Beach, Beach, Beach - Summer Adventure Reads

Looking for a great read this summer? Why not try one of these two great summer adventure books?


In the King's Name
by Alexander Kent
It is January 1819, and Captain Adam Bolitho, newly married, makes haste to ship out from Falmouth and leave his beautiful wife, Lowenna, once again. Bound for Freetown, on the old slave coast of Africa, H.M.S. Onward carries sealed orders in the strongbox below deck. But why all the secrecy and apparent urgency? And why Onward, so soon after the Mediterranean, and that bloody action with Nautilus?

Mission completed, yet Adam cannot and will not leave. On their way into port, the crew of the Onward spy the debris of an allied frigate, destroyed as if taken by surprise. There are bodies strewn among the shark-infested waters and no enemy in sight. A single word frozen on the lips of the dead. Mutiny. The men begin to question who is friend and who is foe.

All is not well aboard the Onward; envy and hunger for power consume some of the crew, but they must band together and risk their lives together, in the name of the King. A searing and gripping tale of trouble on the high seas, and of the weakness of the human spirit, In the King's Name heralds the return of our greatest living maritime writer and the legendary Adam Bolitho.
Check this book out from BPL.


Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true?
Check this book out from BPL.