There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse

NetGalley Review: 5 stars

Last updated on 30 Nov 2021

“Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun book to read! I loved it! Reading of the author’s (mis)adventures of being a “flatlander” to becoming a mountain man with a rustic cabin was laugh out loud funny. I could relate to some of his fears of the wild animals and the darkness that comes without light pollution. My parents live in the mountains and they call us city dwellers flatlanders too.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the wild outdoors and needs a funny, light book to read.“–Kelly Long, consumer reviewer

“Already a maven of maritime books with Overboard! and Fatal Forecast, Tougias cinches that title here. Working in the present tense Tougias lets the story tell itself, and what a story! Any one reading (A Storm Too Soon) will laud Tougias’ success.”

–Providence Journal

“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

“A very funny memoir. Tougias learned from his cabin experience and today he is one of New England’s leading nature writers.” –Book Views

“The riveting, meticulously researched “A Storm Too Soon” tells the true-life tale of an incredible rescue” –New York Post

“There is a bombshell in the last fifth of The Waters Between Us.”– Tiziana Dearing, Host of NPR’s Radio Boston

“Tougias deftly switches from heart-pounding details of the rescue to the personal stories of the boat’s crew and those of the rescue team. The result is a well-researched and suspenseful read.”

–Publishers Weekly

“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 Storm Too Soon

“By depicting the event from the perspective of both the rescued and the rescuers and focusing only on key moments and details, Tougias creates a suspenseful, tautly rendered story that leaves readers breathless but well-satisfied. Heart-pounding action for the avid armchair adventurer.” –Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Books by Michael J. Tougias

The Waters Between Us

“Along with his father’s love, the other constant in the boy’s life–and the thing Mr. Tougias credits with saving him from more serious trouble–is his love of the outdoors, a dynamo of fascination and adventure, a place that draws him back endlessly. Always in the background is his father, who leaves the house before anyone else is awake and labors physically for 50 or 60 hours a week, coming home too exhausted to attend his son’s games. Michael knows his father loves him but isn’t sure the man likes him, which is what he craves. As anyone who has played a part in this ancient drama knows, there’s no single moment of reconciliation. It comes with time, incrementally. And it’s not the father who changes.”–The Wall Street Journal

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

Michael Tougias is a writer born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts in 1955. He writes about maritime, travel, and adventure topics and is a N.Y. Times Bestselling author of 25 books.

An avid fisherman, Tougias became a self-syndicated outdoors writer in 1990 while also managing a division of a major insurance company. He published his first book in 1998.

He travels to more than 100 speaking engagements a year to discuss his books and other topics, including “Survival Stories,” lessons learned from those who were shipwrecked. U.S. Coast Guardsmen and sailors are frequent audiences; Tougias’ last six books have been accounts of historic sea rescues by the Coast Guard, often in the Gulf Stream. His book The Finest Hours: The True Story Behind the US Coast Guard’s Most Daring Rescue (2009), co-authored with Casey Sherman, was adapted as a Disney film by the same name, released in 2016.

Tougias is a frequent guest on NPR programs, The Weather Channel, Fox & Friends, and national talk shows.

He lives in Mendon, MA and Hobe Sound, FL.