I recommend the sequel to Pirsig’s more famous bestseller because I’ve never owned a motorcycle (and I find bicycle maintenance hard enough), but now I own a sailboat—where his second story is set—so when he describes hearing people walking on the cabin roof, or checking the knots on the mooring ropes, I know exactly what he means because I’ve experienced this. Some of his fans felt this sequel was a betrayal of the magical mysticism of undefined Quality he described in the first book. For me, although problematic, it was a necessary clarification and one I not only used for my academic work on a range of controversies from abortion to transgender but also in my life-coaching practice: to inspire holistic transformation on all levels of wellbeing. 

Bill Tilman was a war hero and an accomplished Himalayan climber – reaching 27,000 feet on Everest without oxygen in 1938 – who turned in later life to sailing as a means of accessing obscure mountain ranges. In 1956 he sailed his Bristol Channel pilot cutter (Mischief) from England to the Chilean channels and made the first successful crossing of the Patagonian ice cap. Tilman was likely not easy to get on with – he tolerates no women on board, and on this particular cruise we never learn the first name of his deputy – but his writing is erudite and amusingly self-deprecating. This narrative concludes with the dry comment: “Ships are all right – it's the men in them.” Tilman sailed to the very end. He disappeared at sea in 1977, in his eightieth year, en route to climb a remote island peak in Antarctica. Would that… show more.

Captain Liz Clark is who I would have wanted to be when I grew up, had I found her story in my teens.

There were almost no strong female role models that I could point to as a girl who inspired me, and illuminated a path of an adventurous woman. Captain Liz Clark built her own sailboat and decided to take on the entire Pacific Ocean on her adventures to find love, connection, and a relationship to nature and her own pure heart.

I clutched this book to my heart and took it with me everywhere for a month. Then I wrote Captain Liz to option it, so we can make a TV show about her life, because we need her story on screen!

When I cruised the Bahamas in 1968/69, there was no other book of its kind available. At the time, there was no such thing as GPS, digital, computers and all the other navigational aids to help small boaters today. It was foolhardy to cruise the Bahamas at night and even during the day without local knowledge.

This book provided much-needed navigational directions, headings, and descriptive aids for entrances through coral reefs and harbors, the location of navigational aids, and basic information about each major island.

All The Stars & Teeth is everything I want in a seafaring adventure, with pirates, mermaids, sea monsters, and a world with seven unique types of magic – including blood magic.

Plus, a feisty and flawed female main character who will stop at nothing to save her kingdom. The world is lush and vibrant, the found family vibes give you all the feels, and the slow burn enemies to lovers is full of banter and tension.

Plus, it’s a duology so when you’re sad the book has ended, have no fear because the next one will be waiting for you! 

The first time I read this book I was sailing through the Frisian Islands, where it takes place—though unlike its two main characters, I didn’t have to worry about German patrols or being arrested as a spy. A classic thriller, the remote and shifting islands of the area help to drive the plot. It could, quite simply, take place nowhere else. Great sailing scenes as well!

If The Twilight Zone Companion was my original bible, then the Deep Space Nine Companion was its extensively expanded new testament. The alpha and omega for what a book about the making of a television show could be, this massive compendium was made possible by the unparalleled access the authors had to everyone as the show was in production. This book blew my mind with all the details it included and all of the aspects examined. Simply a treasure for all Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans. That said, this is an authorized book, meaning nothing was published without the studio’s oversight, which differentiates it from the earlier books on this list. Nonetheless, it’s the one I strove to match when I compiled my own study on the making of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda entitled Sailing the Slipstream (a book I plan to re-format and re-release in an anniversary edition). 

Not one of Jack Higgins’ better-known novels, I think this is something of a hidden gem.

The gripping wartime thriller, set in 1944, follows the perilous voyage of the Deutschland, a German sailing vessel attempting to return home from Brazil with twenty-two crew members and five nuns aboard. As the ship battles treacherous seas and evades Allied forces, various characters – American, British, and German – are drawn into a dramatic convergence off the Scottish coast. 

Higgins masterfully interweaves their stories, highlighting the futility of war when faced with nature’s raw power. With its sweeping narrative and emotional depth, the novel explores courage, humanity, and survival against overwhelming odds. 

I found this book a very exciting read about sailing alone on the ocean with little or no knowledge about sailing or the ocean. All problems he encountered were of his own making, and survival was largely due to good luck rather than good management.

Little did I realize he painted a more romanticized version of his misadventures.

I loved this book because it is such an authentic, joyful picture of childhood play!

It's imaginative, funny, and relatable--I mean, as a kid who wasn't pretending at some point that they were on a boat while a storm was coming! It feels very real-life to me, and I love the immersive feel of the illustrations.