Into the Blue Book Club will be reading captivating books about the ocean and marine life. Books can range from fiction ocean-themed adventures to educational, non-fiction conservation topics. The goal of each choice is to select a book that will not only inform members on a variety of topics regarding marine science and conservation but also bring together like-minded individuals who share a common admiration for our blue planet.
Our next club meeting will be held on July 18, 2024, at 8 pm EST. We will be discussing Why Sharks Matter.
Many Things Under a Rock: They Mysteries of Octopuses
by: David Scheel
A behavioral ecologist's riveting account of his decades-long obsession with octopuses: his discoveries, adventures, and new scientific understanding of their behaviors.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 15 -held on January 18, 2024
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History of Rain
by: Dr. Cynthia Barnett
It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report; the source of the world's water. Yet this is the first book to tell the story of rain.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Below the Edge of Darkness, a Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea
by: Dr. Edith Widder
Below the Edge of Darkness tells the tale of a pioneering marine biologist who takes us down into the deep ocean to understand bioluminescence—the language of light that helps life communicate in the darkness—and what it tells us about the future of life on Earth.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods
By: Danna Staaf
Before mammals, there were dinosaurs. And before dinosaurs, there were cephalopods—the ancestors of modern squid, octopuses, and more creatures—Earth’s first truly substantial animals. Essentially inventing the act of swimming, cephalopods presided over an undersea empire for millions of years—until fish evolved jaws, and cephalopods had to step up their game or risk being eaten. Monarchs of the Sea is a history about these bizarre but beautiful creatures that ruled the seas—and still captivate us today.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 12 - held on April 20, 2023
Eloquence of the Sardine: Extraordinary Encounters Beneath the Sea
By: Bill Francois
A poetic blend of ancient myths, modern science, and storytelling through the ages, Eloquence of the Sardine is an invitation and guide to the dreamlike underwater world where legends are often more believable than the incredible reality.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans
By: Cynthia Barnett
A compelling history of seashells and the animals that make them, reveals what they have to tell us about nature, our changing oceans, and ourselves.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 10 - held on November 10, 2022
Becoming Wild
By: Carl Safina
Safina takes readers behind the curtain of life on Earth, to witness from a new vantage point the most world-saving of perceptions: how we are all connected.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 9 - held on July 14, 2022
The Island of Sea Women
By: Lisa See
Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 8 - held on April 21, 2022
Emperors of the Deep: Sharks - The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians
By: William McKeever
In this remarkable groundbreaking book, a documentarian and conservationist, determined to dispel misplaced fear and correct common misconceptions, explores in-depth the secret lives of sharks—magnificent creatures who play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans and ultimately the planet.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 7 - held on January 13, 2022
Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone
By: Juli Berwald
A former ocean scientist goes in pursuit of the slippery story of jellyfish, rediscovering her passion for marine science and the sea's imperiled ecosystems.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 6 - held on November 11, 2021
Ocean Outbreak
By: Drew Harvell
Ocean Outbreak explores the four biggest epidemics, taking the reader to the front lines of our confrontations with infectious diseases to investigate how four iconic marine animals have been devastated: starfish, abalone, salmon, and coral reefs. The stories of these outbreaks reveal how we are tipping the balance in favor of pathogens and how we can find our way back to healthier seas, combating infection with nature’s own pathogen-fighting weapons.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 5 - held on September 23, 2021
Shadow Divers
By: Robert Kurson
In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two-weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 4 - held on July 29, 2021
The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One
By: Dr. Sylvia Earle
A Silent Spring for our era, this eloquent, urgent, fascinating book reveals how just 50 years of swift and dangerous oceanic change threatens the very existence of life on Earth. Legendary marine scientist Sylvia Earle portrays a planet teetering on the brink of irreversible environmental crisis.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver
By: Jill Heinerth
From one of the world’s most renowned cave divers, a firsthand account of exploring the earth’s final frontier: the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planet.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 2 - held on March 11, 2021
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
By: Sy Montgomery
With her "joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures." Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.
Book Club Meeting 1 - held December 10, 2020
What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
By: Jonathan Balcombe
Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, What a Fish Knows offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fishes and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperiled marine life. What a Fish Knows will forever change how we see our aquatic cousins―the pet goldfish included.
A full synopsis of the novel is available on GoodReads.