The most recommended diving books

Take the concept of diving on shipwrecks and move it into space, then add a mystery and a whole lot of adventure, and you have Rusch’s awesome Diving series.

The Renegat is the 10th book in the series and the most ambitious one yet. Rusch is a master of character and world-building and it shines here. I can’t recommend this series enough.

This is a beautifully written and heartfelt historical fiction. The US Civil War officially ended a year ago, but on both sides, the wounds of war are deep and lasting, and this is true in Missouri, in the home of Hester Cain.

I like dark reads that make me feel deeply, and there’s a tangible sense of melancholy pervading this story. The war’s psychological damage is profound. The main characters are sympathetic, as are the story’s children though their life’s wounds are slow to heal. Even some of the men who commit despicable acts earned some sympathy.

The terrible misery endured on both sides of the war was thought provoking, and it stuck with me for weeks. The story ends with a dose of hard-earned hope that I appreciated.

The relationship between ourselves and the sea is commonly constrained by beaches and tides. But Julia Whitty, deep-sea diver, and filmmaker opens the mind to the richness of deep waters through the scientific and soulful journeys she poetically shares in this book. Her time spent working in the South Pacific allows an expansion of our own experiences of the wild world. The delicate relationships of life’s many forms, from whales and sharks to rays and coral, contained within Earth’s liquid artistry, offers an opportunity to enrich our understanding of connections we seldom perceive but which, once acknowledged, expand the perception of life’s wealth.

I grew up in an Italian family where the wisdom of my elders poured from ocean voyages. At family gatherings my relatives spoke of chaperoned romances, ice trucks, and cinematic stories that went on and on.

Peggy Freydberg’s image, the lined flesh conveying time’s signature, is what first drew me in. When I learned she began writing poetry at 90, I was curious and immediately humbled after diving into her work. Here was a woman in fierce-writing shape and in physical command of a powerful voice. She was brutally honest about life, aging, and death.

Her poems remain gritty, defiant, elegant, and sad. She passed at 107, and I still imagine the words she’d yet to write. I keep Ms. Freydberg’s memory and her brave words close to my heart.

I feel like I lived this story as a kid. I’ll bet a lot of kids do. A young boy overcomes his fear of the high dive. 

Step by step, Gaia Cornwall takes us through Jabari’s jump. Jabari starts by telling his dad he’s not scared at all. He clearly is. He delays, makes excuses. Dad never pushes. He wants this to be Jabari’s decision, Jabari’s victory. It’s so relatable, the perspective even changes to first person once Jabari is high above the pool. 

Everything rings true. It’s exactly what a scared kid would say and do. It’s exactly what I said and did when I was Jabari’s age trying to summon my own courage on the high dive. Except when I hit the water, my swim trunks fell off.

Now, I am no friend to graphic novels. As a novelist I prefer a story told in long strokes. For Taniguchi Jiro, however, I make an exception.

When I stumbled across A Journal of My Father, I was initially skeptical. Page after page, however, with an almost cinematic panorama laid out before me, I found myself in complete awe of the fine power of observation that Taniguchi brings to the small things in life. The simple and still finds artistic expression in his work, the every day suddenly seems notable, and anyone who – like me – often finds themselves reaching for a handkerchief, consider yourself warned: this touches you, though without a show of sentimentality.

After the death of his father, a man travels to his hometown and, through various conversations and encounters, pursues memories that have stayed with him since childhood. That doesn’t sound all that exciting. But… show more.

Once I Knew is a stirring and adventurous story of a peasant girl who courageously rescues an enemy soldier only to have her entire life torn apart. The fantasy world is interwoven with danger, and I enjoyed the exciting read that shone with hope applicable to our own world today. It addresses hard issues for mature readers and doesn’t shy away from diving into truth and showing that because of that truth, life has a huge and beautiful purpose and hope.

I can still recall snuggling up to my mom as she read me this for the first time, and now it’s a joy I’ve gotten to relive with my daughter! This one—another Swedish translation—is a tale of three little hippos who have a passion for diving! That’s right, off a diving board! Their naughty adventures as they seek out Tall Cliff, the dangers they face, and Mrs. Hippopotamus’ carpentry, will grab children’s attention. The storytelling and humor are spot-on, and the illustrations couple with it beautifully. A very entertaining read. 

This book was gripping and persuasive. 

How many times have you jumped to conclusions only to later find out that your perception was way off? Or, have you regretted saying or doing something too quickly? As for me, too many times to count. 

The thrust of this book is that if I took 3 seconds before I said or did something, I would be much happier with the result. Giving my first impulses reconsideration led to me being a more considerate person and effective, passionate, and purposeful leader. I was able to lead with emotion rather than being an emotional leader.

Lizzie is not unusual. Sometimes we all want to exchange a family member for a new-and-improved version. Her dad's jokes embarrass her and Lizzie visits the Daddy Depot megastore to find a new dad. In the end she discovers that her dad is the perfect fit for her. My favorite spread is the one that says, "It was a dad party! There were all kinds of dads." And here is where we see a diverse group of so many dads, from the more typical fireman and policeman, businessman, and doctor, to a yogi, musician, diver, astronomer, and bowler…even a magician.