READERS: Best tropical-themed book to take on a cruise?

[ParrotheadMel]

I'm looking for book recomendations (fiction) for our upcoming Inspiration cruise in 12 days. I want something set in the tropics/Caribbean, either historical with pirates or mystery, or current setting taste-of-life-in-the-islands. I have (of course) read all the Jimmy Buffett books. What have you enjoyed on your cruises?? Paperback preferred..

Thanks!!!

[AvMan]

Tourist Season and Sick Puppy are my favorites, but I also enjoyed Stormy Weather and Native Tongue.

 

Happy Cruising!

[beansatw]

I agree with AvMan - Anything by Carl Hiassen is a good read. Another fun to read Florida writer is Tim Dorsey - his characters (especially his favorite protagonist, Serge Storms) tend to be a little out there, but if you like hilarious mysteries, it's hard to go wrong. Florida Roadkill was his first one, and Hammerhead Hotel is my personal favorite.

 

Have fun!

[serene56]

cruise related? Skipping Christmas is a short read. by John Grisholm.

[jerseygirl3]

I read "A Trip to the Beach" by the Blanchards (can't remember their first names, it's a husband and wife team). It talks about their trials and tribulations of giving up a lucrative business in the States for life in the Caribbean (Anguilla to be exact). It's a terrific book.

[christhree]

Book????

[Cruising89143]

Some of those books sound good. I always like to have at least one good book to read for sea days.

[valentina1209]

A Necessary Woman by Helen van Slyke about a journalist who wins an around the world cruise, and then reports on it.

 

The Hotel Riviera by Elizabeth Adler

[MrPete]

I like a book when I'm land locked to "put me on a cruise" or anywhere on vacation. I don't use a book to "take me off a cruise" or "put me somewhere else."

[TheCruisingBrewers]

Well personally I love anything as one of my favorite cruise pasttimes is to sit in the shade or sun and read. Listen to the people, watch the sea, sipon a huge drink of the day.

 

I have done the cruise themed books too and have read several with either cruising or a nautical bent. More recently last cruise I read Dan Brown's wonderful Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci code. I also read Life of Pi, which is a tale of a boy stuck on a raft with a few zoo animals. It is a good tale and quick read.

 

Clive Clusser is a great author and writes many tells of the sea... Raising Titanic is his re-release out in paperback. His character Dirk Pitt us a great character and he has several good novels out in paperback.

 

Part of the fun in pre cruise planning for me is looking for books to read and saving them for my time off. This cruise I am taking Rule of Four, Codex and the story of Diana, written by her butler.

 

Fair winds, and happy reading!

Nancy

[seeker]

A good read for the ladies is "The Reef" by Nora Roberts, Its a romance about scuba divers diving for buried treasure off the coast of St Kitts and Nevis.

Happy Cruising!

Seeker

[TrqoisWtrs]

Another one for the ladies is Time Kissed Destiny, by Constance O'Day Flannery. She writes really good time travel books, and this one is about a woman who goes scuba diving in Bermuda and finds a sunken treasure chest. Taking a necklace from the chest causes her to go back in time and while she is still underwater runs into a man who is free diving looking for the treasure chest in his time and who thinks she is a mermaid because he has never seen scuba equipment. Its a really fun story.

 

If you like time travel romance, all her books are good. :)

[tef43]

Caribbean - James Michener

Don't Stop the Carnival - Herman Wouk

[ParrotheadMel]

Don't Stop the Carnival was already in the suitcase!! We're going book-shopping tonight. Really enjoyed "Where is Joe Merchant?" a few years back.

 

also have been told

John MacDonald - Travis McGee series

Mark Twain - Following the Equator

Anyone read any Tom Corcoran? sounds interesting

Thanks for advise!

[BillnBobbi]

Typhoon by Herman Melville (esp. if you're cruising the caribbean in August)

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin (esp before you take that cruise to the Galapagos Islands).

 

BnB

[Nautical but Nice]

I second what Jerseygirl3 said about “A Trip to the Beach”. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so, that I am going to Anguilla in October and am hoping to be able to eat at the Blanchard’s restaurant.

 

Here are a couple of other recommendations. You can check either Amazon or BN for a synopsis.

 

Murder She Wrote: Murder on the QE2 by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain

Murder She Wrote: Rum and Razors by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain – takes place on St. Thomas

An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude, by Ann Vanderhoof – about a couple that sail the Caribbean for 2 years. Includes lots of recipes created by the author.

Murder in St. Barts by J.R. Ripley

Going Overboard by Christina Skye

All books by Conrad Allen – not Caribbean, but murder mysteries that take place on Ocean Liners.

 

Christine

[Knights on the Beach]

Season of the Machete, by James Patterson, is a murder mystery taking place on a tropical island. Stuart Woods also has several good books that are set in the Caribbean or tropical places (Choke, Dead in the Water, White Cargo).

[imsulin]

"Caribbean" by James Michener. It gives a great historical perspective, and super fiction! The best thing about this book is that it will take you at least five cruises to finish it!

[glrounds]

I would have to echo Caribbean by Michener. Love his writing. Has that knack of marrying fiction with historical accuracy (does that make sense?). :confused:

Probably sounds kind of corny but my next choice would be the Bounty trilogy: :)

Mutiny on the Bounty

Pitcairn's Island (where the mutineers went)

Men Against the Sea