Fiction books set on cruise ships?

[westernmom]

I forgot, I just went on eBay after reading this and bought Skinny Dip and Decked! Can't wait to get them! Thanks for the tips.

[MaisonRose]

THE CATS TABLE. delightful book.

 

 

Summary

In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo Sri Lanka, boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the “cat’s table”—as far from the Captain’s Table as can be—with u u. a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults. T y and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin.

 

As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions zzz-as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women, another opens the door to the world of literature.

 

The narrator’s elusive, beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante, allowing him to see himself “with a distant eye” for the first time, and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat’s Table denizen, the shadowy Miss Lasqueti, is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever.

 

As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy’s adult years, it tells a spellbinding story—by turns poignant and electrifying—about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage. (From the publisher.)

 

 

 

Philip Michael Ondaatj, OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin (a Eurasian ethnic group historically from Sri Lanka). He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.

 

In Ondaatje’s best novel since his Booker Prize winning The English Patient, an 11-year-old boy sets off on a voyage from Ceylon to London, where his mother awaits. Though Ondaatje tells us firmly in the “Author’s Note” that the story is “pure invention,” the young boy is also called Michael, was also born in Ceylon, and also grows up to become a writer. This air of the meta adds a gorgeous, modern twist to the timeless story of boys having an awfully big adventure: young Michael meets two children of a similar age on the Oronsay, Cassius and Ramadhin, and together the threesome gets up to all kinds of mischief on the ship, with, and at the expense of, an eccentric set of passengers. But it is Michael’s older, beguiling cousin, Emily, also onboard, who allows him glimpses of the man he is to become. As always, Ondaatje’s prose is lyrical, but here it is tempered; the result is clean and full of grace, such as in this description of the children having lashed themselves to the deck to experience a particularly violent storm: "our heads were stretched back to try to see how deep the bow would go on its next descent. Our screams unheard, even to each other, even to ourselves, even if the next day our throats were raw from yelling into that hallway of the sea."

Publishers Weekly

 

 

"The journey was to be an innocent story within the small parameter of my youth," says the narrator of his voyage aboard the Oronsay, which carried him through the Indian Ocean to England and his divorced mother. But for 11-year-old Michael, things shift from the moment he is seated at "the cat's table," the least propitious spot in the dining room. Michael enjoys wild escapades with the two other boys at the table, quiet Ramadhin and hell-raiser Cassius, while befriending the mismatched adults at his table as well as his card-playing roommate, who tends the ship's kennels. Others on board include Michael's older cousin Emily, who takes up with the magnetic head of a performing troupe while protecting a deaf and frail-looking girl named Asuntha, and a heavily chained prisoner. The relationship among these four characters precipitates crisis, but we're not led to it systematically; instead, Booker Prize winner Ondaatje (Anil's Ghost) flashes forward to Michael as an adult, showing us how unwittingly we lose our childhood innocence and how that loss comes to affect us much, much later. Verdict: Writing in a less lyrically wrought style than usual, Ondaatje turns in a quietly enthralling work. Highly recommended. —Barbara Hoffert

Library Journal

[CPT Trips]

This one seems perfect for the thread.:rolleyes:

 

Cruise of the Undead by Laura Hansen.

 

Fifteen-year-old Charlie is P.O.'ed that his parents have wasted a perfectly good Christmas break by forcing him on a cruise with a bunch of oldies. But the old people are a piece of cake compared to the dead people. Some late night sneaking around by Charlie and his brother Jack convince them that the unimaginable is really happening: the recently dead are walking the ship. After a gruesome attack at the Death by Chocolate Buffet, a seriously scary comedy of clashing personalities occurs when intense Charlie and his hip hop, extroverted younger brother Jack forge an alliance to defeat the zombie menace. The boys and their friends take on the zombie crew in a gripping struggle to save themselves, their families and the other passengers from an ugly undeath.

With horror, humor, and a dash of romance, this fast-paced adventure races through the zombie-infested South Pacific.

[dancinman66]

Wow thAt is one long zombie filled story

Nicely written but don't know if read it on a cruise

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[CruiseMore1]

A few years ago I read "Decked" by Carol Higgins Clark. She's not her mother (Mary Higgins Clark) but I do enjoy her work. It is a mystery set on a cruise ship.

 

That was a fun read! She does put a bit of humor in her mysteries!

[CruiseMore1]

Just realized how old this thread is! Doesn't matter though - still enjoyed reading thru it.

[taglovestocruise]

Leviathan: graphic novel of a gigantic cruise ship lost at sea for 20 years..

If you are into graphic novels, happy cruising

[jocap]

"Here Come the Girls" by Milly Johnson is a fun book about a group of women on their first cruise. The author also wrote "Here Come the Boys", which is on Kindle only, and draws on her own experience of missing the ship in Malaga....

The author is presently the speaker on board the ship of her first cruise, and we're waiting for yet another cruising novel from her on her return! ;)

Edited August 27, 2014 by jocap
old age

[ehfl]

Cruise Mob by Robert O'Connell was just released. It's set mostly on a cruise ship, and is a follow up to Flash Mob. It has some of the same characters, so you'll see more wit and mystery (although you don't have to have read the first one to enjoy the second one). Amazon has it in paperback, and it should be available for download to Kindle as well.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cruise-Mob-Pastor-Family-Volume/dp/0692295534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415119152&sr=8-1&keywords=cruise+mob

Edited November 4, 2014 by ehfl

[SuiteTraveler]

These are older books and neither are fiction, yet they are wildly entertaining and interesting -so much so I have read both in one sitting:

 

And the Sea will Tell - Vincent Bugliosi - True Crime

 

A young couple flee drug charges in Hawaii via a sailboat to an uninhabited South Pacific atoll, Palmyra. They are poorly provisioned, their sailboat is not entirely sea worthy and they are poorly matched. Soon they are joined by others, including a wealthy married couple. Only one of the couples returns from the island. This is one of those true crime books which you read over and over again. It will keep you guessing to the end and haunt you afterwards. What really happened on that island?

 

The Dove - Robin L Graham

 

In 1965, 16-year-old Robin Lee Graham began a solo around-the-world voyage from San Pedro, California, in a 24-foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned to home port with a wife and daughter and enough extraordinary experiences to fill this bestselling book, Dove.

Edited November 4, 2014 by SuiteTraveler

[cadien]

This one seems perfect for the thread.:rolleyes:

 

Cruise of the Undead by Laura Hansen.

 

Fifteen-year-old Charlie is P.O.'ed that his parents have wasted a perfectly good Christmas break by forcing him on a cruise with a bunch of oldies. But the old people are a piece of cake compared to the dead people. Some late night sneaking around by Charlie and his brother Jack convince them that the unimaginable is really happening: the recently dead are walking the ship. After a gruesome attack at the Death by Chocolate Buffet, a seriously scary comedy of clashing personalities occurs when intense Charlie and his hip hop, extroverted younger brother Jack forge an alliance to defeat the zombie menace. The boys and their friends take on the zombie crew in a gripping struggle to save themselves, their families and the other passengers from an ugly undeath.

With horror, humor, and a dash of romance, this fast-paced adventure races through the zombie-infested South Pacific.

 

There's also Deck Z, which imagines that it was actually a zombie outbreak that sank the Titanic.

[marshhawk]

Ship of Fools, it's a classic, has been made into a movie, a transatlantic crossing sailing to germany at the start of WWII. Great character study.

As far as a book about Europe, Mark Twains =A Tramp Abroad. Not a light read, but turns out it makes a lot of sense, you learn alot about the 1800's in Europe, and made Ship of Fools understandable.

But now I am going to go find Skinny Dip, I love Carl Hiassen!

Edited November 5, 2014 by marshhawk

[Trainer]

I also liked Skinny Dip. Not totally a cruise ship story but a good read.

[OctoberKat]

Cruise-ship fiction:

http://www.librarything.com/subject/Cruise+ships%09Fiction

Edited November 5, 2014 by OctoberKat

[Bookish Angel]

 

The Dove - Robin L Graham

 

In 1965, 16-year-old Robin Lee Graham began a solo around-the-world voyage from San Pedro, California, in a 24-foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned to home port with a wife and daughter and enough extraordinary experiences to fill this bestselling book, Dove.

 

 

Other excellent books are The True Confssions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi and Caroline Alexander''s Mrs Chippy's Last Expedition.

[AZ Ocean Lover]

I know this is pretty mainstream but the books by Dan Brown really make me want to see Italy and Istanbul.

[Smilefy]

A Caribbean Mystery - Agatha Christie

[NoobCruise]

Murdering Moons by Rick Mercer. It's a 3 book series with the first and last taking place on a cruise.

Edited December 23, 2014 by NoobCruise

[2bthereagain]

subscribing ;)

[sailawaybellaluna]

I'd love to revive this thread to see if there are any new recommendations?:)

[suezyq50]

Hope there are responses!

[Essiesmom]

I will confess to having read Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. However, before I read that one, I read another that had been recommended here, The Ship Dwellers, a Story of a Happy Cruise by Albert Bigelow Paine. It was free for Kindle. Mr. Paine's father had purchased Twain's book when it was relatively new, and read it to the family. Mr Paine had always yearned to recreate that journey, and in his 40's, made this attempt. I believe the 'cruise' took place in 1908, the book published a year later. If you have taken a Mediterranean cruise, or plan one, it is quite interesting how different things were more than 100 years ago. Mr. Paine either liked a place, or he didn't.. He stopped the narrative after Egypt....either lost interest, or ran out of adjectives... I do wish he had finished the journey/journal. After reading this, I also read Twain's book - and found it rather lacking. It was rather like a frat party goes on a sea journey... Granted, he was a bit younger when he took his journey, and journalism was his business: he had readers who wanted to be entertained... But for free Kindle downloads they are worth the time. Oh, and back then what we call the Middle East was the exotic Orient! EM

[SuiteTraveler]

Vanishing Angle by JoAnn Warren

A Proper Family Adventure by Chrissie Manby

Cruises are Murder by Kathy Granston

The Flood by David Sachs (disaster, horror on a derelict cruise ship cut off from the rest of the world.)

Return of the Sea Empress by Ken Rossignol

The Cruise Ship by Anna Deppeler

Cruise Ship by Michael Lloyd

Seems Like Yesterday by Sherry A Burton (time travel and cruise ship and romance)

[Velvetwater]

Pretty good new read from last year:

 

Woman in cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

 

In this tightly wound story, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

 

With surprising twists and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another intense read.

[sliderturk99]

The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child