family. The visitors would stay in the fourteen-room lodge, previously build in the mid 1920s and owned by Coulter Huyler. Dad served as the guests' personal hunting and fishing guide, Mom prepared all meals, and after attending school by boat, my brother and I contributed by carrying their luggage and keeping fires stoked. Our life was simple but exciting. We lived off the islands natural resources: wild game and fresh seafood. Whereas most children had dogs and cats for pets, Mark and I played with and raised alligators, snakes and raccoons. Little about our primal, isolated existence could be considered ordinary. The main characters include, Ola Leppert, my mom, Oscar Leppert, my father, Mark Leppert, my younger brother and me. Growing up on Dewees Island provided a host of unforgettable memories. This book is a true life, "Huckleberry Finn" adventure. The outlandish adventures we encountered are assured to keep a readers interest.

Multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, the author shares his deeply personal, honestly critical, and often penetratingly satirical-but always humorous and even delightfully hilarious-narratives from the pages of his early years in Taiwan before the end of World War II and five-decade life in the United States. In refreshing candor, the twenty episodes cover topics of a wide-ranging interest, from anthropological mystery to historical anecdotes, and sociological issues to religious and ethnic characterizations, all from the author's highly personal viewpoint as unique as his complex and multi-faceted background. Some readers may find them inciting to ponder, inducing to laughter, fomenting to indignation or provoking to renunciation, or even moving to tears. But few can remain indifferent to the narratives that come straight from the author's heart.

On the morning of February 3, 1983, the Americus and Altair, two state-of-the-art crabbing vessels, idled at the dock in their home port of Anacortes, Washington. On deck, the fourteen crewmen--fathers, sons, brothers and friends who'd known one another all their lives--prepared for the ten-day trip to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. From this rough-and-tumble seaport the men would begin a grueling three-month season in one of the nation's most profitable and deadliest occupations--fishing for crab in the notorious Bering Sea. Standing on the Anacortes dock that morning, the families and friends of the crew knew that in the wake of the previous year's multimillion-dollar losses, the pressure for this voyage was unusually intense. Eleven days later, on Valentine's Day, the overturned hull of the Americus was found drifting in calm seas only twenty-five miles from Dutch Harbor, without a single distress call or trace of its seven-man crew. The Altair, its sister ship, had disappeared altogether; in the desperate search that followed, no evidence of the vessel or its crew would ever be found. The nature of the disaster--fourteen men and two vessels,apparently lost within hours of each other--made it the worst on record in the history of U.S. commercial fishing. Delving into the mysterious tragedy of the Americus and Altair, acclaimed journalist Patrick Dillon vivifies the eighty-knot winds, subzero temperatures, and mountainous waves commercial fishermen fight daily to make their living, and illustrates the incredible rise of the Pacific Northwest's ocean frontier: from a father-and-son business to a dangerously competitive multibillion-dollar high-tech industry with one of the highest death rates in the nation. Here Dillon explores the lives the disaster left behind in Anacortes: the ambitious young entrepreneur who raised the top-notch fleet in a few short years, the guilt-ridden captains of the surviving sister boats, and the grief-numbed families of the crew. Tracing the two-year investigation launched by the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board, he brings to life a heated cast of opponents: ingenious scientists, defensive marine architects, blue-chip lawyers and wrangling politicians, all struggling to come to terms with the puzzling death of fourteen men at sea. And finally, in his evocation of one mother's crusade to pass the safety legislation that might save lives, Dillon creates a moving portrait of courage and love.

The debut cookbook by the creator of the wildly popular blog Damn Delicious proves that quick and easy doesn't have to mean boring.Blogger Chungah Rhee has attracted millions of devoted fans with recipes that are undeniable 'keepers'-each one so simple, so easy, and so flavor-packed, that you reach for them busy night after busy night. In Damn Delicious, she shares exclusive new recipes as well as her most beloved dishes, all designed to bring fun and excitement into everyday cooking. From five-ingredient Mini Deep Dish Pizzas to no-fuss Sheet Pan Steak & Veggies and 20-minute Spaghetti Carbonara, the recipes will help even the most inexperienced cooks spend less time in the kitchen and more time around the table.Packed with quickie breakfasts, 30-minute skillet sprints, and speedy takeout copycats, this cookbook is guaranteed to inspire readers to whip up fast, healthy, homemade meals that are truly 'damn delicious!'