Book: Shucked by Erin Byers Murray

Non-fiction.

Erin trades her stiletto heels and short skirts for the gear she needs to work with Island Creek Oysters, an oyster farm off the coast of Massachusetts. This is her story. If you like oysters and are curious about how they are grown, from seed to slurping, you will enjoy her story. Predictably, she barely survives the first few weeks of hard work, but perseveres and lives to tell us about oysters and those who farm oysters, the salt water, the sea, the sky, the clouds, the tides....

There are recipes at the end of every chapter (Crispy Oysters with Fried Brussels Sprouts and Russian Dressing or Oyster-Mussel Chowder with Pancetta, Sunchokes and Almonds), and a very memorable visit to Per Se, a high-end restaurant, where Erin spent a day in the kitchen watching and learning how to make their signature dish, Oysters and Pearls before settling into the restaurant proper for dinner:

"We were moved on to more complex dishes, like the butter-poached lobster "mitt," a chunk of flawless lobster meat settled over a bed of tiny tortellini. I practically beamed when I saw the slivers of trumpet mushroom laid tenderly across the dish. The same went for the cod shank which was touched with...Ethan's pulverized pepper agro dulce. Next up we got walloped by actual white truffles...."

There are also oyster offering/shucking events in places like Nantucket and Miami, which are parties full of wine and beer and songs and laughter, rewards for the days and days out in the cold wet weather. Still, most of the book is the subtitle: Life on a New England Oyster Farm.