In the decades after the Civil War, Chesapeake Bay became the scene of a life and death struggle to harvest the oyster.

Bill Buford's Heat meets Phoebe Damrosch's Service Included in this unique blend of personal narrative, food miscellany, and history In March of 2009, Erin Byers Murray ditched her pampered city girl lifestyle and convinced the rowdy and mostly male crew at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to let a completely unprepared, aquaculture-illiterate food and lifestyle writer work for them for a year to learn the business of oysters. The result is Shucked—part love letter, part memoir and part documentary about the world's most beloved bivalves. Providing an in-depth look at the work that goes into getting oysters from farm to table, Shucked shows Erin's fullcircle journey through the modern day oyster farming process and tells a dynamic story about the people who grow our food, and the cutting-edge community of weathered New England oyster farmers who are defying convention and looking ahead. The narrative also interweaves Erin's personal story—the tale of how a technology-obsessed workaholic learns to slow life down a little bit and starts to enjoy getting her hands dirty (and cold). This is a book for oyster lovers everywhere, but also a great read for locavores and foodies in general.

When a waitress from an Appalachicola oyster bar heads south to Miami, she suddenly finds herself embroiled in a zany mystery set in Florida involving a man, the mob, a boat, guns, oysters, and a mysterious coffin. A first novel. Reprint.

This cultural and ecological history explores the rise of Chesapeake’s mighty mollusk from Colonial-era harvesting to contemporary cultivation. Oysters are an essential part of Chesapeake Bay culture and cuisine, as well as the ecological and historical lifeblood of the region. When colonists first sailed these abundant shores, they described massive shoals of foot-long oysters. In later years, however, the bottomless appetite of the Gilded Age and great fleets of skipjacks took their toll. Disease, environmental pressures, and overconsumption decimated the population by the end of the twentieth century. To combat the problem, Virginia began leasing its waters to private oyster farmers. Today, these boutique oyster farms are sustainably meeting the culinary demand of a new generation of connoisseurs. But in Maryland, passionate debate continues among scientists and oystermen whether aquaculture or wild harvesting is the better path. With careful research and interviews with experts, author Kate Livie presents this dynamic story and a glimpse of what the future may hold.

A crime thriller set in the swirling creeks around the Essex mudflats