June RandomCAT: Take to the Sea!

June RandomCAT: Take to the Sea!

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."

—Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

It’s the beginning of summer for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and for me that means just one thing (in non-pandemic times, anyway): time to go to the beach! So for this month’s RandomCAT, I encourage you to read a book that is set near (or on) a body of water, or that has a body of water in the title. Books set on ships or submarines, books set in beach towns or lakeside communities, books with “river” or “lake” or “ocean” in the title…all are fair game! Here are just a few possibilities:

- Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
- Bee Ridgway, The River of No Return
- Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
- Erik Larson, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
- Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile
- Ruth Ware, The Woman in Cabin 10
- Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander

Feel free to interpret the theme as creatively as you like! Please share your planned and actual reads for this CAT, and don’t forget to update the wiki!

Right now I'm planning to read The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White for this CAT.

I've already got Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger scheduled for the Alpha Kit so I think I'll count it for this too.

I'm going to read Atlantic Britain by Adam Nicolson for this CAT. I had it lined up as a potential read for the December Non-Fiction CAT, but as it fits so well here and I have several other contenders for that CAT, Atlantic Britain it is - sailing the Atlantic coasts of the British Isles from Cornwall to the Hebrides, before heading on to Orkney and into the North Atlantic. Not exactly a beach read, but definitely a lot of sea!

I'll tackle The Lake House by Kate Morton, and that will be an alphakit as well.

ETA: Also: Kraken by China Mieville.

A first look through my TBR found 11 that would work. Right now I think I'll read Pacific Interlude by Sloan Wilson. This is the last book in a trilogy about Wilson's experiences in the Merchant Marines during WWII.

I love this theme, Christina. I had a lot of choices and have decided on The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. This is a book that I started once before and set aside for some reason so I will be happy to finally finish it. Also it will fit the June AlphaKit.

>2 christina_reads: - I think I'll join you in reading The Glass Ocean. I've been eyeing it lately and now seems like a good time.

>8 LittleTaiko: Yay, I look forward to comparing notes with you!

I live next to a lake and love to look at the water. I will have to check on Boundary Waters when my library reopens.

After reading this thread I heard this poem running through my head, so I thought I'd share:

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

My choices will be Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman or Shorewords: a Collection of American Women's Coastal Writings edited by Susan A. C. Rosen, which I have had since 2011.

>11 fuzzi: I haven't read that one in years! Thanks for sharing it.

Returning to The Water of the Hills by Marcel Pagnol. It contains Jean de Florette, which I have read, and Manon of the Springs, which I haven't.

I am ALL OVER this!!! :D

Somewhat echoing >11 fuzzi:, I'm going to have to read Sea Fever: The True Adventures That Inspired Our Greatest Maritime Authors, by Sam Jefferson. It does talk about John Masefield!

>11 fuzzi: I love that poem! It reminds me of why I like cruise ship travel, which we miss greatly.

Thanks for this RandomCat theme! I just downloaded a new cruise ship mystery that will fit this one.

So many options!

I've got Causeway by Linden MacIntyre, Entry Island by Peter May, Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, and I've got The Wave by Susan Casey which I put down a few years ago, but would like to finish.

How about if I read a book at the beach looking at the ocean? That's on my list of June activities I hope to get to.

Since I've got my eye on The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham for the ScaredyKIT, I'll make it do double duty and also count it here.

Alternatively, I've got Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome somewhere on the virtual TBR shelf.

Oh what a lovely theme! I instantly thought of the Masefield poem, too. I'll make up my mind when June comes round.

>11 fuzzi: I have not heard that is years. Thanks.
>16 LadyoftheLodge: My last crusie was in February and we have cancelled our cruise in August.

>20 mnleona: Our last cruise was a Christmas and New Year's cruise 2019-2020. We had a cruise scheduled for June and it was cancelled.

I've got some nonfiction. My library doesn't have the ebooks, but depending on how long I'll be able to access the books on openlibrary, these are some options for me:

Fire in the Turtle House / Osha Gray Davidson
Blue Meridian / Peter Matthiessen
Swimming to Antarctica / Lynne Cox

>20 mnleona:, >21 LadyoftheLodge: It's fortunate that you weren't cruising when the pandemic started. Imagine being incarcerated on a ship off the coast of a foreign country, forbidden to disembark, while Coronavirus spread amongst the passengers and crew.

>23 pamelad: You are so right. Out temperatures were scanned as we got on the ship. It was the first week of February. My daughter said she saw one person with a mask but looked like she always wore it.

Today I downloaded for free on Amazon Save the Ocean by Bethany Stahl. It is a kid's book.

>23 pamelad: >24 mnleona: We thanked our lucky stars that we were not on the cruise ship then. However, in February we were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras! Luckily we tend to keep to ourselves and did not roam out with the crowds on Bourbon Street. Same goes for our cruises--we are the original "social distancing" couple. Not that we are unfriendly, but we just prefer our own company.

Good one, it is the one thing I miss about my current location - lack of access to the sea. Grew up on the coast and there's something about the sea that a lake or other body of water doesn't have.

I live next to a lake and so being at home for the past months have not been too hard for me.
On cruises I will just sit and look at the water.

I live on a bayou so have a great view and lots of critters to look at.

Two books I recommend to y'all, one of which has a slighter connection to the topic than the other:

* One of my FAVORITE short story collections is Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett. (This is the slight one: the collection is stories where science and history intersect. The same author wrote Voyage of the Narwhal, which I haven't read but which is closer to the cat.)

* Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder I LOVED LOVED LOVED. Public radio did the book for chapter-a-day, and I was vicious to anyone wanting to talk to me while it was on the airwaves. I bought every book I could associated with the topic: the SS Central America was hit by 2 hurricanes and sank in 1857. The story alternates between the tragedy and modern day treasure hunting for it. A monument to the captain of the ship stands at Annapolis.

I also recommend The Winter Sea and Sea of Poppies. Susanna Kearsley is an autobuy for me.

>31 Jackie_K: Voyage of the Narwhal is a fantastic book, but it's very very bleak! About polar exploration in the 19th century.

I think I'm going to pull Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life from the December NonFiction CAT and read it for this CAT. I've actually been waiting for an excuse to read it sooner than December.

I have a recommendation! I just finished reading Atlantic Fury by Hammond Innes after the author was recommended to me. It was an engaging read, can't-put-it-down story that has a good portion of the book take place on the sea.

I just realized that the book I have already read the book I picked for this earlier this year. Duh! SO I'll have to check and see what I can find to take it's place.

>33 fuzzi: Oh good, that one is on my shelf! Glad to hear you liked it :)

Tentative list for June:

Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O'Dell

Gray Seas Under by Farley Mowat

Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

I picked this one up from the library yesterday, a children's book set by the sea, The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll.
This month I read the fantasy Deeplight by Frances Hardinge, which is set on a group of islands and involves sea monsters.

I'm going to read Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

>38 SilverWolf28: Oh, I really liked that one when I read it a few years back! I hope you enjoy it, too!

I really liked it when I read it several years ago.

Postponing Manon of the Springs because I'd rather not read anything too tragic at the moment. Have started Crimson Lake, an Australian crime novel by Candice Fox instead.

I finished reading Cottage by the Sea by Debbie Macomber this evening.

I liked Crimson Lake, which was set near Cairns, in Australia's tropical north.

My unofficial second choice for this challenge will be The Captain, by Jan de Hartog.

I have lots that would fit in this challenge but I plan to read a recent acquisition The last voyage of the Karluk by Robert A. Bartlett

I read and completely enjoyed The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.

I have completed my read of The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, I loved the history of the book, but wasn't quite as taken by the romance.

I completed Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta by Lisa Wheeler.

>46 LittleTaiko: Wow, you've finished already! I just started The Glass Ocean, but so far I'm liking it!

I'm planning on reading Deep Rivers by Jose Maria Arguedas.

For this challenge, I will be reading The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

Fire in the Turtle House / Osha Gray Davidson
4 stars

Beginning in the late 1970s, green sea turtles were appearing in very high numbers with tumors on them. Turtles in Hawaii, Florida and the Caribbean, independently. There weren’t many, but there were a few, who wanted to find out what was causing this.

Sea turtles (or any turtles) are one animal I’ve not read much about. Although, this was more about digging to find what was causing the tumors. (I’ll give you two (broad) guesses and the first one doesn’t count.) This book was published in 2001; I can’t imagine things have gotten better in the meantime. This has been on my tbr for ages – I have no idea why it took me so long to read it.

I have finished Der Nordseespuk, which is set in the small town of Husum on the North Sea and features the German poet Theodor Storm who earned his living as a lawyer in 1843. Very atmospheric descriptions of the sea and the landscape.

I've just started A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor, which is set in a sleepy fishing village on the sea in post-WWII England. So far, so good--just have to keep the characters straight.

I finished The Glass Ocean and really enjoyed it! Intrigue and romance aboard the Lusitania...what's not to like?

>55 christina_reads: Drowning? Sorry, I couldn't resist! :)

>56 clue: Haha, well, yes. The chapters that dealt with the ship sinking were quite stressful to read, but overall I found the book uplifting.

I've finished The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard. Ok, but could have been shorter.

I read Trafalgar: the Nelson touch by David Howarth 4.5★

A thrilling, action-packed account of the battle of Trafalgar that is a real page-turner. What I find astonishing is the idea of those sailing ships in battle, which is described well. Howarth relates the story without getting too deep into the politics of the era but obligingly includes details of Nelson's relationship with Lady Emma Hamilton and their daughter. Even though the battle was won, Nelson's death devastated the navy and that section was very moving to read. Highly recommended especially if a descriptive and succinct book is required.

My son, feeling sorry for me during COVID19 library closure, gave me all his favourite books to read. He was spot on with this one.

>59 VivienneR: that looks interesting.

The author's name is familiar, but I don't recognize any of his works.

>60 fuzzi: I really enjoyed Howarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest, if that topic interests you!

>49 christina_reads: - I started it at the end of May and just couldn't put it down!

>62 LittleTaiko: I know what you mean! I totally devoured it too.

I just bought Blue Marlin by Lee Smith from a small bookstore which is going out of business; it had been having financial difficulties, and the pandemic was the last straw. This was another book by Lee Smith which I enjoyed. It is an autobiographical novella in which Key West is featured. Lee and her parents were there, staying in the Blue Marlin, the same hotel in which the cast for the movie Operation Petticoat was living for the filming of that movie. Jenny and her mother loved to follow the lives of movie stars and were in a large crowd scene of the movie as were Lee and her parents.

COMPLETED The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham. How do you fight something that lives in the deepest parts of the ocean?

July Thread is up!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/321385

I found the sci fi novel Katya's world on my shelves and this should work for 'take to the sea'!

I'm reading Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn, which is set in Hawai'i and centers on a boy rescued from drowning by sharks.

>60 fuzzi: & >61 christina_reads: My son has more of Howarth's books and they all look good. I'll have to borrow more sometime.

Meanwhile, I found another winner for this category: The last voyage of the Karluk by Robert Bartlett 4.5★

A great Arctic survival story about a 1913 expedition when the Karluk was crushed by ice and sank. All aboard had to set out on foot across the ice to Siberia.

I just finished Atlantic Britain by Adam Nicolson.

Just finished The Starless Sea.
“Far beneath the surface of the earth, hidden from the sun and the moon, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. Stories written in books and sealed in jars and painted on walls. Odes inscribed onto skin and pressed into rose petals. Tales laid in tiles upon the floors, bits of plot worn away by passing feet. Legends carved in crystal and hung from chandeliers. Stories catalogued and cared for and revered. Old stories preserved while new stories spring up around them.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

Finished Captain Grey by Avi. YA pirate adventure.

I read The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter. Story of young woman who leaves the hospital where she had spent the past two years for mental illness to go to college. She stops by the ocean and goes for a swim and later she learns to surf. The ocean is a big part of her life. So it fits this CAT.

I read A High Wind in Jamaica which tells the story of a group of children captured by pirates in the late 1800s as they were sailing from Jamaica to England. Most of the book takes place aboard ship.

To Kill a Kingdom / Alexandra Christo
4 stars

Elian is a prince and a pirate. He is not interested in taking over his father’s kingdom, and much prefers the pirate life. Mostly, he hunts sirens. Lira is a siren and the princess of the ocean, and will one day rule the sea (if her mother, the Sea Queen, doesn’t manage to find a way out of Lira doing it – this is putting it mildly). When Lira is punished so that she is turned human and left in the water to die, Elian’s ship comes along and rescues her, not knowing what she really is.

I really enjoyed this. It’s a darker twist on The Little Mermaid. I also enjoyed the banter between the secondary characters (the crew on Elian’s ship).

Reading Swept Away: A Time Travel Romance by Kamery Solomon.

I read and enjoyed Streams to the River, River to the Sea, a bio fiction of Sacagawea, based upon the Lewis and Clark journals.

I read The SHell collector which had 2 short stories set by the sea.

I also read Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman, which means I read three books for this challenge, something I don't very often do. The others are Cottage by the Sea by Debbie Macomber and Blue Marlin by Lee Smith.

Just reviewed Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague.

It's the last day of June, so don't forget to post about your books for this month's RandomCAT and add them to the wiki!