Books and reading

[heyabbott]

With Kindle and iPad bringing lots to read on the ship is easy. Kindle for the pool and beach, iPad for everywhere else. My list for next months trip is James Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand, which I'm reading now, Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. In case of shipwreck I have James Joyce's Ulysses. In a fiction mood lately. Plus about 6 back issues of The New Yorker. The woman to whom I'm related by marriage is bringing Scott Turow's latest and some girl mags. We have different tastes so we rarely share.

 

What do you read?

 

Any recommendations of your favorite books you've read on ships. Anyone like James Ellroy or Ellmore Leonard and care to share some recommendations?

 

This year I've read 2 amazing books by Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. And the Yiddish Policeman's Union. The first 2 books of Ken Follet's recent trilogy, Fall of Giants and Winter of the World are fast paced reads of historical fiction and worth the time. The 3rd book is due this fall.

 

 

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[chickadee1]

Actually got hooked on Longmire on TV and so far have read 3 of Craig Johnson's books(in order) so far and have loved them which you, as a man, may like. They are very well written and you get a much more involved feeling of Wyoming and the Cheyenne nation. Some of the characters are the same as TV shows but story lines are definitely different!

 

I have a Nook which I will bring on my cruise but don't know what I will be reading yet - I borrow books from the library to download besides buying a few. Tell your wife I read Identical by Turow and liked it! Hope she does, too

 

Barbara.

Edited July 20, 2014 by chickadee1

[Bailey & Sophie]

I tend toward murder mysteries. I bring a few books I've picked up at garage sales and leave them in the library for others to read (or take home, I don't care). I don't have a Kindle or Nook.

[chickadee1]

Use my Nook and library (at home) - or book picked up at book sales! Especially use Nook at night at home when DH is sleeping - use Glowlight and he just sleeps through and doesn't tell me to turn out the light! Nook is also good on cruise as it is handy - if I don't like the book I can just to go next book! Very convenient!

[michmike2]

count me among those eagerly waiting for Vol 3 of the Follett series

[michmike2]

There are LOTS of reading recommendations in a thread on the "cruise rituals" tab It's about the 4th post down and must have 200 or more entries.

[k9trix]

Love this idea for a thread, I'm always looking for something new to read. I enjoy Adriana Trigiani's books (she has the Big Stone Gap series and some other good ones too). Her main characters are always from Italy or have Italian heritage and I started reading them before my Mediterranean cruise last year to get in the Italian mood. She writes with a little humor mixed in there so they are easy reads. I'd like to find some good books that take place on ships to just get me in the cruising mood (well, more in that mood I guess) but it seems I always pick books on the Titanic. :rolleyes:

 

Trix :)

[Bookish Angel]

as I like to leave books for others as I travel and I like the tactile senstion of a traditional book.

 

I like several international authors such as Nadine Gordimer, Jumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, etc. and novels and non-fiction about the immigrant experience. I also like non-fiction about science, medicine, animals, Buddhism, holistic health, environmentally-conscious living and travel writing.

 

Favorite books are Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

Edited July 20, 2014 by Bookish Angel

[StarSong2001]

LOL @ your "in case of shipwreck" choice.

 

My Kindle will have:

Ken Follett - World Without End.

Considering Rob Lowe - Stories I only Tell my Friends

And I'm hooked on a couple sci-fi series I doubt anyone heard of.

 

I wish there was a new Dan Brown book coming in time for my upcoming cruise, but maybe for the one after this (whenever that ends up being)

Edited July 20, 2014 by StarSong2001

[KirkNC]

Currently I am reading No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is pretty good, lots of details about both FDR and Eleanor.

[CntPAcruiser]

We used to have to haul a bunch of books along on a cruise, but no more! We have e-readers now, and load 'em up before traveling.

 

For cruise reading, I'm liking a number of stories by Andrew Grey that have cruise themes in them, most recently Electrochemistry. There's also an earlier one, An Unexpected Vintage, where part of the action takes place on a cruise ship. They are great romance stories perfect for a cruise vacation or the beach, among many others.

[CruiseMore1]

Whatever is in my "to read" pile that I haven't gotten to yet. So many books, so little time!!!

[SPacificbound]

DH and I read a lot of the same authors, both on our iPads.

 

Some of my favorite authors are Lee Child, John Sanford, Robert Crais, Jonathon Kellerman, Kathy Reich, and many more.

[SadieN]

With Kindle and iPad bringing lots to read on the ship is easy. Kindle for the pool and beach, iPad for everywhere else. My list for next months trip is James Ellroy's The Cold Six Thousand, which I'm reading now, Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. In case of shipwreck I have James Joyce's Ulysses. In a fiction mood lately. Plus about 6 back issues of The New Yorker. The woman to whom I'm related by marriage is bringing Scott Turow's latest and some girl mags. We have different tastes so we rarely share.

 

What do you read?

 

Any recommendations of your favorite books you've read on ships. Anyone like James Ellroy or Ellmore Leonard and care to share some recommendations?

 

This year I've read 2 amazing books by Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. And the Yiddish Policeman's Union. The first 2 books of Ken Follet's recent trilogy, Fall of Giants and Winter of the World are fast paced reads of historical fiction and worth the time. The 3rd book is due this fall.

 

 

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I want to know how you're going to charge your Kindle or iPad when you are shipwrecked?:p

 

I've been slogging thru the classics on our recent cruises. Finally finished all the Musketeer books.

[chickadee1]

I want to know how you're going to charge your Kindle or iPad when you are shipwrecked?

 

I never thought of that!! I guess I better hope to not get shipwrecked!!

[CntPAcruiser]

I want to know how you're going to charge your Kindle or iPad when you are shipwrecked?:p

 

I never thought of that!! I guess I better hope to not get shipwrecked!!

 

On a different thread, a review on CC, someone had a solar charging device that they clipped to their lounger during the day. It could be used to charge a phone or tablet, etc.

 

Personally, I'd prefer the not getting shipwrecked scenario, but it is always good to be prepared.

[calliopecruiser]

I'm more into audobooks than e-books, but I still love the tactile feeling of a paper bound book - on my last cruise I used the library to try out some new authors that I'd heard of but never tried. The only ones I really liked and continue to read are Linwood Barclay and Lisa Gardner.

 

Count me in as another one who love the Longmire novels. I enjoyed a few before the TV series, and now I just can't watch the TV version (Lou Diamond Phillips is just wrong for that role). I'm putting off the most recent in the series only because I eat them up like candy and I don't want to be done too quickly.

 

A great comedic mystery series I'm enjoying are the John Ceepak novels by Chris Grabenstein. Ceepak is a "Joe Friday" style of cop that has joined the police force in a small seaside community on the Jersey Shore, and he's partnered with a young, laid-back, irony-filled new cop who grew up there and knows everyone in the tourist-heavy town.

 

Some of the books I've chosen on a whim but were delightful discoveries include Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon (apocalyptic fiction) Louis Bayard's The Black Tower (historical mystery fiction), and Peter Cline's 14 (mystery with apocalyptic sci fi woven in). I've gone back to some classic authors and either re-read or caught up on missed titles of theirs: John Wyndham (sci fi), Shirley Jackson (creepy horror), Edgar Allen Poe (crime mysteries.....yes, he wrote great horror, but he also wrote some great detective fiction).

Edited July 21, 2014 by calliopecruiser
grammar

[cruiserking]

I recently finished a tremendous mystery called The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. It's by a young French writer named Joel Dicker and has been a huge hit all over Europe.

 

I could not put it down, one of the best mystery/thrillers I've read in ages. It has a very strong narrative, with lots of great characters, a classic page-turner.

 

Jonathan

[slidergirl]

For my shipwreck scenario: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Mar*uez. Kind of appropriate, right? I have read it once - it is a great book - but I'd read it again. I've read probably everything by Garcia Mar*uez. Sad that he passed away this year - no more great literature from him. - note: CC censored his real last name for some reason - replace the * with a q...

 

If you like the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series of books, look into the "Department Q" series. They are written by Jussi Adler-Olsen, a Danish author. Good police thrillers.

Edited July 21, 2014 by slidergirl
CC censoring of last Name of a great author

[dorisis]

I usually bring a few paperbacks in case of an emergency. Otherwise I have my favorite authors (too numerous to list) so I check out the library as soon as it is open and pick a few books that I have not read. If I have finished my paperbacks I trade them at the end of the cruise and then have some for next cruise.

[Azure Moon]

I will be bringing along a paperback copy of a Janet Evanovich numbers book/Stephanie Plum book. I had stopped buying and reading the books at #16 since they're so repetitive in storyline and writing. But, darn it, it was such a habit reading them for so long that I broke down and purchased numbers 17, 18, and 19 at a resale book store :rolleyes:.

 

In eleven cruises I haven't read one whole chapter of a book since there is so much to do, but I always have to have a book along - just in case :).

[calliopecruiser]

In eleven cruises I haven't read one whole chapter of a book since there is so much to do, but I always have to have a book along - just in case :).

 

LOL! On my last 10 day cruise (with 8 sea days) I read 7 books! Different strokes..........

 

If you like Stephanie Plum and think you might like other humerous mysteries, pick up one of the John Ceepak novels by Chris Grabenstein. Even though the protagonist is nothing like Stephanie Plum, I find there's a very similar feeling of a mix of comedy and crime/mystery. Maybe because they're both set in New Jersey? I was a big Plum fan up to book 11 or 12 or so, and I get the same kind of vibe from these as her earlier books. The first in the John Ceepak series is called Tilt A Whirll, and I'm only just finished the second so far.

[ccotting]

I try to read books that teach me about the place I'm going but it is nice to have that done through fiction. James Michener's books on Hawaii and Alaska were awesome to take to cruise. You learn the history but it's coming in a way that is so easy to read and take in. Really enhanced my holiday experience. Now I look for novels set in the places we are going.

 

It's hard to find Michener now and I had to haunt the second hand bookstores to find Iberia for my trip to Spain and Portugal on Explorer next year.

 

I haven't moved to a kindle yet..... Somehow it's not that encouraging to put that down on a soggy swimsuit.....

 

I love the paperback exchange and always leave and pick up, it has introduced me to some great books and wonderful authors.

[Azure Moon]

LOL! On my last 10 day cruise (with 8 sea days) I read 7 books! Different strokes..........

 

If you like Stephanie Plum and think you might like other humerous mysteries, pick up one of the John Ceepak novels by Chris Grabenstein. Even though the protagonist is nothing like Stephanie Plum, I find there's a very similar feeling of a mix of comedy and crime/mystery. Maybe because they're both set in New Jersey? I was a big Plum fan up to book 11 or 12 or so, and I get the same kind of vibe from these as her earlier books. The first in the John Ceepak series is called Tilt A Whirll, and I'm only just finished the second so far.

 

7 books?!? :eek: :cool:

 

And I thought my husband was a fast reader, LOL! He will be in awe of your ability when I mention your post to him :). He usually reads a couple during a 7-12 day cruise and more than two in that time when home.

 

Thank you so much for the recommendation of John Ceepak novels by Chris Grabenstein and the title of the first book :cool:. Your description of them does indeed sound like something I would be interested in!

 

Thanks again,

Azure Moon

[heyabbott]

We saw the movie trailer for The Hundred-Foot Journey with Helen Miren. I had never heard of the book before even if it was a best seller. The trailer looked great, I read the NY Times Boom Review in the theater during the next preview and bought the book in the parking lot of the movie theater on my Kindle Ap. I have moved it up on my kindle to the first book I start on our upcoming cruise.

 

 

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