My husband, a Navy vet loved this book. He's not much of a reader, but he tucked into this book every night!

Admiral Stavridis shares his love of the sea, and literature about the sea in this inspiring book. Like some other reviewers, I really enjoyed his anecdotes, and he has excellent reasons for choosing these books, which are an eclectic mix of history, narratives about exploration, fiction and poetry. The only one that I had actually read is The Cruel Sea! I am not sure if I would be interested in reading some of the novels about the navy, such as Mister Roberts, but many of the histories sound interesting. He writes beautifully, but I think that I would really rather read his autobiography.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is an unconventional book.
It's a book about maritime books.
It's the Cliffnotes for someone who is interested in books about sailing, ships, sailors, and navies.
It picks the best of the best books on those subjects and categorizes them.
The Admiral/author summarizes them in a couple of pages.
If they seem interesting to you, go read them.

The author also reflect on the person impact these books had on him and interjects anecdotes from his long career in the US Navy.

I doubt this book would have ever been published had the author not previously held a high position in the publisher.

If you love to read sea stories but you're unsure what books to read next, this guide can help.

Admiral Stavridis shares two of his loves in this book, the sea and books about the sea. This book is a personalized annotated bibliography, where Stavridis summarizes each book and then adds personal experiences about his reading, traveling or study. These "sea stories" help clarify the many challenges of a life on the sea and the joy of life long learning. Grouped together in four main categories—The Oceans, Explorers, Sailors in Fiction, and Sailors in Non-Fiction, this work demonstrates the vastness of the oceans and our history exploring them.

Why I started this book: Jumped at the chance to review an ARC copy of Stavridis's latest book, especially since it was about other books.

Why I finished it: This is an easy book to pick up and to put down, as Stavridis recommends 50 different books. I struggled getting into this book because the ARC formatting was especially horrific... but despite that I kept returning because I love books, I love talking about them, and I love reading about how others have enjoyed, encountered and loved books too. And this is where this book shines. Stavridis is eager to share his two loves, books and the sea... and like all book lovers, he kept sneaking in more recommendations, often pairing his original recommendation with another title to as a read along. He also included his personal reviews of movies based on the books mentioned.

I enjoyed this for both Adm. Stavridis' personal reasons for picking each book as well as the variety he chose to present us with. I will have to grab a few of the books which sparked my interest.

What a beautiful book! Just like the author, I LOVE books and I LOVE the ocean. The perspective that he comes from is of course different from mine. Though as a US Navy civilian worker, I found this book to be such a breath of fresh air and really lent a different point of view to my work life.
I was not expecting that outcome!

I really enjoyed reading this memoir. I learned so much about the sea! I LOVED it! Memoirs don't always rank high on my reading this, but this one is one I really enjoyed and would recommend, but only to those with an interest in ocean/sea and books. If you don't care about at least one of those two, it may be hard for you to get through it.

I have a son currently in the navy as a submariner. With the amount of time he spends under the ocean we were looking for things to read together to stay close.

Thank you Admiral James, this is the perfect book list for us to fall in love with the sea

The synopsis is perfect and I'm glad someone created a book like this

My thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to review a copy of this book prior to release in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book, which becomes available December 15, 2021. While it was very kind of the publisher to choose to let me review it for free, it turns out it was also a good business decision because I am buying several copies of this to give away as Christmas gifts! I absolutely loved learning from Admiral Stavridis' point of view, what it is about each of these books that hooked him, or that he thought was important, or that fired his imagination. The two to five page discussions about each of the books were the perfect length to whet my appetite for each of the books!

I highly recommend this for anyone this for anyone with a dual interest in books and oceans!

If you have an interest in the navy, the oceans or seas, or even just good literature in general, and are looking to expand your knowledge of good resources, this is the book for you. With extensive experience and insight into both the life and knowledge need to sail and command at seas and the joys of reading, and a good sense of humor and laid-back writing style that make his descriptions of the book engaging and easy to read, Stavridis is the place to start.

This is a quirky little read that I didn't fully know what to expect. Essentially written as a "Best Of" list on literature of the sea, written by a retired Navy Admiral who also has a fondness for reading. I imagine this book would serve as the perfect response to the question "what is there to know about the ocean?" As broad as that question is, there is likely a response from one of the books in this list.

I'd read a couple of the recommendations addresses in this book - from Simon Winchester and Dave Sobel - and completely agree that they are excellent books.

I had trouble assigning a rating given it's unconventional objective. Did I learn something? Yes! Was I thoroughly entertained? Not exactly. Was the writing above par? The author provides interesting context and some reflections from his life, but perhaps not enough of his voice came through to provide a true assessment. I landed on 4/5. It achieves its purpose.

"I have always felt that looking at the horizon from the bridge of a ship at sea, we are looking not at simple meteorological phenomena but rather are peering at eternity itself." -from The Sailor's Bookshelf

3.5 stars

This author loves two things: books and the sea. Here, he combines these two, by highlighting 50 of his favorite books. For each book, he has a quote, a summary, and some sort of connection; either meeting the author, why he thinks the book is important, or a story of his own from his adventures on the sea. By far, the last is the most compelling parts of the book. Paragraphs are enormous, and coupled with the formating errors of the book (and a fair amount of editing ones as well), it gets hard to read sometimes. Summaries are often repetitive, starting each sentence with "the author states", again and again. Does the average person need summaries of books about how to captain a ship or navigate? Probably not. If I were to have to sail or navigate a ship, I think I would make sure to read the whole book. The heart of the novel are his personal stories. I would have loved more of those- especially the ones of him at sea, including how he combated crimes he witnessed on the water, and more of the changes he has observed due to climate change, with a more emotional attachment to them- not just "I've seen this". I also would have loved to hear him expand upon the allowance of women to be midshipmen on the warship he was captain of.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.