REELING
What stage of grief is it when your grandmother’s ghost keeps popping up on your electronic devices? Denial? For RayAnne that seems to be the stage for launching the second season of Fishing!—in New Zealand. Ready or not, she is taking public television’s first all-women fishing talk show on the road, putting the cold Minnesota winter in the rearview mirror—which, it turns out, Gran is haunting, too.
After a challenging first season, and RayAnne’s serendipitous ascension to host, there’s a lot at stake. With camera-wielding twins Rongo and Rangi along as crew and tour guides,
What stage of grief is it when your grandmother’s ghost keeps popping up on your electronic devices? Denial? For RayAnne that seems to be the stage for launching the second season of Fishing!—in New Zealand. Ready or not, she is taking public television’s first all-women fishing talk show on the road, putting the cold Minnesota winter in the rearview mirror—which, it turns out, Gran is haunting, too.
After a challenging first season, and RayAnne’s serendipitous ascension to host, there’s a lot at stake. With camera-wielding twins Rongo and Rangi along as crew and tour guides, RayAnne and her indefatigable producer Cassi set out across New Zealand in search of noteworthy women who fish: a skipjack boat captain navigating sexist harbors; a writer of historical suffragette fiction, which is, apparently, a thing; a reclusive Māori octogenarian who ties fishing flies for dignitaries. Their stories, and a good dose of the country’s history, are almost enough to take the edge off RayAnne’s homesickness and grief, to say nothing of jetlag—and it doesn’t hurt to discover a bird dog who fishes, an anti-fashionista, a pair of sisters fishing their way through recovery, and . . . a Hobbit? Meanwhile, the romantic and family entanglements she left behind at home haven’t exactly come untangled in her absence.
Those who met RayAnne in Fishing!, Sarah Stonich’s first outing with the intrepid, accidental talk-show host, will encounter familiar and unexpected pleasures in her latest antics—and a story whose lighthearted surface and surprising depths will charm readers who now find her for the first time.
- University of Minnesota Press
- Paperback
- September 2021
- 296 Pages
- 9781517908997
Buy the Book
$15.95
About Sarah Stonich
Sarah Stonich is author of numerous books, including Fishing!, the first installment of RayAnne’s adventures; Vacationland and Laurentian Divide, the first two volumes in her Northern Trilogy; These Granite Islands, which has been translated into seven languages and shortlisted for France’s Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle; and a memoir, Shelter: Off the Grid in the Mostly Magnetic North, all published by Minnesota. She lives on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
Praise
“This is a fun read, important and tender.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
Discussion Questions
1. RayAnne’s guests are odd and interesting. Which of them did you most relate to or connect with?
2. Should it matter that RayAnne is not a television ‘professional’? She comes to her position only because the celebrity host walked off the show. Would you want to see more authentic or ‘real’ women on television and in the media?
3. What was the most surprising aspect of Reeling?
4. RayAnne is dealing with some sensitive issues, such as her father’s battle with addiction and her grandmother’s suicide. Are these topics given adequate consideration in the story?
5. If you found yourself on an elevator with RayAnne, what would you most want to talk about?
6. When was the last time you went fishing? Have you ever fished with friends?
7. A number of characters are of Māori ancestry. Did their portrayals seem realistic, or stereotyped? How far should an author go when writing about cultures that are not their own?
8. Can you think of an amazing or inspirational woman you’d like to see seated next to RayAnne for an interview?
9. RayAnne, alone on the Coromandel Peninsula has no Wi-Fi and no cell reception to speak of. Have you ever wished to be cut off in a such a way from the outside world, technology, or even loved ones?
10. Cassi and RayAnne take the show to New Zealand. If you could send them to a location of your choice, where would it be?