Books like The Pirates of Penzance — picked by fans

Hold on! Anton Chekhov? Not that giant of Russian literature who gave us some of the most poignant, brooding, melancholy views of family life in dramatic works like The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard? Probably the biggest surprise on this list, Anton Chekhov wrote comedy for years and as a young adult supported his family by writing humorous sketches about Russian life for the magazine Oskolki. While most famous for his plays, Chekhov was an incredibly gifted short story and humor writer. In one of his tightest yarns, “An Avenger,” confused young Fyodor Sigaev goes shopping for an appropriate revolver to mete out justice after he discovers his spouse cheating on him. But once at the shop, the sheer number of firearm choices he’s presented with quickly overwhelm him. 

“. . . I would advise you, M'sieur, to take this superb revolver, the Smith and Wesson pattern,… show more.

Growing up, I only read humour.

I just love to laugh and when a book has you making the pictures in mind for yourself and laughing out loud, there really is nothing better. And Three Men in a Boat sends me directly to the floor every time I read it, and I will never stop reading it as long as I live.

It is rightly a classic and still in the shops nearly 140 years later. My book is a homage to Three Men in a Boat. I followed the style and form, and acknowledge Jerome K Jerome in my front-matter.

My book is really 15 Men in a Boat, and if it is even 10% as good as Three, I will rightly be very proud of myself (if not my mathematics).

Mark Twain is my writing idol. Before Roughing it, I’d never read a book written during the Civil War era which didn’t take sides and grind axes. From it, I learned detachment, that personal adventures can live side-by-side with even the most earth-shattering events. And that hilarious stories like “Bemis and the Buffalo” are the best antidote for the chaos and pain of war.

I love this book, which is also a play, for its witty banter and mistaken identities. Oscar Wilde is a master of acerbic wit and putting his characters in situations that fully shine the light on their humanity and also their faults and foibles.

I read this book with a smile pasted across my face from the first to the last page.

MacLeod gives us one of the most delightful and intriguing couples with art investigators Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn. Although the plots are fun, with a kind of loopy charm, the real joy is the delightful characters, mostly from the widespread and eccentric Kelling clan. The Kellings are in fine form backstage of a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. Every character here is indelible.

I lived in Australia for several years and loved visiting historic buildings with their wrap-around verandas, pressed-tin high ceilings, and old-world grandeur. Greenwood’s books, set in 1920s Melbourne, remind me of those buildings. Her heroine, investigator Phryne Fisher, epitomizes 1920s glamour.

She’s wealthy, educated, sexy, and self-assured, and conducts her investigations in a dazzling array of sumptuous outfits. But what I like most about Phryne is her ability to talk to anyone, whether that’s the grandest society hostess or the roughest docker.

In this book, she’s investigating a series of murders in a theatre and also finds herself drawn to Melbourne’s Chinese community. She moves easily between worlds, often kind, always shrewd, never flinching.

I’m surprised I don’t see Dark Shores talked about more often, because this is one of my favorite reads, especially when it comes to seafaring adventures.

Most of the time the pirates in stories are men, but not in this book. This time it’s the female main character who takes up that role, although I confess, the term ‘pirate’ is loosely based here.

She doesn’t go around commandeering ships and getting into sword fights, but she does live on the high seas and is responsible for finding lost relics (even if it means stealing them back.)

On top of that, the story has a world is based on Ancient Rome, has unique magic including teleportation crystals, has a morally grey broody love interest, and a beautiful written slow burn enemies to lovers romance. 

I first read Rediker’s work as a graduate student, and from the first pages, I was “hooked.”

Want to understand what made pirates tick? In this book, pirates are recast not as violent, unthinking brutes but as ordinary, sea-going laboring men driven to lawlessness by the brutal demands of expanding Atlantic trade.

I especially appreciated Rediker’s situating pirate behavior and customs within the broader world of maritime life. He argues that these outlawed men created a floating society that was then the most egalitarian and democratic in the Western world.

This book took more of an archeological approach to pirate life by describing and showing objects that they used during daily life.

I found this book helpful while I was writing about everyday duties in my novels. I also had fun comparing portraits of pirates who lived with images of fictitious pirates.

It was interesting to compare what the portraits revealed about what real pirates wanted us to think of them and what the creators of fictitious pirates wanted us to believe.

Set during the War of 1812 this is a great pirate romance. It tells the story of innocent, sheltered Merry Wilding, an American living in Virginia with her maiden aunt. Merry has a talent for drawing faces from memory, a talent her brother, an American spy will use to his benefit, exposing her to pirates and worse. On her way to England with her aunt, she is kidnapped. Taken to a pirate ship, Merry meets the English pirate, Devon, who remembers her from a night long ago. 

The writing is superb, the characters courageous, heartwarming, and very special; the descriptions vivid. The story is a wonder to read. You will be swept away on a pirate ship to experience adventures, battles at sea, storms, death, humor, and love.