What a great way to start the summer and especially fitting whether we will get to the sea physically or just through books.

The books that popped into my head immediately when you talked about your island visit are those by Elisabeth Ogilvie. The Bennet’s Island Series alone has 9 titles, beginning with High Tide at Noon. Ogilvie, born in Boston is 1917 (died 2006) was a prolific writer of many books set on the Maine Coast. Some of her writings are light love stories concerning women seeking love; others a bit more like romantic suspense or gothics, but all are atmospheric.

Another author that comes to mind is Anne River Siddons, southern writer with many books taking place in Georgia or the Carolinas. A departure for her was Off Season, which brings her character, 53 year old Lily McCall to Edgewater, a coastal town in Maine. This is no summer vacation for Lily but a redemtive journey to find meaning after the death of her husband. Lilay comes to Maine to spread the ashes of her dear, late husband Cam in the place where they met and fell in love. Filled with memories, revelations and soul searching, this is more psychological fiction than love story.

Michael menitons Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. This is a book I recommend often. In addition to Michael’s fine review I’d like to mention two things that struck me about this story. The first is that I came away with a whole different picture of these divers, men who I initially pictured as beer swigging adventure seekers and ended up granting them the highest regard in the risks and personal toll they experienced in order tosolve the mystery of just what sub they found. The second is in regards to thhe respect these divers showed for the diseased crew of the German U-boat. I will never forget their quest to let the dead lie in respect but to identify their remains to bring closure to their families in Germany. This is one of my all-time favorite books.

If the movie Jaws make your spine tingle, you might like Close to Shore: the terrifying shark attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo. It’s the true story of a rogue Great White shark attacking swimmers along the New Jersy resort shore. These were the first recorded attacks in US history and if ever there was a book to keep you out of the water, this is it!

Michael, did you ever read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer? By chance, I happened to pick up Perfume and The Bells at the library at the same time, and what The Bells does for describing sound, Perfume does for describing smell. Perfume is a decidedly darker book, but given how much you like The Bells, you might like (or at least appreciate) Perfume.

The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker fits perfectly with your surf & turf theme. I loved this book. Perfectly paced overlapping stories of four people living on a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina – one white woman in the 1800′s (interesting to compare with Caleb’s Crossing two hundred years earlier on a different island); two white women and a black man in the 1970′s. The chapters are told from perspectives and with voices of different people. I got very involved with the characters, who shared their internal and external lives. Lyrically written. A gem.

As an avid scuba diver and reader of all things ocean (shipwrecks, sailing adventures, piracy, etc.) I really enjoyed this show.
Shadow Divers is a great recommendation and my favorite book on diving. Two other excellent choices are Diving Into Darkness by Phillip Finch and Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria by Kevin F. McMurray.
Another good ocean adventure is Across the Savage Sea by Maud Fontenoy and it’s about a woman who attempts to row from Canada to France across the Atlantic.

In response to Bill…

I also found Deep Descent a compelling read. It is hard to say I loved this book when there are such tragic results.

When visiting Sequoia National Park my husband and I did one of those wild cave crawls. The ranger that led the tour suggested Nevada Barr’s Blind Descent. It was my first venture in reading the Anna Pigeon series which take place in National Parks. This one takes place in New Mexico, Lechuguilla Cavern. If I had read this first, I’d never have done the crawl! I absolutely loved the story and got hooked on the series.

Tight spaces such as those in the cave crawls make me squeamish but add water to the mix and I’m even more freaked out. This is one reason I only books like Blind descent : the quest to discover the deepest place on Earth / James M. Tabor. Another adventuresome read.

I’ve read Blind Descent (Tabor) and recently watched the movie Sanctum but I’ve never had any desire to do any cave diving (or crawling). Caves freak me out a bit too.

Thank you for recommending The Bells. I just finished and thought it was great! I read Perfume by Patrick Susskind many years ago (mentioned here in another post) and I agree wholeheartedly with the poster- The Bells is to sound what Perfume is to smell!

[...] BOTNS #134: Surf and Turf [...]

I’m late, as usual, but I’ve got a few more surf and turf books:
Devil’s Teeth and The Wave, both by Susan Casey – sharks and big surf, both compelling reads
Highest Tide by Jim Lynch — the greatest cover, and a terrific story of a 13 year old boy and his summer in the Puget Sound intertidal zone
One Morning in Maine by Robert McClusky for the younger set