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 - Sockeye Running: A primer on set nettingFor the beginning Bristol Bay net fisherman, this is a good book and it doesn't matter if you are going to be a boat based (drifter) or shore based (set netter). It gives a good flavor of the commitment, friendships and hardships faced by the set netters and adds a lot of personal characters traits to the plot. I drifted for a number of years and it provided me an insight into their side of the fishery and brought back a lot of good (and bad) memories. A good don't want to set it down kind of read that made it through our whole family. (Dave Neault) Rating:  - Bill brought to life what few have ever experienced.I read Bill's book, "Red Summer" and did not put it down until I finished it. I have first-hand knowledge as to how I know Bill brought the characters and way of living to life; not because I was there but because Sharon, the main "character" is my cousin. He captured my cousins' (David and Ron as well) personalities and lives just as I have known them to be. I knew my cousin Sharon chose a hard life after she and I graduated from high school (I went to college and she went fishing; this was 1979 and she has done so to this day) but I never knew just how hard that life was for her, and I never, ever heard a complaint about it. Bill wrote of his life with Sharon as his captain, and with the folks of Egegik, in such a way that you feel as though you are right there with them all. He brings you in from the first page and you feel saddened at the end because you want to read more! Thanks Bill for writing of your experiences so descriptively that I felt I had spent wonderful, miserable, exciting, tiring, and rewarding summers with my cousin. - Barb Rating:  - Good Read As To The Action, the Rest is A Matter of Personal TasteThe book divides itself between the commercial salmon fishing trade, on the one hand, and environmental politics/philosophy/policy on the other. When addressing the former, the writing is crisp and clear. There is lots of action, fascinating characters, and plenty to hold your attention -- just a good, solid read. He really puts you into the place, the action, and the people. When it shifts to environmental politics, philosophy, and policy, it helps a great deal if you share the author's point of view. A journalist by trade, he has strong opinions. If you don't agree, you can skip those parts and get back to the action, which is well worth the time. Rating: - Egegik, AK - The Real ThingI'd like to witness to the accuracy of Carter's portrayal of Egegik summers and the fishing men (and some hardy women) do there. I worked eight summers in Egegik (1994-2001), starting in the cannery, set-netting for two summers and drift fishing for four. I lived and worked with two long time Egegik families (one not so much a family, but a clan). Carter has squarely captured the joy, exhaustion, laughter, anger, dissipation, recklessness, heroism, bawdiness, and adventure of Egegik summers. Everything he writes in his book is true and he does not exagerate (hard as that may seem!). The people he writes about (many I also knew) are just as lost, wild, mean, strong, and gripping as he portrays them. Carter's book isn't the last word about Egegik summers (there are many many books that could be written about the drift fishing, the cannery workers, the fish and game officers, and more), but it'd dead on accurate for the territory it covers. His book shows why so many of us went back summer after summer and still dream of doing so now that we've moved on to the rest of our lives. Rating: - Crazy and Exciting, Just Like His First BookA man who is drawn to adventures as easily as many of us are drawn to our remote controls, Bill Carter offers us the gift of roaming vicariously into his world as he sets sail for another wild journey in Red Summer. This second memoir from the author of the sentimental and heartbreaking Fools Rush In, takes us to the waters of Alaska for the core fishing season where he toiled on a boat for four years doing harder work than most of us will ever encounter. The landscape is depressing, the townspeople are harsh and the money isn't nearly as good as you'd think it would be for life-threatening labor, yet Bill keeps going back for more. When you're not marveling at his physical and emotional stamina, you're wondering why the heck he hasn't packed up camp and returned to the sunny desert of Arizona that he calls home. By the end of the story, after you've met the "characters" who are now like family to him, and you appreciate the greater good of what fishing in that part of the world can provide, you'll understand. And you'll search your mind wondering where Bill's life will take him next...and hope he invites you along.
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