79 Books Like The Desert and the Sea

When I was young and ambitious and dreamed about politics, when I had studied Greek philosophy and ancient history in graduate school, the life of T.E.Lawrence–Lawrence of Arabia as he became known–a young Englishman who had never been in a battle before led the Arab Revolt which helped bring an end to the First World War, made everything seem possible.

Lawrence had his secrets, but some of them he shared. Two of them seemed to my young imagination everything that was needed. Speaking like Odysseus was one of them, which meant tailoring what you say to the audience you have. The other was to make the strength of your opponent his fatal weakness.

I did not realize until much later that the most important thing I learned from T.E. Lawrence was that what is best remembered is what is written, like this book, with clarity and passion.

When I read this book as a student, I knew exactly the kind of book I would want to write if I ever got the chance—a book that would bring people of the past to life as Edmund Morris had with T.R. The author first imagined the work as a screenplay, and it shows on every page.

The chapters unfold like scenes in a great, ambitious movie. Roosevelt is set free from his cartoonish reputation and emerges as a complex, brilliant, protean figure, fascinating in each stage of his extraordinary life.

In my twenties, two friends and I climbed Mt. Hood, 11,249' in Oregon. The snow cracked loudly at night, and I worried about an avalanche. When I was in my 40s, Galon Rowell, a famous mountain photographer, and I, on an assignment from National Geographic to find the source of the Brahmaputra River, climbed from the flat terrain at 16,000' up into Mt. Khalish, 21,778.' in Tibet. We looked down at the Himalayas. K-2, at 28,251", is the second highest mountain in the world (Everest is 29,032'), on the Chinese-Pakistani border, and is considered by mountaineers to be the hardest to climb.

I loved the story, written by a fellow climber, about the boldness, tenacity, camaraderie, and competition of men, and women, pushing for weeks through rough storms to make the team that would go for the summit. What I love most is the story of Jim Wickwire approaching the… show more.

I was sitting in a cafe in Paris with a friend from Texas. I had just finished my time in the Army and was studying on the GI Bill. My friend was reading a book. I asked what it was about. He looked at the cover. I would like it, he said and gave it to me. I couldn't put the book down.

He dedicated the book to Mrs. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, I learned that John Kennedy toasted him at a White House dinner in his honor as "the man we all wanted to be," For years I too wanted to be like him. As a young man, he went to French Indochina and lived in China, struggling then.

He wrote Man's Fate, his first novel, which made him famous. He was a pilot in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. He made a documentary about the… show more.

Want to laugh out loud? Then read The Princess Bride. I’m sure you’ve seen the classic movie version, but you owe it to yourself to go back to the source material by William Goldman. I never knew a book could be so funny!

The narrative stretches the boundaries of storytelling, taking the reader down a path that is touching, scary, and hilarious in turns. I loved the absurdist characters. I loved even more Goldman’s clear, comic voice throughout.

I instantly dug the vibe of this book. Pacific Ocean, pirates, kidnappings, mythical South Asian relics, historical fantasy. Give me it!

This book blew me away like a sea squall, so much so that a year after I finished reading it, I still use nautical metaphors to make my point. Not to mention how much I love older, middle-aged protagonists. Weary mothers and retired cartographers with families to feed and perilous old habits, setting sail on an adventure? Aye, aye, Captain!

From the moment I read the first page, I knew I would love this book. Its focus on adventure, romance, and whimsy captivated me, all with a cast of queer characters. While it was undeniably queer, that was never the focus of the conflict and was normalized in this fun fantasy world.

The chemistry between the love interests was sweet and joyful, and the prose was a pleasure to read, filled with humor and quirkiness but also true emotion—a great fantasy romance and adventure filled with queer joy.

Democratically elected captains overseeing multi-ethnic crews in floating meritocracies conducting rogue assaults against an autocratic, kleptocratic, slaveholding world is actually a quite appealing concept.

Yet, this both simplifies and overlooks the often savage and sadistic nature of the violence contained within the so-called Golden Age of Piracy (1650s to 1730s). Johnson deconstructs these complexities through a deep, dive into Henry Every, the 17th Century’s most notorious pirate and his vicious attack on an Indian treasure ship.

His crew was rewarded in rape, murder, mayhem, and financial riches beyond their wildest dreams. I love that the book strips away all our preconception of piracy, both positive and negative, forcing us to consider not just the darker forces of human nature – but also of the social and economic systems that prompted them and which continue to thrive today. 

This is another great picture book about the death of a non-dog/cat pet––in this Mem Fox classic, the pirate Tough Boris loses his dear pet parrot.

This book is especially wonderful though because it shows how even the toughest of tough guys––and Tough Boris is a tough pirate––can absolutely fall to pieces when a pet dies. It’s okay to cry about an animal dying––even if you are a pirate!

The really beautiful thing about this story though is seeing how Tough Boris copes with the loss through making friends with a stowaway boy on his ship, because if I’ve learned one thing from my pets dying, it’s that you need the support and love of other people to help you through the loss.

All those American captives in North Africa prompted the United States’ first overseas wars:  The First and Second Barbary Wars. In turn, they led to still more captivity, not to mention “the shores of Tripoli”  part of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Lambert’s is the definitive account of these events, and it is short and sweet, even if it places them in the “Atlantic world” rather than the Mediterranean world.