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Summary: A breath of fresh air during a long winter.
Review: I love this book! After having spent all our summer vacations on the Eastern Shore for many years, I am always looking for a "fix" of the shore during our long Midwestern winters. This Pulitzer Prize-winning book was just what I needed. The author writes beautifully and sympathetically, but never condescendingly, of the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay and their continuing struggle to make a living from the sea as their fathers did.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Educational
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I spent summers as a kid catching crabs and seeing commercial crabbers outside my grandparents' home but there was a lot about the industry and the bay that I didn't know. I felt like an eavesdropper on an unfamiliar yet familiar world as I read this book, and found my curiousity awakened. The writers clear appreciation for his subject shines through, and it is a delight to discover even many years after it was written.
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Summary: Made a difference
Review: If you look at all the other reviews here, you'll notice that almost everyone raves about this book. And for good reason. I think Warner's book is one of the great although little known classics of nature writing. Despite Warner's winning the Pulitzer for it, it still doesn't seem to be that well known. Perhaps that has to do with the specific focus of the book, but there are few nature books that can match Warner's little classic for their informative as well as engaging and entertaining observations of nature. And he did this by writing about the eastern blue crab rather than something "sexier" or more sympathetic such as dolphins, whales, or some endangered bird.
In fact, I would say it is one of the 20th century's greatest works of popular science and nature writing. In this distinguished group of books (ranging from the natural sciences to the social sciences) one would have to include such classics as Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring, Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters, Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape, Lincoln Barnett's The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Freud's The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Donald Culross Peattie's A Diary for Moderns, Lancelot Hogben's Mathematics for the Millions, Carl Zimmer's Parasite Rex, Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine, and so on. But I think Warner's book is the most readable and enjoyable by far of all these books, and yet is the least known.
I have a friend who keeps extra copies of the book around to give to other people to read, and that was the way I got introduced to the book. Warner's unpretentious but beautifully written book really captures the spirit and everyday life of the crab fishermen and other watermen of the Chesapeake Bay, one of the world's largest ecosystems just in terms of biomass. Because the coastline of the bay has so many inlets and smaller bays, it's actually several thousand miles long. Besides learning fascinating facts like these about the ecology, Warner's intimate portraits of the lives of the fishermen and watermen make you feel like you're right there with him in the boat as they go about their business.
As Warner points out, the bay is so productive of crabs, fish, oysters, and other marine life that just the blue crab catch outweighs that from the other southern states combined. Despite that, the crab and other fisheries were already in decline when Warner wrote this book, and one senses that he knew he was documenting what would soon be a bygone era of lone fisherman and watermen whose lifestyle had changed little in generations.
If you've missed this little gem and enjoy good nature writing, you are in for a rare experience, because this is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: A lyrical work of art
Review: This book is a technical wonder of writing. The lyrical beauty of the prose gives it the flow and cadence of poetry but with the straightforward phrasing of journalism. It should be required reading for college literature majors everywhere. I was first exposed to Beautiful Swimmers when it showed up on my son's 9th grade English summer reading list. What a fortunate assignment for mom. I am in awe of Mr. Warner's skill in crafting spare yet well-thought phrasing that carefully blends the unique local language with technical terminology. You read this book and forget that it is non-fiction, nature writing. It draws you in like a compelling fictional account. Therein lies the success of the book. Beautiful Swimmers covers the crabbing industry and the impact of this lovely crustacean on the Bay and its economy - a worthy journalistic endeavor. But for me, the real beauty is in the joy of just reading this charming work.
Rating:
Summary: A lyrical work of art
Review: This book is a technical wonder of writing. The lyrical beauty of the prose gives it the flow and cadence of poetry but with the straightforward phrasing of journalism. It should be required reading for college literature majors everywhere. I was first exposed to Beautiful Swimmers when it showed up on my son's 9th grade English summer reading list. What a fortunate assignment for mom. I am in awe of Mr. Warner's skill in crafting spare yet well-thought phrasing that carefully blends the unique local language with technical terminology. You read this book and forget that it is non-fiction, nature writing. It draws you in like a compelling fictional account. Therein lies the success of the book. Beautiful Swimmers covers the crabbing industry and the impact of this lovely crustacean on the Bay and its economy - a worthy journalistic endeavor. But for me, the real beauty is in the joy of just reading this charming work.
Rating: 
Summary: horrible
Review: This book is just a drawn out emporium of uselessnes. Utterelly disgusting, no real information was given, nothing is relivent.
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Summary: My Favorite Book of All Time
Review: This book is so easy to read and so full of information that I have an absolute craving to revisit it every year or so. I have never read a book so often (and I read and reread constantly). Having spent my summers on Maryland's Eastern Shore and having visited Smith Island, this book absolutely takes me home to a wonderfully simple and fascinating way of life. Who would have ever thought that the common blue crab was so eloquent a creature...I'm sold!
Rating:
Summary: Made a difference
Review: This is a the book that made a difference in my lfe. Because of it, I spent vacation time on the Eastern Shore and even made a pilgrimage to Tangier Island. I have become fond of the little critters and am really fascinated by their life cycle and habits. I wish the author would write more books like this. I can't understand the one negative review in this series unless the reviewer has a hidden agenda.
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