Recommended Reading

[Capt Len]

If you know an adolescent of any age or gender give 'The Last Grain Race' by Eric Newby as a Christmas gift.By spring they will be on sailnet looking for a berth.I'll bet that's more of a goal than you had.

[mstern]

Just finished two sailing mysteries/thrillers:

Killer's Wake - Bernard Cornwell, and Shot in the Dark - Tony Gibbs. The Cornwell book is like his other sailing thrillers that have been mentioned here, but this one is more of a mystery than a thriller. Vagabond sailor (an impoverished Earl, no less) returns to England for his mother's funeral and has to deal with his very nasty family and a missing Van Gogh painting worth millions.

The Gibbs book is different, and not only because its set in Santa Barbara instead of England/Channel Islands. More of a conventional murder mystery, but lots of sailing/nautical stuff. The characters are really nice too, very fleshed out. I bought both books from Amazon (along with another Cornwell thriller, "Scoundrel", that I will hopefully get to soon), but it turns out that I had read Shot in the Dark when it first came out about 15 years ago. Still enjoyable as I had mostly forgotten what had happened. I think there is a second book in the series that I will now try and find.

[HollieMac]

Is not about sailing as much as it is the merchant ship SS Badger State in 1969 carrying a load of bombs to resupply the Air Force in Vietnam.
Encountering heavy weather which caused an already wobbly ship to roll 45 degrees continually, the bombs in the cargo holds broke loose and wreaked havoc. Well written by William Benedetto, the story itself is engrossing, but I shook the book several times in the last half because he kept wandering away into other incidents (to pad a short story) and it was annoying as you really want to stay in the story. I had to skim those asides and pick them up after the finish. Still a good choice for a true story of courage, desperation, and rescue. See more reviews on amazon

[mstern]

Scoundrel - Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell is known mostly for his historical novels, but his thrillers are terrific too. This novel has less sailing/nautical flavor than the other suspense books he has written. The heros in Killer's Wake, Stormchild, Crackdown, etc were all of a type: lone sailors running from an unhappy past that just needed the love of a good woman to be happy. Lots of sailing, some exotic locales, yet very English. The "hero" in Scoundrel isn't really like that. Sure, he's a basically unhappy guy, but he's not the slightly scruffy but with a heart of gold; this guy is a member of the Provisional IRA. A terrorist. Well, not really, or fully, but really sort of (no spoilers here!). The book is set in 1991 during the lead up to the first Gulf War. The Troubles rule in Ireland, the Provos are in full swing, and our hero is caught in the middle when he is hired to sail $5 million in gold across the Atlantic so the IRA can buy Stinger missles from the Cubans; except our hero decides to steal the gold and get out of the business altogether. Along the way, we find out just how deep his involvement in the IRA has been, and what he has done in his past, and how he is linked to Palestinian terrorists.

I usually start to squirm when I read these types of books as they just seem so unrealistic. But the scale on this one is right: the bad guys are bad, but they don't want to rule the world, just kill a few people. And although some of the plot lines are dated (when was the last time you heard about the IRA?), the middle east terrorists and their goals could have be written yesterday.

In all, a good book, but I was expected (and hoping) for more sailing/nautical stuff. In his other thrillers, even when the characters aren't aboard a boat, they LIVE the sailing life, and that comes through strongly throughout the stories. In Scoundrel, the lifestyle is really just a flavoring for the main story.

[BreakAwayFL]

The Complete Sailor by David Seidman

[capt13]

Originally Posted by Surfesq

Yes, I have read all of the OBrian books and loved them.
I would also throw in Sail Trim.
Here are two books I know anyone who sails will enjoy:

A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols
This is the story of the first Round Alone Race. A great read.

His other book, Sea Change: Alone Across the Atlantic in a Wooden Boat is an absolute must read if you can find it. It is a memoir of his transatlantic journey from England to the US on an engineless wooden boat. Sounds boring? No, here is the rub...He finds his recent ex-girlfriend's diary on board, (She was doing everyone in town), and his boat is slowly sinking. It's a train wreck and the best part is that it is true.

I just picked up his newest book, Evolution's Captain and will let you know how it reads.

A voyage for madmen is an awesome book !