Bland and Ann Simpson talk about “Little Rivers and Waterway Tales: A Carolinian’s Eastern Streams” on “North Carolina Bookwatch” today at noon and Thursday, April 21, at 5 p.m.

The Simpsons have spent their lifetimes sharing their love for North Carolina’s coastal waters. Their new book combines Bland’s lovely and informative narrative with Ann’s beautiful photography to show us the underappreciated beauty and rich heritage of our state’s waterways.

The multi-talented Bland is a professor of writing at UNC-Chapel Hill, a longtime performer and songwriter for the Red Clay Ramblers, and a prolific author of fiction, coastal memoirs, and what he calls “non-fiction novels.”

In earlier work he combined his memories and storytelling gifts with the experience and knowledge of others to guide his readers towards a greater understanding and appreciation of the parts of North Carolina where the land meets the sea.

In the new book they celebrate inland waterways near the coast. Bland writes, “The lifelong object of our affection has been the water of our coast and coastal plain, and the people who love it, love floating it, fishing it, hunting on it, studying its birds and plants, or for any other reason at all simply seeking out this world.”

He continues, “We have sought to find many of those rills, prongs, branches, right where they have come to be called rivers, and, in seeking them out, to hear their voices, their tales, whether of glory or woe, of works well wrought or of loss unavoidable.”

April 24 and 28, John Hood talks about “Catalyst: Jim Martin and the Rise of North Carolina Republicans”

Hood’s recounting of how Martin’s successful political campaigns for Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners and U.S. Congress and, especially, his two terms as governor, show how he played an important role in speeding the change from Democratic to Republican control of our state.

D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Bookwatch,” which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV.