In Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm, Erin Byers Murray chronicles her journey of quitting her Boston foodie magazine writer’s job to spend a year working on an oyster farm. The book is split up by seasons: the winter season, involving hand-harvesting and sorting oysters straight from icy water; the spring, full of preparation and nurturing oyster “seed” (baby oysters); the summer, where the farm explodes into a frenzy of raising oysters by hand, harvesting older patches, and supplying big-city restaurants with the harvest; and the fall, full of food festivals and transitioning back to the less active but still hard work of winter.

Critique: I really like the writing style of this book: she focuses on getting to know every person on the farm, and you can tell by the way you recognize all their nicknames by the end of the book (Berg, A2, and Pain are just a few). She’s also not afraid to make it personal, mixing in the way that the 5 AM morning alarm and three-hour commute affected her relationship with her husband and her struggle to transition from a privileged city-girl life to one of manual labor in scorching summer sun or biting Atlantic Ocean wind every day.

The end of the book becomes a bit of a blur as the author transitions from everyday life on the farm to working in the supply office and visiting a few of the Michelin-starred restaurants the oyster farm supplies its oysters to. In all, though, it’s fun to get such a comprehensive picture of the business, and it’s not hard to power through.

Even if you don’t like nonfiction or don’t care about oysters, I’d still recommend this book. It has all the compelling writing of an investigative journalist, but it’s about food (and what’s not to love there?)

Cover: The cover is a minimalist picture of an oyster (of course) and depends on fun typography. It’s aesthetically pleasing but doesn’t necessarily describe the majority of the book, where the oysters aren’t on the half shell with lemon but rather being pulled out of the water, tossed into crates, and hosed down to keep them clean. It’s not a representation of what the book is really about, but it’s still relevant enough (and compelling enough to make you pull it off the shelf)

Star Rating: 4/5 stars for the ending.

From Ms. Yang: It's amazing to read about how some people make their livings. You might also like Epitaph for a Peach by David Mas Masumoto, who writes about his family's long history in Fresno and his quest to save heirloom peaches. Read it in time for summer and farmer's markets!