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Recommendations based on H. M. S. Surpriseby Patrick O'Brian
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The Mauritius Command
by Patrick O'Brian
Captain Jack Aubrey leads the Royal Navy in a battle against the French in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars.
Jack Aubrey and Sophia Williams are married and the parents of twin girls. They live at Ashgrove Cottage on his half-pay, not enough to support fellow navy men in the household. Sophia's mother has ... (Wikipedia)
The Fortune of War
by Patrick O'Brian
During the War of 1812, Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin are captured and imprisoned in America. They must escape and make their way back to England.
HMS Leopard sails from Desolation Island to Port Jackson where she drops off her few prisoners. Captain Bligh is already handled, so she proceeds to the Dutch East Indies station and Admiral Drury at ... (Wikipedia)
Desolation Island
by Patrick O'Brian
Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin are stranded on a remote island, facing harsh conditions and a dangerous enemy.
Jack Aubrey, having recovered financially in, The Mauritius Command, , expands his house, pays off his mother-in-law's debts, and his wife is no longer pinching pennies. His household staffed with ... (Wikipedia)
The Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
A gripping story of the Battle of Gettysburg, told through the eyes of the soldiers on both sides.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , one of the major characters, remembers reciting to his father a speech from, Hamlet, : "What a piece of work is man...in action how like an angel!" Sgt. Buster Kilrain ... (Wikipedia)
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
A Confederate soldier's homecoming journey, filled with danger and adventure.
The novel opens in a Confederate military hospital near Raleigh, North Carolina , where Inman is recovering from battle wounds during the American Civil War . The soldier is tired of fighting for a ... (Wikipedia)
Flashman
by George MacDonald Fraser
A cowardly British soldier's misadventures as he navigates the volatile world of 19th century imperial politics.
Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners ... (Goodreads)
Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry
Epic tale of two former Texas Rangers on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.
It is the late 1870s. , Captain Woodrow F. Call and Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae, two famous retired Texas Rangers , run the Hat Creek Cattle Company and Livery Emporium in the small Texas border ... (Wikipedia)
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)
Beat to Quarters
by C.S. Forester
Naval officer's daring mission to track down a powerful enemy warship.
In June 1808, Hornblower is in command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Lydia , with orders to sail to the Pacific coast of Nicaragua (near modern Choluteca, Choluteca ) and supply a local landowner, Don ... (Wikipedia)
The Hunt for Red October
by Tom Clancy
A thrilling adventure of a submarine captain's race against the clock in a thrilling game of cat and mouse.
During the Cold War ,(the story must be set in 1982, according to the days assigned to the dates in the novel, e.g. Dec. 17 was a Friday only in 1982,1976 and 1971 ) Marko Ramius, a Soviet Navy ... (Wikipedia)
The Sea Wolf
by Jack London
A man's fight against the savage and untamed elements of nature on a brutal ship voyage.
The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by Jack London about a literary critic Humphrey van Weyden.The story starts with him aboard a San Francisco ferry, called Martinez, which collides ... (Goodreads)
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
Exploration of the timeless struggle between good and evil, set against a backdrop of a family saga.
In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas ... (Goodreads)
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
by Cormac McCarthy
A violent and bloody western epic, exploring the depths of human depravity.
An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." ... (Barnes & Noble)
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
by C.S. Forester
Follow the adventures of Horatio Hornblower, a young midshipman in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
This novel is episodic, with named chapters (that begin with Hornblower) that often focus on a self-contained incident. In this story, a gawky and seasick Hornblower comes aboard his first ship. He ... (Wikipedia)
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
Epic tale of war, peace, and love, focusing on the lives of five aristocratic families.
The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg , at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer—the maid of honour and confidante to the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna . Many of the main characters ... (Wikipedia)
Sometimes a Great Notion
by Ken Kesey
A powerful story of a family's struggle against the odds and the forces of change.
The story centers on the Stamper family, a hard-headed logging clan in the coastal town of Wakonda, on the Oregon coast, in the early 1960s. The union loggers in Wakonda go on strike in demand of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami
A surreal journey of self-discovery, exploring the inner and outer worlds.
The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key and unemployed lawyer's assistant, being tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests ... (Wikipedia)
Lucky Jim
by Kingsley Amis
A story of a young lecturer struggling to make it in academia, while learning the importance of self-discovery.
Jim Dixon is a lecturer in medieval history at a red brick university in the English Midlands . He has made an unsure start and, towards the end of the academic year, is concerned about losing his ... (Wikipedia)
Patriot Games
by Tom Clancy
A former CIA analyst must protect his family from domestic terrorists, while thwarting a major international conspiracy.
A kidnapping attempt on the Prince and Princess of Wales and their infant son occurs at the Mall in London . The attack is orchestrated by members of the Ulster Liberation Army , an ideologically ... (Wikipedia)
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
An exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the power of human nature.
The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers . Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named ... (Wikipedia)
All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren
A powerful political drama that follows a governor's rise and fall as he grapples with ambition, morality and power.
All the King's Men is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. Its title is drawn from the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty". The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his ... (Goodreads)
Gates of Fire
by Steven Pressfield
Epic tale of ancient Spartan warriors on a mission of heroism and sacrifice.
The novel is narrated by Xeones, a perioikos and one of only three Greek survivors of the Battle of Thermopylae . His story is dictated to King Xerxes and transcribed by his court historian , ... (Wikipedia)
The Lions of Al-Rassan
by Guy Gavriel Kay
Epic tale of a legendary kingdom, facing the onslaught of an unstoppable force.
Like most of Kay's novels, this contains a large amount of political intrigue and religious strife. At the opening of the novel, the peninsula of Al-Rassan (formerly known as Esperaña when under ... (Wikipedia)
True Grit
by Charles Portis
A young girl's quest for justice, accompanied by an aging U.S. Marshall.
The landmark anniversary edition of the #1, New York Times, bestselling classic novel, “an epic and a legend” (,The Washington Post,) Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America’s most ... (Barnes & Noble)
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
A group of rabbits embark on a treacherous journey to find a new home.
In the Sandleford warren , ,[b], Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer , receives a frightening vision of his warren's imminent destruction. , When he and his brother Hazel fail to convince their ... (Wikipedia)
Sharpe's Rifles
by Bernard Cornwell
A tale of heroism and courage in the Napoleonic Wars, as one man rises to become a legendary soldier.
Sharpe's battalion, acting as rearguard to the British Army in its retreat to Corunna , are cut down by a squadron of French regular cavalry. Sharpe takes up Captain Murray's heavy cavalry sword ... (Wikipedia)
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
A soldier's harrowing experience of the horrors of war.
The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, who belongs to a group of German soldiers on the Western Front during World War I . The patriotic speeches of his teacher Kantorek had led the whole class to ... (Wikipedia)
Lieutenant Hornblower
by C.S. Forester
An adventurous naval officer navigates the dangerous high seas of the Napoleonic Wars.
William Bush , who becomes Hornblower's faithful companion and best friend, is introduced boarding HMS, Renown, as the third lieutenant . Hornblower is the fifth and most junior lieutenant. It is ... (Wikipedia)
Leviathan Wakes
by James S.A. Corey
Space adventure of two unlikely allies in a fight to save humanity.
The ice hauling ship Canterbury (nicknamed the Cant by Belters) is en route from Saturn's Rings to Ceres Station when it encounters a distress signal . Five members of the Cant 's crew are dispatched ... (Wikipedia)
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne
An epic journey of adventure and exploration, pushing the boundaries of the known world.
The story starts in London on Wednesday, 2 October 1872. Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman living a solitary life. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with ... (Wikipedia)
