I have written two books, one (Crossing the Water, Simon & Schuster - 2001) about teaching at a school for juvenile delinquents on a small island off the coast of Cape Cod, and one (Sloop, Simon & Schuster - 2008) about restoring an old sailboat on Cape Cod, in my home town of Woods Hole.

Crossing the Water looks at why some young men make bad decisions, and examines our sense of place, and how it affects us. Penikese Island, where the book is set, is a hard and beautiful piece of the earth. The book chronicles how the island works on the boys, and helps them heal.

Crossing the Water's cover is shown below, in both hardcover and paperback, back and front. The reviews there speak cogently to what the book is ab0ut. In particular I value Edward Hoagland's commentary. He is a crackerjack writer.

Sloop, my second book, is a journey into art, craft, and philosophy, and is described beneath Crossing the Water, with its own accompanying reviews. Just scroll down.

My second book, Sloop (shown below), is perhaps (at first glance) less about societal issues than is Crossing the Water, and more about an object (the boat) and its simple fate. However, although Sloop is lighter in tone and feeling than is Crossing the Water, it is no less about our nation and its course, our politics, our choices of lifestyle and priority, and was written with some of our chiefest thinkers firmly in mind, some of whom (Thoreau, Douglass, Lincoln, Jefferson, to name a few) are mentioned within. It can be read as a primer on boatbuilding, or as something considerably more.

Below is the image from the cover, and beneath that are some of the many good reviews Sloop has received.

Praise For Sloop

1. "That pride of making something well is writ large on every page of this well-made book, a fine summer companion if you're dreaming of a boat of your own."

- The New Orleans Times-Picayune

2. "Whether you’re an old-time boat builder, a wooden boat enthusiast, or simply someone who appreciates words woven together masterfully, you’ll enjoy Sloop. Read it at dusk by a lamp of low light and by all means, listen for the "donk" of the bell-buoy in the distance."

- The Barnstable Patriot,

3. "Robb writes of his painstaking restoration of a rotted 12 1/2-foot Herreshoff that had floated on memory and emotion, and finally again on water…A gem."

- David Mehegan, The Boston Globe

4. "Robb is a craftsman…with words as well as with a hammer, as he constructs a charming tale that both details the technical nature of boatbuilding and captures the essence of the past, present and future of a New England maritime community."

- Publisher’s Weekly

5. "The book will delight anybody who loves boats, but it succeeds in a second, more universal role, as its subtitle announces: "An Adventure in Old-Fashioned Values." If you have a sloop, or even if you only know what one is and want to know more about its care and feeding, this book’s for you. But it’s just as much for you, too, if you feel there’s a need afoot to resuscitate these values."

"…the real magic effervesces out of the way we discover these bits of wisdom: by invading Robb’s corpus and going walkabout. In my opinion, he takes us along for this ride with similar seamless ease as Tracy Kidder did [in House], and like Kidder, we are treated to aquaintance and banter among an unusually fascinating cast of characters."

"Do as I plan to do: buy several of these books and scatter them around.The result will surely be better-repaired boats, but also better young men, and anon to some extent a better world."

-WoodenBoat Magazine