What are you reading? Book suggestions

[Captain Crunch]

Can't narrow my selections to 2 books for the upcoming trip.

 

The Red and The Black, Stendahl; The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene; The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie; The Traveler, John Twelve Hawks; The Pirate's Laffite, William C. Davis.

 

I always save a couple of month's worth of Atlantic Monthy and the previous few issues of The New Yorker, for light readings.

 

Any suggestions or recommendations? Nothing that weighs too much, which is why I'm leaving home without Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, From Dawn to Decadence, There Once Was a World : A Nine Century Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok and A Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.

[funcorn]

There's another thread similar to this on another board. Here are some suggestions from there--"Skinny Dip" by Hiaason, "Birds of Prey" by Jance, "The QE2 is Missing" by Harry Harrison. One that I'm taking (if I haven't finished it before we leave) is "Marley and Me."

[Faith77]

I always discover new authors on these threads. My reading choices for travel/cruises tend to be thrillers/mysteries/chick lit so here are some recent choices:

 

Basket Case & Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen

Skinny Dip starts off with a man throwing his wife off a cruise ship

 

Critical Mass by Steve Martini

I'll be spending some time in the San Juan Islands this summer so this book was a great find since a lot of the action takes place there.

 

Mortal Fear by Greg Iles

I 'discovered' this author from one of these threads. Great read--had a couple of late nights with this book.

 

Faith

[Nasmas]

I just finished Turning Angel by Greg Iles. Very good read. I also read Jackie Collins' Lovers & Players though that is more of a 'chick book', you might enjoy it.

[benchmarklearning]

I am just finishing The Know It All - One Man't Quest to be the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. Great book for a cruise since you can put it down and pick up on any page. He is a journalist who sets out reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from cover to cover. He is hilarious as well. It is in every airport bookstore.

 

I wanted to take on our upcoming cruise but finishing it too soon...so DW will have it for cruise and I will tackle the something from the other 250 books on my list to read.

[yiddishkopf]

I highly recommend The Time Travels Wife by Audrey Neffeneger. I loved it. She is a professor at Columbia College in Chicago and a lot of the book was set in this area.

 

On our recent Statendam cruise, I read Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth which I evaluate as so-so, but if you haven't read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides I urge you to try it. In my opinion it is one of the best novels I've ever read.

 

I just finished Jennifer Weiner's Goodnight Nobody --light and amusing and a good mystery. If you like mysteries, I also recommend Rochelle Krich's books -- they are about an Orthodox Jewish woman reporter/detective. I've read 2 of them and enjoyed both.

 

Last but not least, I just finished Terry McMillan's The Interruption of Everything which is good but not as good as some of her earlier novels.

 

I start out with magazines and leave them behind when I've finished and I always give books away rather than carrying them home.

 

I hope this helps!

[tomc]

I have read, several times over, the non-fiction book, "The Last Log of the Titanic," by David Brown. It is his attempt, and an excellent one, to show what most likely happened on the bridge from the time when the iceberg was first spotted until the ship went down. A superb re-creation with reasons for each assumption. Highly recommended.

 

Another, also highly recommended, book is "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved," by Larry Kusche. He takes every known instance of a disappearance and throughly investigates it -- showing that almost all of them can be explained away, including the famous December 1945 five TBM's that make up the most famous tale of the Triangle, a tale which has taken on quite the life of its own.

 

One of my favorites is "Plain Speaking," the semi-autobiography (Oral Biography, as the title calls it) of Harry Truman, by Merle Miller. It's a hoot. It's somewhere between a biography and an autobiography and it's pure Harry. I can't remember how many times I've read it over the years.

[Orlandocruiser]

Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire - a memoir of a young boy who came from Cuba in the "Peter Pan airlift " and is now a professor at Yale. Just the thing to read as you sail past Cuba!

[1stime Kruiser]

If you enjoy a light hearted murder mystery - very easy reading (in case you are interupted a lot) I highly recommend Anne George's books: Murder on a Bad Hair Day, Murder on a Girl's Night Out, Murdeer Boogies with Elvis or Murder Carries a Torch. All the books are set in Birmingham, AL. Anne George was a school teacher and only began writing after she retired. I give her books 4 Stars for entertainment!!

 

I am always looking for new authors that I have not yet discovered. A couple that I never miss are J.A. Jance, Iris Johansen, Carl Hiaason, and Stuart Woods.

[redshoe]

oh I love a good book thread-

 

Here are my top faves that I've read so far and have passed on to others who also loved them. They would make fantastic cruise reads!

 

The Shadow of The Wind--Carlos Ruiz Zafon- Be forewarned - This book is filled with cliffhanger after heart-racing cliffhanger. There are mysteries within bigger mysteries. You will find yourself reading far into the night unable to put this book down.

 

The Life of Pi- great book- about a boy who's trapped at sea on a lifeboat with a tiger, zebra and other assorted animals and must survive- this was one of my favorite books and I'm still thinking of it a year later

 

The Historian- a young girl searches for her missing father and discovers the trail of dracula---a little heavy on details but awesome if you love mystery,suspense and vampire spookyness.

 

Oh there is nothing like a good book to escape to.

[Copper10-8]

One bullet away, the making of a Marine officer by Nathaniel Fick! For cruise enthusiasts, can highly recommend "The Captain's Log" by HAL Captain Hans Mateboer

[yiddishkopf]

Three years ago, when we cruised around Australia, I was reading The Life of Pi. Every day I would go out on our balcony and watch the water. I was trying to see if someone was on a raft, if I would be able to spot them!

[peaches from georgia]

oh I love a good book thread-

 

Oh there is nothing like a good book to escape to.

Me, too! I am just finishing Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer and am about to start Life of Pi for my Book Club. Of course I recently read the new Sue Grafton and also good was TheOther Boleyn Girl.

[luv2cruise450]

Some authors that haven't been mentioned yet...but whose works that I enjoy very much are Janet Evanovich (funny and a fast read); Dana Stabenow (mysteries that place in ALaska); Tony Hillerman (mysteries that take place on the Navajo reservation and I learn a lot about the culture & customs of these Native Americans) and James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux series that takes place in and around New Orleans. Also enjoy the 'cat' books by Lillian Johnson Braun. I also have loved the Brother Cadfael series that was written by Ellis Peters (unfortunately no new books in the series since she passed away a few years back).

Thanks for the suggestions of new (to me) authors to read.

Happy sailing and reading!

[WillK]

Am currently reading "Nothing That Meets the Eye-The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith. If your a Highsmith fan, this is a great read. She's best know for her Ripley novels and Strangers on a Train.

 

On a lighter note, just finished a very funny book, "Something Nasty In The Woodshed" by Kyril Bonfiglioli. "A cult classic since its first publication in the UK in the 1970's. The Mortdecal Trilogy is a series of dark-humored and atmospheric crime thrillers featuring Charlie Mortdecal: degenerate aristocrat, amoral art dealer, seasoned epicurean, unwilling assassin, and experienced self-avowed coward." This one had me laughing out loud.

 

Loved Lincoln Lawyer (and everything else Connelly has written)!

[Sunshine91]

I just finished Jennifer Weiner's Goodnight Nobody --light and amusing and a good mystery.

 

I start out with magazines and leave them behind when I've finished and I always give books away rather than carrying them home.

 

I took Goodnight Nobody with me but had too much fun to read much of it. Had to come home to finish the book. I liked it, as I have all of Weiner's books. I'm a book collector though & can't part with any of my books.

Did take a few fluffy entertainment mags with me too. When finished I left those for our cabin steward with a note that he could have them. We've heard that crew quarters are searched for those types of things but if they can show that it was purchased or a gift, they don't get into any trouble. Our cabin steward was most appreciative.

 

[drjohn4]

I always enjoy Clive Cussler books on cruises. Lots of action and adventure with nautical themes. Will be taking one on the Oosterdam Saturday!

[caribbean girl]

I'm just finishing 'The Best Awful' by Carrie Fisher...lots of LOL moments, sprinkled with interesting use of language. The currently controversial 'A Million Little Pieces' is on my 'to read' list. One of my current favorites is 'The Glass Castle' by Jeanette Walls...amazing book.

[Bookish Angel]

A fictonal story about a girl growing up in Montevideo, Uruguay before and after the political upheaval. A very good read.

 

The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw - a nonfiction account of a female lobster boat fisherman. Quirky and funny.

 

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost - the non-fiction adventures of the author and his girlfriend on the tiny island of Kiribati. Hilarious in parts.

 

Gray is the Color of Hope by Irina Ratushinskaya - the true story of the author's time in a Russian 'strict regime' camp in the 1980's. Compelling and well written.

 

'Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks - the author bets he can travel around Ireland with a small fridge. So funny I nearly wet myself.

 

Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition by Caroline Alexander - a clever account of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic adventure as "told" by the ship's cat. Absolutlely superb.

 

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem - a man with Tourette's Syndrome sets out to solve the murder of his friend. Unusual and good.

 

Casual Rex, Anonymous Rex, and Hot and Sweaty Rex by Eric Garcia are three books about a private investigator who is also a dinosaur disguised as a human. After that, it gets weird - and fun!

 

Check out http://www.BookCrossing.com to learn about this global book sharing and tracking project.

[Bill-Squared]

If you enjoy a light hearted murder mystery - very easy reading (in case you are interupted a lot) I highly recommend Anne George's books: Murder on a Bad Hair Day, Murder on a Girl's Night Out, Murdeer Boogies with Elvis or Murder Carries a Torch. All the books are set in Birmingham, AL. Anne George was a school teacher and only began writing after she retired. I give her books 4 Stars for entertainment!!

 

COOL!!! Thanks for this suggestion. I've not heard of them...and even though they sound a bit "girly" I might try them. (I love mysteries) I was born and raised in Birmingham, and it would be fun. I had my first novel published just over a year ago, and it also takes place in Birmingham. (It's not a mystery, but it's gotten some good reviews...if you want to check it on Amazon http://*****.com/esnwvor at my website :o )

[cactuslady]

For a Panama Canal cruise: The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough. Nonfiction, but you couldn't make up the story of how the Panama Canal came to be. A bit hefty, but a fascinating read.

 

For any cruise in the Tropics: Latitude Zero: Tales of the Equator, Gianni Guadalupi and Antony Schugaar. A collection of short vignettes on the far-fetched myths and equally astounding history of points along the earth's beltline.

 

Sailing Alone Around the World, Joshua Slocum. Published in 1900 and still in print.

 

The Cruise of the Snark: A Pacific Voyage, Jack London.

 

For an Alaska cruise: "The Years of Wonder," in Essays of E.B. White, E.B. White

 

The Odyssey, Homer. The best novel ever written, and still in print.

[michmike]

Can recommend anything by Stuart Woods, Robt Parker, Robt Ludlum, Ken Follett, David Baldacci, Stephen Frey, Vince Flynn. John Sanford (all of those are mystery and/or political thrillers) and do yourself a favor and try something by Wilbur Smith esp "Birds of Prey".

 

Also just finished a wonderful book called "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" by Ann Vanderhoof, about a couple from Toronto who take off for 2 yrs and sail a 42' sailboat to the Caribbean.

 

If you're into food, try "Tender at the Bone" or "Comfort me with Apples" by Ruth Reichl, who is the editor of Gourmet magazine

[SueSea]

In keeping with an 'at sea' theme, I recommend In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's the account of an incident that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. It's a true story of a ship that was attacked by a whale and sunk leaving its crew to drift at sea for three months. It's a great story, and it hit home for me. My family descended from the Coffins of Nantucket who lost one of their own on the ship--he was a crew member who 'drew the lot'.

[Splinter]

My favorite recent book is The Kiterunner.

 

I also just read Scott Turow's newest book Ordinary Heros (actually I listened to it on my iPod) and found it well written and quite a bit different from most his detective type fiction.

 

Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is well written and heart rendering.

 

I can also recommend The Secret Life of Bees.

 

I would also recommend any books by John Krakauer such as Into Thin Air, Into the Wild or Under the Banner of Heaven.

 

For lighter reading, I also enjoy John Grisham, Tony Hillerman, and Patricia Cornwell, as well as Anne Rule.

 

If you like history and somewhat intellectual swashbucklers, try starting the Patrick O'Brien books (all 21 of them). There are enough to keep you reading for years!

 

Also, for medical history I can recommend The Great Influenza as well as Pox Americana.

[sunflowerstarr]

for anyone who likes murder/mystery/thrillers and doesnt mind them being a big graphic should try some of Tami Hoag's work. I love just about every book of hers ive ever read. as for what im gonna take i have no idea. i love to read and read often and november is a long ways off. wellhave to see when it gets closer but ill be keeping up to find out what sounds good on here.