I need your reading suggestions please

We leave next week for 17 days on the Navigator's Miami to San Francisco itinerary. This cruise has more sea-days than we normally experience. We're hoping to load up our ipads with some really great books. Our land-based lives leave very little time for reading, so we're asking for help and recommendations. Fiction or non-fiction...it matters not. Thanks.

Ignore anything about the" Titantic"

We leave next week for 17 days on the Navigator's Miami to San Francisco itinerary. This cruise has more sea-days than we normally experience. We're hoping to load up our ipads with some really great books. Our land-based lives leave very little time for reading, so we're asking for help and recommendations. Fiction or non-fiction...it matters not. Thanks.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mother-Mary-Drew-OBrien/dp/0692202242/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

FANTASTIC book... and it was written by my husband. :D

I just ordered The Sin of Mother Mary. Amazon's reviews sure look good...I'm looking forward to getting into this book and appreciate the tips from all of you!

At year's end, I compile a list of books most enjoyed; here's my 2014 list. Happy reading and smooth sailing.

Best Books Read in 2014

[that's READ, not published, in 2014]

FICTION

--All the Birds Singing by Evie Wyld

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307907767/?tag=bookb03-20

--The Patrick Melrose Novels (every single one of them) by Edward St. Aubyn

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429967/?tag=bookb03-20

--Frances and Bernard by Carlin Bauer

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544105176/?tag=bookb03-20

--The Big Both Ways by John Straley

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1616953179/?tag=bookb03-20

--Far As the Eye Can See by Robert Bausch

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1620402599/?tag=bookb03-20

Longbourn by Jo Baker

--http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385351232/?tag=bookb03-20

Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor

--http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GVFPE5E/?tag=bookb03-20

St. Burl's Obituary by Daniel Akst

--http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YKU09S/?tag=bookb03-20

--The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood [author is well-named, strong stomach required]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609451384/?tag=bookb03-20

--Last Friends by Jane Gardam (third of the Old Filth trilogy)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609450930/?tag=bookb03-20

--The Bees by Laline Paull

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062331159/?tag=bookb03-20

--Evergreen by Rebecca Rasmussen

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385350996/?tag=bookb03-20

--Neverhome by Laird Hunt

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316370134/?tag=bookb03-20

--Falling from Horses by Molly Glass

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544279298/?tag=bookb03-20

--No Great Mischief by Alistair McLeod

http://*******.com/oy92myb

--The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey (yes, really a zombie book)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316278157/?tag=bookb03-20

--The Distance by Helen Giltrow

http://*******.com/pzps8zc

--Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinsky

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003JTHW2I/?tag=bookb03-20

--& Sons by David Gilbert

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812993969/?tag=bookb03-20

NON-FICTION

--Hot House: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux by Boris Kachka

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1451691890/?tag=bookb03-20

--Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France by Nicholas Shakespeare http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062297031/?tag=bookb03-20

--Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrim of the Flesh by John Lahr (for the Williams-besotted who know his plays well)

http://*******.com/mqwbe7m

I just ordered The Sin of Mother Mary. Amazon's reviews sure look good...I'm looking forward to getting into this book and appreciate the tips from all of you!

Thank you so very much. That is very happy news and I can't wait to tell Drew.

Thanks OctoberKat. I'm quite impressed and will spend this rainy day researching your list on Amazon. This is terrific.

Hi mushroom - Another suggestion is to try Goodreads.com.

GR generates recommendations based on books you have enjoyed, provides a great way to keep track of your to-read list, and makes it easy to find books in your library or on Amazon, B&N, etc.

And thanks OctoberKat for sharing your reading list - you’ve given me more ideas for mine.

Hi mushroom - great topic! I agree with drib - "The Path Between the Seas" is perfect for your itinerary. Another non-fiction suggestion is "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown. I couldn't put it down.

Thanks OctoberKat and CwazeAndCwaze for your suggestions - I'm anxious to check them out.

Thanks all. Next time, I will format the post for greater legibility.

As for reading on a Panama Canal cruise, McCullough's "Path Between the Seas" is terrific, especially from the U.S. viewpoint. For wider context, look into these fine tomes:

The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal by Julie Greene

http://www.amazon.com/Canal-Builders-Americas-Penguin-American/dp/0143116789/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1428447350&sr=8-19&keywords=Panama+Canal

Panama Fever: The Epic Story of Building the Panama Canal by Matthew Parker

http://www.amazon.com/Panama-Fever-Story-Building-Canal-ebook/dp/B001UMCA14/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1428447481&sr=8-7

In the fiction category these novels rock:

God's Favorite by Lawrence Wright

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Favorite-Novel-Lawrence-Wright-ebook/dp/B00AK78SYS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428447717&sr=8-2&keywords=God%27s+favorite

Canal Dreams by Iain Banks

http://www.amazon.com/Canal-Dreams-Iain-Banks/dp/0349139237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428447755&sr=8-1&keywords=Canal+dreams

I would recommend "Unbroken" if you have not read the book. It goes so far beyond the movie and I highly recommend it. :)

I would have to go with anything from Pat Conroy. If you have read any of his books, especially "The Great Santini," I would recommend "The Death of Santini." Enjoy!!!

Z and TB

When we sailed the Western Caribbean in January, a friend gave me this wee book and it was a delight. Easy to pick up, put down, leaf through; highly recommended and will take up very little room, perfect purse size.

Poems of the Sea, edited by J.D. McClatchy

http://www.amazon.com/Poems-Everymans-Library-Pocket-Poets/dp/0375413294/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428544328&sr=8-1&keywords=Everyman+poems+sea

Icing on the cake: lovely tome beautifully printed.

I would have to go with anything from Pat Conroy. If you have read any of his books, especially "The Great Santini," I would recommend "The Death of Santini." Enjoy!!!

 

Z and TB

If Conroy's southern gothic trope works for you, then you have an excellent read in store with Huston Curtss' "Sins of the Seventh Sister."

http://www.amazon.com/Sins-Seventh-Sister-Novel-Gothic/dp/140004538X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428544955&sr=1-3&keywords=Sins+seven+sisters+novel

Being a long time resident of Coastal Carolina, I love anything Conroy. I'll be sure to check on your suggestion. Thanks OctoberKat.

No one has mentioned the library on the ship. I really don't remember the one on the Navigator, but we were recently on the Voyager and they have quite a number of books, and especially lots of copies of selected new bestsellers.

What I do is make a list (and I continually update it) of books that I would like to read at some point. I look at "Best 100 Books" lists, go on some of the websites already mentioned and generate ideas based on authors and other books I have read, and take suggestions from others. I keep this list on my ipad/iphone so that when I go to the ship's library (no matter what ship I am on) I have that list and can look for already vetted books. This approach has worked great for my last several cruises and I get to read books "free" but don't have to haul them. I have books on my ipad for the plane but really prefer to have a real book in my hand.

Sounds like a good system, NJBelle.

Navigator's library is well stocked with a wide variety do fiction and non. Too many picture/photo books for me taste but we're all different in our preferences.