There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse


Book Description

NATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR Sequel to the author’s new book, The Waters Between Us (Lyons, March, 2021), about growing up loving the woods and fields and streams of his native Massachusetts and wanting since boyhood to live like a mountain man in the woods. Having acquired a forest cabin in the course of the first book, There’s a Porcupine in my Outhouse details his further adventures hunting and fishing far from other humans. PRAISE FOR THERE’S A PORCUPINE IN MY OUTHOUSE “This is the way natural history should be taught—by a good storyteller with a sense of humor.” —Audubon Magazine “Tougias recounts his experiences with candor and humor. He blends the adventures of Lewis and Clark with the vision of John Muir.” —Cape Cod Times “A very funny memoir. Tougias learned from his cabin experience and today he is one of New England’s leading nature writers.” —Book Views “This is an honest book that asks us to admit our ignorance of much of the natural process and our fears of all those unknown things that ‘go bump in the night’ when we visit friends in the country. Tougias tempers each small disaster with good humor and a growing love for a world that he at first finds completely foreign, but which he ultimately realizes he cannot part with.” —Bill Eddy, author of The Other Side of the World Here are Michael Tougias’ adventures at a tiny A-frame cabin in Northern Vermont where he learns that nature has a way of becoming our instructor. This funny, honest, and personal account is the perfect book for anyone who loves the outdoors and loves to laugh.




Here on the Coast


Book Description

No matter where people live on the BC coast, says Howard White, they have certain shared experiences: frustration with rain and ferries, familiarity with gumboots, bumbershoots, seagull droppings and barnacles in the wrong places. But each little community clings to its own sense of uniqueness and considers itself the true West Coast. As a case in point, White offers fifty funny sketches of life as he has come to know it in sixty-odd years of living along that hundred-mile stretch of monsoon-prone shoreline ironically known as the Sunshine Coast. Included is what must be one of the most admiring testaments ever written about the virtues of the old-time outhouse; fond remembrances of saltwater fishing when a bad day meant you didn’t hook something in twenty minutes; and explorers who stooped to naming islands after favourite racehorses. We also meet a “bouquet of characters,” including a lyrical logger known as Pete the Poet; a diabolical seagoing remittance man; the saintly Quaker philosopher Hubert Evans and White’s barrier-busting Aunt Jean who taught him the advantages of “scientifically enlarging the truth.” Along with accounts of waste disposal wars and wry observations on modern technology, Here On the Coast offers a West Coast counterpart to such favourites as Letters From Wingfield Farm and Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.




Into a Raging Sea


Book Description

Most people familiar with the name Bernie Webber associate him with the miraculous rescue of 32 men off of the stern of the Pendleton, made famous in the book and movie The Finest Hours. Rescuing 32 sailors from a sinking ship caught in a ferocious winter storm is a dramatic tale, but what made this mission so special is that the boat Bernie skippered that terrible night was a mere 36 feet in length and the waves were almost twice that size! Bernie and crew received the Coast Guard’s coveted Gold Lifesaving Medal, and what they did on that stormy night is regarded as the greatest small boat rescue in history. In Into A Raging Sea, Bernie tells that story, but the book is so much more than that. In these pages you’ll read about rescue attempts that did not turn out well, stories of fishermen from a time long past, rescues done with the by-gone technique of the “breeches buoy,” humorous anecdotes, and what Cape Cod and its people meant to Bernie. Into a Raging Sea is a story of sacrifice, bravery, disappointment, and challenges. And in the background of Bernie’s journey is one constant, the sea. --from the forward by Michael J. Tougias




There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse


Book Description

Here are Michael Tougias's adventures at a tiny A-frame cabin on six acres of land overlooking a pond in Northern Vermont. There he meets porcupines that have taken up residence directly underneath his outhouse, encounters the colorful locals, and learns that nature has a way of becoming our instructor. This funny, honest, and personal account is the perfect book for anyone who loves the outdoors and loves to laugh. Book jacket.




Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts


Book Description

This Old House meets Wayne’s World in this zany guide to designing and building tiny homes Derek Diedricksen has always had a love for small, modest houses ever since his father gave him the book Tiny Tiny Houses by Lester Walker for his tenth birthday. Combining his artistic abilities, wild imagination, and his passion for small houses, he self-published Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts, and Whatever the Heck Else we could Squeeze in Here in 2009. This book is a collection of Diedricksen’s creative/imaginative sketches for building small houses, shacks, cottages, and forts. The sketches are accompanied with hand-written commentary, both instructive and comical. Derek’s main purpose is to get your creative juices flowing and encourage you to get off the couch and use your hands. Believing that specific building plans squash creativity, he avoids too many detailed instructions, giving you the chance to put your own creative spin on your very own small abode (even if it is just in your imagination).




The Waters Between Us


Book Description

Untamed. Unsupervised. Uncontrolled. Boyhood in the 1960s and ‘70s was a time for exploration and mischief. Author Michael Tougias found more than his share of misadventures in the woods and on the water: some life-threatening but others innocently hilarious. Over time – and after reading a multitude of adventure books -- these experiences took shape in his quest to be a mountain man, owning a cabin in the forest and living off the land. Part of that dream would come true, but only after a family tragedy that shook his world and forced changes in his life. This is also a story of a complex and strained relationship between father and son, the efforts at understanding, and ultimately respect and devotion. In The Waters Between Us Tougias channels Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” to mix laugh out loud humor with insight into the natural world through the eyes of a curious boy. Tougias is a New York Times Bestselling author and co-author of 31 books, including There’s A Porcupine In My Outhouse (Winner of the Independent Publishers “Best Nature Book of the Year”) and The Finest Hours (inspiration for a 2016 Disney movie). He has received many writing awards.




A Storm Too Soon


Book Description

Originally published in hardcover in 2013.




The Power of Positive Fishing


Book Description

Join Michael J. Tougias and Adam Gamble out on the water to see how their mutual passion for heart-pounding fishing action transforms their destinies. When the pair first met, they were married with two children each, nice homes in the suburbs, jobs that paid the bills, and frequent fishing trips. But their comfortable lives had cracks in them, and they soon found themselves hit by the rogue waves of divorce, financial challenges, addiction, and career upheaval. What kept them going—and helped them navigate the rough waters of middle age—was fishing and friendship. Together they not only learned some of the successful secrets of striped bass fishing, but they were also brutally honest in their advice for each other. They began to see their time spent on Adam’s boat, the Scout, as a way to explore new ways of thinking, dreaming big, and being right with the world. The two not only discovered ways forward but began living lives far beyond what they thought possible. The Power of Positive Fishing is an emotional journey interspersed with humor on how two individuals finally began tapping their full potentials, while hooking some great fish along the way.




Cancer Happens


Book Description

An inspiration for all cancer patients, this young cancer survivor relates her experiences with edgy humor, honesty, and hope.




Tiny Houses, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts


Book Description

This Old House meets Wayne’s World in this zany guide to designing and building tiny homes Derek "Deek" Diedricksen has been fascinated with compact living ever since his father gave him the book Tiny Tiny Houses by Lester Walker for his tenth birthday. Combining his artistic abilities, wild imagination, and passion for small houses, Deek self-published Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts, and Whatever the Heck Else we could Squeeze in Here in 2009. This new and expanded edition is a collection of Deek’s creative/imaginative sketches for building small houses, shacks, cottages, and forts. Deek's one-of-a-kind sketches are accompanied with hand-written commentary, both instructive and comical. His main purpose is to encourage people to get off the couch and start building. Believing that specific building plans squash creativity, he avoids too many detailed instructions, so that do-it-yourselfers can put their own creative spin on their very own small abodes (even if it is just in their imaginations).