Rating: 
Summary: Nice Surprise
Review: I received this book as a present and it was a pleasant surprise. Greenlaw's story of lobstering and life on the Island is fascinating. She puts a lot of herself into the book too, which makes it even more endearing. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Life on a small island
Review: I was going to Maine for a long week-end, culminating in a lobster bake on the beach, so I thought that this would be a good book to accompany me. If I'm going to eat lobster, I decided, it might be a good idea to get some understanding of how they came from the water to my plate. The book answers that question very well, in addition to revealing the tedious and difficult work life of the small time lobster fisherman. Additionally, we are given glimpses of how life is on a very small island, inhabited by a very small number of year-round residents. The writing is uniformly good, and the story moves well through chapters of just the right length for casual reading. Every reader will learn something interesting from this well-written book, and I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what it should have been
Review: I was prepared to like this one. I did not read Greenlaw's previous work, but the idea of presenting life on a Maine island, delving into the trials and simple joys of this life, really appealed to me. I wish that was what Greenlaw had done here. Instead I found a series of dull complaints about inept handymen, the lackluster love life of the author, and character sketches that are so lacking in detail that I can't understand why they were included. Chapter after chapter of complaining about the poor season, her father, her poverty, become so tedious that you hope she gets a few lobsters just so she'll stop whining. Even the sections that were more enjoyable, when she's writing about the nuts and bolts of lobster fishing, are written in a style that just lies on the page. There was a great idea here, somewhere, buried under the bad prose.
Rating:
Summary: Lobster Chonicles
Review: I've now read all three of Linda's books, and now I have nothing else to look forward to in life. :(
Jennie Logsdon Martin
www.ifish.net
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing but Shallow
Review: I've read Linda's other book and found much of it riveting. But this volume just leaves the reader flat. The day in the life style certainly works for this type of book but the quirky personalities and amusing events needed far more development. If the reader is to truly care about what happens to whom on this little island, we need to know more about why we should care about them. Also, the best part of the book started to be about the relationship between father and daughter, but that never really seemed to develop. Maybe in her next volume. Stay tuned.
Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King is not the only writer from Maine
Review: If you have a hankering to live on a very tiny island off the Maine Coast and earn your living as a lobsterman, then this is the book for you. Linda Greenlaw gives the sense of such a life in this read. All right, unlike fellow Maineite Stephen King, you won't find chilling horror and oppressive suspense. But, you will find funny, gentle, and insightful tales of people who live on this island...stories about Linda's neighbors which often have no bearing on the main plots, like the chapter on Dorothea Dodge. Linda could just has well have left this chapter out of the book, but I am grateful she included it so we could get to meet the postmistress of Isle Au Haut. It's a slice of life in a book filled with enough slices to make a giant loaf of bread. And, unlike Stephen King, the book's main story lines don't come to a neat conclusion at the end of 235 pages. But life doesn't come to a neat conclusion either. And that is what this book is about: Life. Author Greenlaw has the pace, the tone, the solitude, the frustration just right. I hope the issues that could mean the end of her island world eventually get resolved. I hope that her mother surmounts her challenge. I hope Linda doesn't stop at two books. One nit-picking point which, I believe, points out the lack of editorship quality prevalent in the book world today. Here we have a notable publisher, Hyperion, but no one there had the knowledge to point out to Linda that it was Samson, not Goliath, that lost his strength when he lost his hair (editor: see page 206). How that could get by any editor/proofreader is beyond me. Hopefully, they will catch it before further printings.
Rating:
Summary: Finestkind!
Review: In her second book, Linda Greenlaw has returned from the sea (17 years as a longline swordfishing captain, the subject of The Hungry Ocean) and returned to her roots on The Isle Au Haut, one of the islands 47 year round residents. Her "fishing" is now done from a 35' lobster boat; her Dad is her sternman and her Mother is becoming her best friend. As she uses them, her stories about lobstering are metaphors about life and she interweaves stories of how one "fishes" for the wily crustaceans with stories of the many crusty characters that share her "High Island." She has an ear for conversations and an interesting way of telling the little stories that make life on a rock something that some hold near and dear. I believe the stories will reach people who do not live Down East, whether we be fortunate enough to live in one of the highest taxed states in the nation with the best views or not, for in the end they are all about the human condition. Undoubtedly, her older sister still consdiers her literary efforts to be a book long personals ad, as there is plenty in The Lobster Chronicles about trying to find a husband as well. Hopefully, the subject of actually landing one will be
the topic for a third book. This is very entertaining and worthwhile writing by an author who is only improving as she continues to find her way.
Rating:
Summary: lobster chronicles
Review: Its a good book on tape but the author should have had a professional do the narration. Her spoken communications are not too great.
It would have been easier to follow. This is in reference to the audio tape version.
Rating:
Summary: She's Been There
Review: Linda and Joe Upton (Joe, in odd coincidence, lives on another Penobscot Bay island within sight of Isle au Haut) are, in the opinion of this ex-fisherman, the best of fishing's writers. They've both been there and each manages to capture the essence of lives spent underway. Linda, will you marry me?
Rating: 
Summary: The Lobster Chronicles is lost at sea
Review: Linda Greenlaw had a bad year lobstering and a worse year writing. Maybe next year back as a fisherman, Linda. This is a sophomoric effort and reeks of "I need the money".
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