Here are 36 books that Starfish fans have personally recommended if you like
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I have always been obsessed with the idea of other worlds I can’t sense but can somehow contrive to glimpse, whether with a magic amulet or some fabulous technology. As a kid growing up in the woods and devouring fantasy novels and biology texts alike, I couldn’t decide between science or writing as a way of exploring the unknown, and ultimately, I ended up doing both: becoming a writer specializing in marine and coastal environments, one of the many places in our world where the deeper we look at the senses of the creatures living there, the more we realize just how limited our own perceptions are.
I will always find an excuse to read a classic literary tome about an unreliable narrator by the British seashore, partly because I know I’m in for a gut-punch of a landscape description. Even better when it’s garnished with a few—not too many, just enough—of those ultra-evocative lines that stop you in your tracks and make you go, “That’s exactly what that’s like!” But that’s not even the best part of this five-course meal of a book.
The story becomes increasingly surreal and disturbing. At each stage, Murdoch’s descriptions of the ocean landscape shift and change with the narrative, so the water increasingly looms in the background like a living character, apparently impersonal and even more deliciously horrible for it.
Winner of the prestigious Booker Prize-a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a playwright as he composes his memoirs
Charles Arrowby, leading light of England's theatrical set, retires from glittering London to an isolated home by the sea. He plans to write a memoir about his great love affair with Clement Makin, his mentor, both professionally and personally, and amuse himself with Lizzie, an actress he has strung along for many years. None of his plans work out, and his memoir evolves into a riveting chronicle of the strange events and unexpected visitors-some real, some spectral-that disrupt his world…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
I have always been obsessed with the idea of other worlds I can’t sense but can somehow contrive to glimpse, whether with a magic amulet or some fabulous technology. As a kid growing up in the woods and devouring fantasy novels and biology texts alike, I couldn’t decide between science or writing as a way of exploring the unknown, and ultimately, I ended up doing both: becoming a writer specializing in marine and coastal environments, one of the many places in our world where the deeper we look at the senses of the creatures living there, the more we realize just how limited our own perceptions are.
I blame a 90’s childhood spent devouring Bruce Coville and O.R. Melling, but I am obsessed with stories where our hero tumbles, slides, or wanders into another world. That’s why, even as an adult, I drink up the scene(s) in a speculative book where I get that first delicious glimmer of an uncanny separate world beneath “normal” life.
When it’s done well, it’s everything, and Sasha’s way-too-early morning swims in Vita Nostra evoke that feeling pitch-perfectly. I love how the authors describe the visceral discomfort of cold water, I love the industrial incongruity of the buoy she swims to, and mostly I love how they use the disorienting sensation of sneaking out to swim in wild and dangerous waters, to set the mood for the weirdness to come.
This made me feel like I was watching Sailor Moon and reading The Dark Tower again for the first time.
The definitive English language translation of the internationally bestselling Russian novel - a brilliant dark fantasy combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.
'A book that has the potential to become a modern classic.' - Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians
Our life is brief . . .
Sasha Samokhina has just met Farit Kozhenikov and her life will never be the same again.
Whilst on holiday, Sasha is asked by the mysterious Farit to undertake a strange task for him. Reluctantly, she obliges, and is rewarded with…
I have always been obsessed with the idea of other worlds I can’t sense but can somehow contrive to glimpse, whether with a magic amulet or some fabulous technology. As a kid growing up in the woods and devouring fantasy novels and biology texts alike, I couldn’t decide between science or writing as a way of exploring the unknown, and ultimately, I ended up doing both: becoming a writer specializing in marine and coastal environments, one of the many places in our world where the deeper we look at the senses of the creatures living there, the more we realize just how limited our own perceptions are.
It has been years, and I cannot stop thinking about the visual this book left me with: a young woman sleeping in a makeshift plastic bubble under the sea's surface, tethered to a walkway across the Indian Ocean. I love when a speculative fiction book dives deep into exactly how a futuristic technology looks, feels, smells, integrates into life, and doesn’t just fill a plot point—which is probably why I was left with such a vivid image of this tent-bubble-habitat-material.
I am also an avid camper and know what it’s like to trust techy material in inhospitable circumstances. Take that feeling of trying to sleep while rain pours on a tent you hope is as waterproof as advertised. Now multiply it by 100 and add a violently undulating walkway across the Indian Ocean, and you get why I love this book.
One day Meena gets out of bed covered in blood, with mysterious snakebites on her chest. Her worst fears have been realised: someone is after her and she must flee India at once. As she plots her escape, she learns of The Trail, an energy-harvesting bridge spanning the Arabian Sea that has become a refuge for itinerant vagabonds and loners on the run. This is her salvation.
Slipping out in the cover of night, with a knapsack full of supplies including a pozit GPS system, a scroll reader, and a sealable waterproof pod, Meena sets off for Ethiopia, the place…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I have always been obsessed with the idea of other worlds I can’t sense but can somehow contrive to glimpse, whether with a magic amulet or some fabulous technology. As a kid growing up in the woods and devouring fantasy novels and biology texts alike, I couldn’t decide between science or writing as a way of exploring the unknown, and ultimately, I ended up doing both: becoming a writer specializing in marine and coastal environments, one of the many places in our world where the deeper we look at the senses of the creatures living there, the more we realize just how limited our own perceptions are.
This book is a summer creamsicle of a book, melting down your fist as you devour it. It’s the sun beating down in parking lots as you run toward the water, sand crunching under your flip-flops. If you took Joan Didion’s descriptions of SoCal and crossed them with Anne-Marie MacDonald’s deft descriptions of mother/daughter pathos, then sprinkled it with 70’s childhood nostalgia, you’d get this daydream of a book.
Oh, yeah, and it’s also about a deadbeat parent who may or may not be an ocean deity. I accidentally grabbed this off the library shelf one day and loved it so much that I bought it. I take every opportunity to recommend it. It’s a beach read in the best, literal sense of the term.
“Beautifully evokes scenes of two girls adrift in the . . . bohemian beach culture . . . a breathtaking, fiercely feminine take on American magical realism.” —Interview Magazine
Set in Long Beach, California, beginning in the 1970s, The Salt God’s Daughter follows Ruthie and her older sister Dolly as they struggle for survival in a place governed by an enchanted ocean and exotic folklore. Guided by a mother ruled by magical, elaborately-told stories of the full moons, which she draws from The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the two girls are often homeless, often on their own, fiercely protective of each…
I love wild empty beaches, traveling to unusual places, swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving. These interests combined one year when my family spent Christmas at a remote dive resort in Papua New Guinea. I was fascinated by the colourful reef creatures, nudibranchs, coral, anemones, reef sharks, and octopuses. Then I heard about the ancient practice of shark calling…I write across genres and researched anthropomorphism in children’s literature for my PhD, with The Shark Caller and The Dog with Seven Names being my linked creative works. I live near the ocean in southwestern Australia, am a bookworm, and a full-time author of 25 titles (and counting).
I’m an ocean swimmer and snorkeler, and this book took me to depths and places beyond my previous experience. The free-diving aspect is inspirational. Based on the award-winning movie, My Octopus Teacher, Ross and Craig’s journey has encouraged me to look at octopus and other wildlife differently.
It’s an extraordinarily moving story, both beautiful and sad. I hope the images and content will inspire people to protect our oceans.
From the creators of the Academy Award-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher, an immersive journey into the underwater world that inspired it—and holds transformative lessons for us all
Craig Foster and Ross Frylinck regularly dive together in the awe-inspiring kelp forests off South Africa, without wetsuits or oxygen tanks. Craig had dived this way for years, including alongside the octopus that inspired My Octopus Teacher. In Ross, he found a kindred spirit, someone who also embraced the ancient methods of acclimating his body to frigid waters, but whose eyes had not yet adjusted to the transcendent wonder Craig saw each time…
Like most children, I adored baby animals from an early age. I bonded deeply with a pet kitten; I campaigned (unsuccessfully but perennially) for a puppy; I delighted in caterpillars. In college, my biology classes introduced me to a profusion of marine larval forms, and a fascination with the true diversity of animal babies fully gripped me. I eventually earned a PhD in the biology of squid babies and, shortly afterward, produced two human babies of my own. I now live with my human family, a cat, and a garden full of grubs, caterpillars, maggots, and innumerable other babies. I read and write about science and nature, especially the intersection of the weird and the adorable.
Similar to Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice, this book made me laugh and gasp at scandalous true stories of reproductive biology. What really captured my attention, though, were the unexpected ways that human actions are affecting the courtship, mating, and spawning of animals that might seem beyond our reach.
Knowing that we can unintentionally inhibit the intimate lives of other species through pollution and climate change really brings home the importance of reforming our behavior.
Forget the Kama Sutra. When it comes to inventive sex acts, just look to the sea. There we find the elaborate mating rituals of armored lobsters; giant right whales engaging in a lively threesome whilst holding their breath; full moon sex parties of groupers and daily mating blitzes by blueheaded wrasse. Deep-sea squid perform inverted 69s, while hermaphrodite sea slugs link up in giant sex loops. From doubly endowed sharks to the maze-like vaginas of some whales, Sex in the Sea is a journey unlike any other to explore the staggering ways life begets life beneath the waves. Beyond a…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I've been fascinated by the ocean and all of its inhabitants for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I discovered my dad’s SCUBA license and it blew my mind that I was related to someone who was allowed to explore the underwater world! Later, when I got to college, I took advantage of two exciting opportunities. First, I got my own scuba license. Second, I studied abroad in Belize, where I conducted manatee research by tagging, tracking, and rescuing manatees. I enjoyed the time I spent with the animals, but not the lab work. Now I express my passion for sea creatures in the books I write.
This book is full of fascinating facts about all kinds of sea creatures from those near the surface to those who live down deep in the darkness. For me, the biggest draw of this book is the illustrations. (Pun intended!) The art is so full of texture and color and every page is as gorgeous as the one that came before. This book is a feast for the eyes and the curious brain!
Why do octopuses have eight arms? Why do crabs run sideways? Are jellyfish made of jelly? Yuval Zommer's beautiful new book provides the answers to these and many more fishy questions. His wonderfully quirky illustrations show off all kinds of slippery, shimmery and surprising sea creatures, including sea turtles, whales, sharks, rays and seahorses. Chatty, funny and full of amazing facts, it will be devoured by children eager to find out about the most exciting creatures from the deep blue.
I was a children's book illustrator for years before my agent prompted me to start writing. I didn’t know the first thing about writing for children, but I really wanted to try, and with help from the SCBWI and after a lot of failed attempts, I found that early reader graphic novels most fit in with my Mad Magazine and New Yorker style of gag humor. There are so many great early reader graphic novels out there these days, and I truly feel we are in a golden age for this genre. I hope you like my choices and find many more on your own!
I think this book is a genius. It’s a great example of a character-driven early reader graphic novel that brilliantly keeps it simple while fully exploring the friendship between a narwhal whale and a jellyfish.
The hilarious dialogue and simple but expressive illustrations make this one of my favorites, and its appeal to all kinds of readers is the reason this is a bestseller.
5
authors picked
Narwhal
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
6,
7,
8, and
9.
What is this book about?
Narwhal is a happy-go-lucky narwhal. Jelly is a no-nonsense jellyfish. The two might not have a lot in common, but they do they love waffles, parties and adventures. Join Narwhal and Jelly as they discover the whole wide ocean together. A wonderfully silly early graphic novel series featuring three stories. In the first, Jelly learns that Narwhal is a really good friend. Then Narwhal and Jelly form their own pod of awesomeness with their ocean friends. And finally, Narwhal and Jelly read the best book ever -- even though it doesn't have any words...or pictures! Ben Clanton showcases the joys…
I was born in Singapore to a traditional Chinese medicine trade family in the early 80s, during a period when Singapore was still not a rich country nor a trading hub. As I became an adult, I had experience in the left wing of NGOs and charities and also the right wing in the government sector on cold strict laws controlling wildlife, wildlife management, the Ministry of Education in illustrating for educational materials, etc. I faced radical left environmental extremism before and also extreme right capitalists. This gives me a more well-balanced way of absorbing both left and right, to write my book in a more down-to-earth, neutral tone.
This is a beautifully laid-out big book full of realistically painted marine creatures. In addition, the illustrations are similar to the author's (Van’s) style. This gave the author a beautiful blend of realistic paintings and shorter, simpler writing. This led to Van’s book layout on his text and pictures having a great influence on his book.
The book's writing style is short, simple, yet informative.
Water World is the stunning new book from Ben Rothery, author of Hidden Planet and Sensational Butterflies.
Life on Earth is shaped by water, and only survives here because of it, but our ocean ecosystems are at the epicentre of global warming. Framed by the need to protect our oceans, Water World is natural-history illustrator Ben Rothery's rich exploration of the creatures from the coastal and offshore waters of the world - from penguins, seagulls, polar bears and seahorses, to plankton, sharks and deep-sea beings.
Discover the longest migration and the loudest animal on Earth, and learn how our own…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
It was disappointing comparing the rich diversity of animals on colorful book pages to the reality of forests, where I could only see trees. But as I learned about plants and I became a plant ecologist, I realized that plants have to be extremely tough because they can’t run away from dangers or animals who want to eat them. I studied plants in coastal habitats in California, Central America and Florida, and in forests in the Midwest. I love seeing how they change throughout the season and how they interact. I wish everyone would read as many books about trees as construction trucks!
I love how detailed this book is, bursting with species to learn about. Nature can be a beast. What happens when a hurricane hits and ocean animals have their home turned upside down? I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen to the animals. I love that the book shows how mangroves are trees that form a refuge in a storm.
This book is illustrated with intricate details of mangrove plants and the animals they host, making me want to grab my mask and snorkel and catch the next flight to the Caribbean to see them. Full disclosure: I studied mangroves for over 10 years, so I am biased, but they are really awesome trees.
A look into a unique ecosystem, one that is endangered in many places
A seed is jostled from a branch of a mangrove tree and floats to a lagoon in the Caribbean Sea. It takes root, sprouts leaves, and slowly begins to grow. Over many years, the mangrove will provide a home and nourishment for numerous creatures of land and sea. Among its roots come to live fiddler crabs and shrimp; in its branches dwell lizards and hummingbirds. Soon the tree is dropping seeds of its own, and other mangroves are growing, creating a tangle whose benefits extend even to…
