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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Nautical Reads

Nautical Reads

posted on - August 24, 2023

Black and white picture of a hand browsing a library card catalog. Text saying Library Blog.

Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge ‘23, a Deep Dive into NAUTICAL READS – “Under the Sea”

Are you working on the Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge ‘23? Looking for inspiration for titles that will cover the square: “Book About the Ocean”? If so, read on and let’s dive “under the sea” together! (Disney’s Little Mermaid reference 100% intended). 🙂

Feel free to also reference this earlier list, but be warned: there is some overlap…

Below is a list of 6 nautical topics/themes (in no particular order) under which I’ve categorized a number of books held here at MML and/or available through Minerva. Also, some of these categories overlap such as Sea Life and Mysteries of the Ocean: Science Writing. Just giving you a heads up!

NOTE: All lists are alphabetical by author last name!

Topics:

  • Shipwrecks
  • Sea Life 
  • Mysteries of the Ocean: Science Writing 
  • Resorts & Beach Vacations 
  • Pirates
  • Mermaids and Sirens

Shipwrecks: Beyond the infamous Titanic…

FICTION (3 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Stranger In the Lifeboat (2021) ALBOM, MITCH ALB
Life of Pi (2001) MARTEL, YANN MAR
The Glass Ocean (2018) WILLIAMS, BEATRIZ WIL

NONFICTION (3 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023) GRANN, DAVID 910.9164 GRA (New)
In the Heart of the Sea : The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2000) PHILBRICK, NATHANIEL 910.9164 PHI *2 copies*
Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of the El Faro (2018) SLADE, RACHEL 910.452 SLA

Sea Life: From coral reefs to sharks and dolphins

FICTION (3 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Mountain in the Sea (2022) NAYLER, RAY 11 Minerva copies
The Dolphin House (2022) SCHULMAN, AUDREY SCH
Sharks in the Time of Saviors (2020) WASHBURN, KAWAI STRONG WAS (New)

NONFICTION (3 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
Life on the Rocks : Building a Future for Coral Reefs (2022) BERWALD, JULI 333.95 BER
Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins (2015) CASEY, SUSAN 599.53 CAS
Emperors of the Deep : Sharks– the Ocean’s Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians (2019) MCKEEVER, WILLIAM 5 Minerva copies

Mysteries of the Ocean: Science Writing*

*This category is NONFICTION only.

NONFICTION (6 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Underworld : Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean (2023) CASEY, SUSAN 551.46 CAS (New)
Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves (2014) NESTOR, JAMES 797.23 NES
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea (2012) ROBERTS, CALLUM 13 Minerva copies
The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean and the Looming Threat that Imperils It (2021) SCALES, HELEN 20 Minerva copies
Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean (2017) WHITE, JONATHAN 551.464 WHI
Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea (2021) WIDDER, EDITH 18 Minerva copies

Resorts & Beach Vacations: Beyond Emily Henry and Elin Hilderbrand.

FICTION (4 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
East Coast Girls (2020) KLETTER, KERRY 5 Minerva copies
The Celebrants (2023) ROWLEY, STEVEN ROW (New)
One Italian Summer (2022) SERLE, REBECCA SER
The Vacationers (2014) STRAUB, EMMA STR

NONFICTION (2 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Lure of the Beach: A Global History (2021) RITCHIE, ROBERT C. 306.4 RIT
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach (2022) STODOLA, SARAH 333.784 STO

Pirates: Bring your flask and enjoy some rum!

FICTION (3 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi (2023) CHAKRABORTY, SHANNON CHA (New)
Djibouti (2010) LEONARD, ELMORE LEO 
We Are Pirates (2015) HANDLER, DAVID HAN

NONFICTION (3 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas (2017) DUNCOMBE, LAURA SOOK 3 Minerva copies
The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd (2022) GEANACOPOULOS, DAPHNE PALMER 910.45 GEA (New)
Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune (2022) THOMPSON, KEITH 972.8702 THO (New)

Mermaids and Sirens: Folklore and fairy tales from the sea

FICTION (5 titles)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Mermaid’s Daughter (2017) CLAYCOMB, ANN 5 Minerva copies
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock: A History in Three Volumes (2018) GOWAR, IMOGEN HERMES GOW
American Mermaid (2023) LANGBEIN, JULIA LAN (New)
The Deep (2019) SOLOMON, RIVERS SOL 
Chlorine (2023) SONG, JADE 8 Minerva copies

NONFICTION (1 title)

TITLE (Pub. Year) AUTHOR CALL #/LOCATION
The Penguin Book of Mermaids (2019) BACCHILEGA, CRISTINA & MARIE ALOHALANI BROWN (eds.) 4 Minerva copies

Finally, as a bonus, if you want to read about oceans that are literally out of this world (or at least off of this planet), check out this recent scholarly publication (through Oxford University Press). This title was co-authored by a geologist and a paleobiologist about ocean worlds that may exist elsewhere in our galaxy and beyond.

Happy reading adventures!

-Courtney Kleftis

Adult Services Librarian

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dayna says

    September 12, 2023 at 11:09 am

    Good morning,
    Do u have any adult book groups on the horizon for fall? Thank you!

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