“Let's Go Fishing! Fish Tales From the North Woods”

University of Minnesota Press, $39.95

Fish fries on Fridays. Ice-fishing huts on frozen lakes. The running of smelt that heralds the start of spring. All of these are rituals deeply associated with fishing in Minnesota's North Woods. Eric Dregni, also the author of the wonderful “Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America,” offers this entertaining compendium to all things fishing.

As Dregni points out, the phrase “gone fishin'?” means getting away from it all, or as he puts it, taking a break from the rat race. But fishing is also associated with tall tales — make that fish tales — that Dregni maintains date back to “Mark Antony trying to impress his beloved Cleopatra.” And then there are the classic novels about fishing, such as Hemingway's “The Old Man and the Sea.” “Let's Go Fishing!” addresses all of these angles (pun intended) and more. It's an utter delight, from Dregni's entertaining prose to the evocative illustrations. He discusses proper fishing gear, from serious items (fillet knife, reel) to silly stuff, like the funniest fishing hat and the most irreverent bumper sticker. He dives into fish-inspired art, such as Frank Gehry's 22-foot-tall Standing Glass Fish in Minneapolis and the Big Fish Supper Club in Bena, Minn., that's shaped like a 65-foot-long muskie. Other chapters focus on ice fishing, fish boils and fish festivals. Speaking of the latter, the town of Madison, Minn., the self-proclaimed Lutefisk Capital of the U.S., boasts a big fiberglass cod statue named Lou T. Fisk and hosts the annual Norsefest, which culminates in a lutefisk-eating contest.

Richly illustrated with postcards, ads, vintage prints and photographs as well as the occasional recipe, this is an entertaining and informative guide to fishing in the North Woods. A must for anglers — and just about anyone who appreciates a good fish story.

“New York City Trails: Secrets, Stories and Other Cool Stuff”

Lonely Planet Kids, $12.99

Lonely Planet Kids introduces “City Trails,” a new series that caters to children age 8 and up. Marco and Amelia serve as the book's young guides.

Packed with fun facts, “New York City Trails” by Moira Butterfield features 19 themed trails in Manhattan and beyond. Among the interesting tidbits: Scientist Nikola Tesla did much of his work in a New York hotel near Bryant Park, where he fed the local pigeons; the Nikola Tesla Corner is named for him. A two-page vertical spread is devoted to the Freedom Tower (officially known as One World Trade Center) and contains plenty of fascinating statistics: at 1,776 feet, it's the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth-tallest in the world; it contains enough concrete to lay a path from New York to Chicago; and the tower's express elevators take visitors from the ground floor to the observatory on the 102nd floor in less than a minute at a top speed of 23 mph.

The Central Park statistics are just as fascinating. The 1.3-square-mile park contains 25,000 trees, 58 miles of pathways, 36 bridges and arches, 29 sculptures and seven bodies of water. New York is famous for its subways, of course; the subway fleet travels a mind-boggling 361 million miles a year between its 468 station stops. There are 30 official busking sites in the subway system and some 7,500 weekly busking performances, with the most popular location being Union Square, the author says. The book is rounded out with stories and statistics on delis, Captain Kidd and his buried treasure on Long Island, Broadway, taxis, harbor tours, the Statue of Liberty, baseball, museums, bookstores and more. Fun and educational.

Others titles in the series include London and Paris.