100 books like The Sea

‘The evening is the best part of the day.’ This is the ultimate realisation of Mr. Stevens, the narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro’s most famous novel. It is a delightful first-person narrative, during which Stevens, an ageing butler, looks back on his life of service while embarking on a drive through the West Country.

Ultimately, it is a love story, the most moving of love stories, the unrequited love story. It is also an atmospheric portrait of a bygone age, of a life in service before the war, in the dying moments of the aristocracy’s country estate era.

I loved the fact that we, the readers, are addressed directly as if we are sitting beside Stevens in his vintage Ford as he motors around the country.

Set amid the final days of the Second World Way in an abandoned Italian village, it tells the story of Hana, a nurse tending to her sole remaining patient. Rescued from a burning plane, the anonymous Englishman is something of a mystery. But with the help of a copy of Herodotus' The Histories, which the airman had on his person when rescued, Hana begins to piece together his life.

I felt the writing twists from moments of great beauty and clarity to whole sections that are almost impenetrable in their poetic depth. Switches of narrative viewpoint make the reader work hard at times, but it’s well worth the effort for this poignant tale that remains with you long after you have read the last page.

The novel tells the story of a group of friends who have taken it upon themselves to carry out the “last orders” of their drinking partner, Jack Dodds, to deliver his ashes to the grey seas of Margate. As they drive to the coast, their errand becomes a poignant journey into their collective pasts.

Swift described it as an homage to William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, and it follows a similar narrative structure, with chapters titled with the names of the seven key characters, with a shifting narrative perspective to follow the story from each of their eyes.

As a reader, you naturally find your favourite narrative viewpoint. For me, it was Ray, “Lucky Ray,” the obsessive gambler, which for me was the real centre of the novel.

I was captivated by Julian Barnes’ treatment of memory and time in this novel, which tells the story of Tony Webster and his group of school friends, whose relationships fracture and strain as life and death leave their marks on their lives. In his retirement, Webster's own memories of his youth prove unreliable.

I felt it was a well-paced and exquisitely written short novel, which makes impressive use of subtle imagery (the sight of the Severn bore is a good example–a nod to how the world can sometimes surprise us). He uses these subtly constructed visual reference points to illustrate this greater message on the relationship between time and memory.

As a piece of writing, I found it quite simply extraordinary.

To stick with my love of historical novels, this book is about rescuing Gamal, the last diving horse in the U.S.

In the early 1900s horses were used in a carnival stunt in which the horse with a rider on board would dive off a platform several stories high and plunge into a tiny pool of water. This is the non-fiction story of the last known diving horse. 

If you are like me, you love a good horse story. Combine that with history and this non-fiction story of the last diving horse was a perfect fit for me. As a lifelong horse lover and owner, I can't imagine asking my horses to jump off a high dive into a tiny pool. And I can't imagine being the rider that goes down with him!

For the clarity and precision of her prose and its perfectly chosen words, I always enjoy PD James.

James started writing to help support herself and her children after her doctor husband returned from the war, and was disabled by mental illness and consigned to a series of psychiatric institutions. The Lighthouse is the penultimate installment of her Adam Dalgleish series.

Dalgliesh is a somewhat aloof, poetic, and intellectual Commander of the Metropolitan Police, whose first outing was in 1962. The setting of The Lighthouse is vital to the structure, pace, and engineering of the novel. 
The action takes place on an island off the coast of Cornwall. I like this idea as it encloses the suspects and detective in a closed environment where suspense can build, rather as if it were a pressure cooker.

The island device was also employed by Agatha Christie in her 1939 work And Then… show more.

The Stupidest Angel is a fun Christmas romp complete with zombies, murder, and mayhem. The best part about this book is that Moore revisits one of the craziest places ever imagined: Pine Cove, CA. A little Night of the Living Dead with a little Our Town, and every B-movie with a hot babe wielding a sword, Moore twisted several elements into a crazed train wreck that starts at a sprint and never lets up. I enjoy how he entwines characters and plotlines of Pine Cove with those from his other novels, creating a universe in which all of his gems coexist and interact regardless of their themes or even their time in history. Looking for a Christmas story that won’t be like any other you’ve read; The Stupidest Angel won’t disappoint.

This book is a fun addition to the Seaside Cafe Mystery series, set in Charm on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The island has a rich history of pirates, treasures, ghosts, and more. Oh, and a mystery to solve! Each of the characters is fun and endearing. The plot is a well-paced whodunit full of amateur sleuthing, red herrings, community, scrumptious treats, and small-town coastal living. Adding up to perfection for cozy mystery lovers.

Jaws is one of those extremely rare cases where the movie is actually better. (Can’t think of another one? Try The Godfather.)
It’s a perfectly fun suspense novel, but in the film version Spielberg conjures up by special effects magic (and the magic of Dreyfuss and Scheider’s performances) what Benchley in his novel comes close to but never quite lands: the absolutely terrifying feelings of knowing something is there—and getting closer—and closer—but you can’t actually see. 

Montague Rhodes James, dean and provost of King’s College Cambridge, read this tale at the College Christmas gathering in 1903. James’ ghost stories often involved traditional scholars – confirmed bachelors, rather like himself. The bleak East Anglian landscape plays a significant role and here a Professor takes time off to play golf and get on with some writing at a seaside resort. He finds a strange bronze whistle in a ruined round church site. There is a second bed in the rented room at his boarding house. 

I love the thrill that M.R. James describes as "pleasant terror," but his tales are often much darker. He unveils an uncanny sexual horror in the images that haunt this terrifying story. I still see them when I close my eyes.