The best books that capture Cape Cod and the islands

Adrienne Brodeur Author Of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me
By Adrienne Brodeur

Who am I?

I grew up spending summers on Cape Cod, where I studied its storied history, explored its various ecosystems -- kettle ponds, shorelines, scrub pine forests, and sand dunes -- and harvested its bountiful offerings – littlenecks, oysters, lobster, bluefish, wild blueberries, rosehips, beach plums, and more. After college, I spent twenty years in the literary world of publishing in New York City. But a few years ago, I moved back to Massachusetts where the flavors, smells, and landscape are written into my bones. Cape Cod is home. 

I wrote...

Book cover of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me

What is my book about?

On a hot August night on Cape Cod, when Adrienne was 14, her mother Malabar woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me. Adrienne became her mother’s confidante and helpmate; from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a doomed marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. 

This is a book about the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make. It’s about mothers and daughters and the nature of family. And ultimately, it's a story of resilience, a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us; that moving forward is possible.

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The books I picked & why

The Paper Palace

By Miranda Cowley Heller,

Book cover of The Paper Palace

Why did I love this book?

Set in the physical and psychic landscape of Cape Cod, The Paper Palace is a fever dream of a novel, luminous with love and shot through with humor and heartbreak. It is a book that explores the indelibility of childhood, what it means to be shaped by place, and all that is unpredictable about the human heart. I couldn’t put it down.

The Paper Palace

By Miranda Cowley Heller,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Paper Palace as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE

THE PAPER PALACE IS:

“Filled with secrets, love, lies and a summer beach house. What more could you ask?”—Parade

“A deeply emotional love story…the unraveling of secrets, lies and a very complex love triangle.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club July ’21 Pick)

"Nail-biting." —Town & Country

“A magnificent page-turner.” —Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author

“[An] irresistible placement of a complicated family in a bewitching place.” —The New York Times

A story of summer, secrets, love, and lies: in the course of…

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The Movement of Stars

By Amy Brill,

Book cover of The Movement of Stars

Why did I love this book?

Read one page of this gorgeous novel and be transported to the streets and sand dunes of 19th-century Quaker Nantucket back when it was still a whaling town. The Movement of Stars is a brilliantly researched work of historical fiction that explores timeless themes: ambition, love, women’s rights, closed-faith communities, and race. I fell in love with the quiet protagonist, Hannah Price, who charts her own course in this unlikely love story.

The Movement of Stars

By Amy Brill,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Movement of Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Amy Brill's The Movement of Stars tells a story of illicit love and extraordinary ambition.

It is 1845, and Hannah Gardner Price dreams of a world infinitely larger than the small Quaker community where she has lived all 25 years of her life - for, as an amateur astronomer, she secretly hopes to discover a comet and win the King of Denmark's prize for doing so.

But she can only indulge her passion for astronomy as long as the men in her life - her father, brother and family friends - are prepared to support it, and so she treads…

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Upstream: Selected Essays

By Mary Oliver,

Book cover of Upstream: Selected Essays

Why did I love this book?

Mary Oliver’s writing is so arresting that it’s impossible not to underline phrases and write comments in the margins. Though not every single essay in this stunning collection is about Cape Cod, they are all a testament to Oliver’s boundless curiosity, profound ability to pay attention, and relationship to the worlds of nature and literature. 

Upstream: Selected Essays

By Mary Oliver,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Upstream as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of O, The Oprah Magazine's Ten Best Books of the Year

The New York Times bestselling collection of essays from beloved poet, Mary Oliver.

"There's hardly a page in my copy of Upstream that isn't folded down or underlined and scribbled on, so charged is Oliver's language . . ." -Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air

"Uniting essays from Oliver's previous books and elsewhere, this gem of a collection offers a compelling synthesis of the poet's thoughts on the natural, spiritual and artistic worlds . . ." -The New York Times

"In the beginning I was so young and such…

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The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

By Henry Beston,

Book cover of The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

Why did I love this book?

Fair warning: The Outermost House has no plot. Long hailed a classic of American nature writing (along the lines of Henry David Thoreau’s “Waldon), the book is essentially a meditation comprised of detailed observations made by the author over the year he spent alone in a remote Cape Cod beach house. Rachel Carson claimed it as the sole book of influence on her writing.

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

By Henry Beston,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Outermost House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The seventy-fifth anniversary edition of the classic book about Cape Cod, "written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty" (New York Herald Tribune)

A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in his seaside home, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go."

Instead, he sat down to try and capture in words the wonders of the magical landscape he found himself in thrall…

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Seating Arrangements

By Maggie Shipstead,

Book cover of Seating Arrangements

Why did I love this book?

Seating Arrangements is a smart, summery romp of a read set on the fictional island of Waskeke off of New England. The novel takes place in the days building up to Winn Van Meter’s eldest daughter’s wedding and takes a satirical look at the habits of a certain social class – the drinking, clubbing, and ancient social conflicts. Like a frothy cocktail, it goes down easy and packs a wallop.

Seating Arrangements

By Maggie Shipstead,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Seating Arrangements as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestselling author of Great Circle

'Joyously good' DAILY MAIL

'A ferociously clever comedy of manners' GUARDIAN

'A wise, sophisticated and funny novel about family, fidelity, class and crisis' MARIE CLAIRE

'A well-observed, hilarious, yet moving novel' WOMAN & HOME

New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2012 Dylan Thomas Prize and 2012 L.A. Times First Novel Prize

The Van Meters have gathered at their family retreat on the New England island of Waskeke to celebrate the marriage of daughter Daphne to an impeccably appropriate young man. The weekend is full of lobster and champagne, salt…

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You might also like...

The Rosewood Penny

By J.S. Fields,

Book cover of The Rosewood Penny

J.S. Fields

New book alert!

Sponsored by J.S. Fields Author

What is my book about?

The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction. 

On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band, they rob the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive pegasus. Thanks to Marani’s mysterious invulnerability, this mostly works out well…until Marani and her quirky band of outlaws plunder the carriage of the very bossy princess Nuria.

The princess’s carriage contains not just gold, but a dragonscale comb that belonged to Marani’s murdered mother. Worse yet, Princess Nuria seems to know exactly who Marani is, maybe more than Marani herself.

The Rosewood Penny

By J.S. Fields,

What is this book about?

The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.

On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive pegasus. Thanks to Marani’s mysterious invulnerability, this mostly works out well…until Marani and her quirky band of outlaws plunder the carriage of the very bossy princess Nuria.

The princess’s carriage contains not just gold, but a dragonscale comb that belonged to Marani’s murdered mother. Worse yet, Princess Nuria seems to know exactly who Marani is,…

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Genres

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