Description: The solution to any problem -- work, love, money, whatever -- is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be.

That is John Gierach's perspective on fishing and life, and it isn't entirely tongue-in-cheek. But Gierach knows that there is more to fishing than actually catching fish -- he once wrote that it isn't clear that catching fish is the point at all. That conviction has won him a devoted readership, including such other fishing writers as Nick Lyons and Tom McGuane ("I find myself reaching for Gierach when I can't get to the river").

In Standing in a River Waving a Stick, Gierach visits his favorite trout-filled waters from the Colorado foothills to British Columbia and points in between. He discusses how to maintain a friendship when your friend catches more trout than you do. He talks about getting skunked. He muses on what makes a good fly fisher. Is it technique or some inner ability? Says Gierach, it's really his "uncanny ability to immediately turn any conversation to angling with a fly rod on the theory that the essence of anything is in how it's like or unlike fishing". As Flyfisher magazine put it, "Gierach writes about the common experiences we've all had, and does it in a way that makes ours more meaningful".

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