From Library Journal
The sounds and the smells of the seashore and summer vacation wash over the reader in this delightful collection compiled as the ultimate in reading material for those yearning for the beach. Shirley, the author of two poetry collections of her own, has made careful selections of poems, stories, and essays that reflect the drama surrounding life at the shore. Her choices provide an intense experience for the armchair traveler and a relaxing read for the beach. Cape Cod, Sausalito, Cape Fear, Newport Beach, Montauk, and Key West pulsate with the breath of life from the land, the sea, and the infinite possibilities of nature. Each piece in this anthology focuses on the people for whom life on the edge of the ocean is a reality and not just two weeks of escape during summer vacation. Shirley's collection also defines the relationship between people and the coastal environment. Recommended for all public libraries.ACynde Bloom Lahey, New Canaan Lib., CTCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Sense This Week
"A beach book indeed! More like a perverse and total twisting of the 'genre'! Check it out."


The Courier-Journal
"Here, at last, is a beach book for the discriminating reader. No longer does the literary vacationer have to peer disconsolately at the endless racks of potboilers and bodice-rippers, skullduggeries and the other horrors that sag the crab-shack bookracks. One has only to stow away this nifty volume for a week's worth of good reading and rereading, which only fine writing engenders."


Book Description
Whether hailing from Costa Rica or Newport Beach, New Jersey beaches or the shores of Belize, these stories, essays, and poems explore the endless variations of life at the beach. The pleasure of personal discovery that compels the writers in this volume is one readers will relish and share-as guilt-free beach reading or as an armchair vacation. Here in abundant variety are the unique characters of coastal life-diamondback terrapins, ospreys, moray eels, and rockfish, as well as crabbers, fishermen, and "summer people"-all forms of life are described by diction that is deliciously specific, informed by both experience and passion. This is an anthology of deep feeling for the relationships among humans as well as our relationship to nature. In "ff Season," by Sallie Bingham, a young mistress plays hostess in Key West to her new lover's wife, visiting from Chicago. In Peter Cameron's story, "Nuptials & Heathens," New Yorkers weekend on the coast of Maine. Poems by Gray Jacobik, Chase Twitchell, Kathleen Halme, and others are lyrical surrenders to the shore's seductive allure. Peter Matthiessen recounts his experiences as captain of the Merlin, a charter fishing boat, off Montauk, Long Island. And though there's a lot to celebrate in these pages, the conscience has not taken a vacation. Yusef Komunyakaa's poems dramatize racism at Newport Beach and depict the perspective of Thai fishermen limited by class circumstances. Literary essays by Jennifer Ackerman and Tom Horton are impassioned testaments to the need for ecological awareness. If ever there were SOS messages in bottles, sent adrift with the desperate prayer that they would reach someone, somewhere-messages on which lives depend-here they are: uncorked.


From the Publisher
Sarabande Books is delighted to announce The Beach Book: A Literary Companion. It's the first anthology of its kind-a guilt-free-beach read-and we're confident it will be of interest to readers who live near the coast or enjoy travel. The Beach Book features the work of well known writers such as Peter Matthiessen, Amy Hempel, Mark Richard, Lucille Clifton, Susan Minot, Peter Cameron, and Yusef Komunyakaa, as well as the work of emerging talents. We're convinced that there isn't a single weak piece in this anthology, and its range is remarkable. From delicious lyric poems to impassioned literary essays and provocative short stories, The Beach Book offers something for every discerning reader's palate and sates those who crave substance in their vacation reading.


From the Author
"This is the anthology I would like to have at the beach, the book I want to give people going to the beach, the book I'd suggest to people looking for something fun and different and thought-provoking to read while stretched out on a sandy beach towel or relaxing on a screened porch-poems, stories, and essays that offer a new way of looking at the familiar, eternal place where the sea meets land."-Aleda Shirley, Editor, from the Foreword

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This anthology of poetry, short fiction, and essays about coastal life features contributions from a wealth of writers, including Susan Minot, Lucille Clifton, Peter Cameron, Robert Haas, and many others.

SYNOPSIS

Here in abundant variety are the unique characters of coastal life -- diamondback terrapins, ospreys, moray eels, and rock fish, as well as crabbers, fishermen, and "summer people." All forms of life are described by diction deliciously specific, informed by experience and passion.

Peter Matthiessen recounts his experiences as captain of the Merlin, a charter fishing boat, off Montauk, Long Island. Susan Minot portrays the erosive effect of alcoholism on a family in Maine. Li-Young Lee shows water at its most fluid; in a single poem, he invokes it as vital and fatal, both beginning and end. If ever there were SOS messages in bottles, sent adrift with the desperate prayer that they would reach someone, somewhere -- messages on which lives depend -- here they are: uncorked.

About the Author:

Aleda Shirley is the author of two collections of poems, Long Distance, and Chinese Architecture. She lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Courier-Journal

Here, at last, is a beach book for the discriminating reader. No longer does the literary vacationer have to peer disconsolately at the endless racks of potboilers and bodice-rippers, skullduggeries and the other horrors that sag the crab-shack bookracks. One has only to stow away this nifty volume for a weeks worth of good reading and rereading, which only fine writing engenders.

Book Sense This Week

A beach book indeed! More like a perverse and total twisting of the genre! Check it out.

The Islander

The Beach Book is an enjoyable and edifying seaside companion. Astutely edited by Aleda Shirley, the book contains poems, essays, and stories that focus on that familiar, eternal place where the sea meets the land.

Library Journal