Catch!: A Fishmonger's Guide to Greatness

In consultant Cyndi Crother's Catch! the fabled Pike Place Market fishmongers in Seattle explain a shared philosophy of work and life in their own words. The author's work as anthropologist--she interviewed and flung fish with 17 crew members--allows her to translate their inside jokes and shoutouts into habits of mind to "transform ordinary into great." Crother manages to keep Piscean puns to a minimum (stop floundering, how to get off the hook) and skillfully applies the principles of mind-over-matter cognitive psychology. Several phrases are key. "It's all over here," is an expression of personal responsibility and choosing a positive response to create the outcome. "What you say is what get" is a mantra for using choosing your words to change your mind.

These ideas of self-reliance, intention and language as reality are not new. Yet Crother gives them a fresh and practical application in the photos of individual fishmongers and in their words. Whether reading about Jeremy's ordeal of chemotherapy or Bugge's finessing the customer who was showered with ice from a flying fish, readers will find the most animated and instructive stories since Finding Nemo. --Barbara Mackoff