I just finished this book about a couple who take two years off from their "real life" to sail the Caribbean. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to all Caribbean-lovers.

Thanks for the recommendation orangetravelcat!

On vacation in St. John this past May I read "A Trip to the Beach, Living on Island Time in the Caribbean" by Melinda & Robert Blanchard, a true story about a couple (the authors) who decide to move to Anguilla and open a restaurant. I really enjoyed it.

It's always nice to have a good book to remind me of the Caribbean, and make me long for my next trip!

As a former English teacher, I'd have to say this is a great topic! I love having books to read on trips that are related to the location...

What other recommended reading does everyone have?

I enjoyed Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream" and thought Jimmy Buffett's "Where is Joe Merchant" to be a decent read.

We have a trip to Anguilla planned for May 2005 so will definitely pick up "A Trip to the Beach". A long, long time ago I read a book - I think by Herman Wouk - called "Don't Stop the Carnival" (or something like that, about someone opening up a hotel in the Caribbean). From what I remember, it was a good read.

I should also mention " Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes", which I recently read. Sir Harry Oakes was a gazillionaire living in Nassau, and was a friend of the Duke of Windsor. Sir Harry was brutally murdered, and the book delves into "whodunnit" as well as gives an interesting history of the Bahamas, and reveals the Duke and Duchess of Windsor not to be the loving, romantic couple we have been led to believe. There's also info about the mob trying to set up gambling casinos in the Bahamas. A very interesting read.

These have been great suggestions as I enjoy read-along vacations.

I always take a Clive Cussler book where his action adventures are always on the sea. For me, it makes extra special reading on the beach or a boat, hearing the waves lapping and seeing the aqua colors serving as a backdrop.

I, too, loved "An Embarrassment of Mangoes." As a sailor and a lover of the Caribbean, I read books and sailing logs whenever I can get my hands on them, and found this one particularly good, as the author focuses not just on the sailing part, but on people and food, giving a real flavor of the places they visited.

Herman Wouk's "Don't Stop the Carnival" is MUST reading. (Can't believe my BIL didn't read it before buying an island resort; now he can add his own chapters...).

Others to consider:

"Wind from the Carolinas" - a semi-historic account of how the Exumas were settled.

"Desperate Voyage" - John Caldwell, who created Palm Island resort in the Grenadines, writes of his journey by boat across the Pacific to be reunited with his wife.

"Sunfun Calypso" - Julian Putley's fictional account of life as the owner of a yacht charter operation on the thinly-fictionalized island of "Tortuga" (whose capital is "Roadstead&quot.

"No Shoes Allowed" and "Gone to Come Back" - Jan de Groot is a yacht charter captain and he writes a series of anecdotes about his life in the Caribbean.

"Flirting with Mermaids" - John Kretschmer's take on life as a yacht delivery captain (this is less about the Caribbean, and more about boats).

Some Jamaica-centric reading:

Fire in the Cain/Glenville Lovett (even
tho Bajan, it feels like South
Coast)
The Book of Jamaica/Russell Banks
The Rule of the Bone/Russell Banks
The True History of Paradise/Margaret
Cezair-Thompson
The Pagoda--Patricia Powell
Me Dyin Trial -- Patricia Powell
The White Man in the Tree--Mark
Kurlansky
Recent novels by Colin Channer

Should be Fire in the Cane/Glenville Lovett

This is a great thread! I will be printing it off and making a trip to the library.

I was wondering when "Don't Stop the Carnival" would show up. Super book! I also read the Blanchard's book and enjoyed it.

Here are my contributions:

Edwidge Danticat - "The Dew Breaker"
a Haitian immigrant to the U.S. reveals to his artist daughter that he is not, as she believes, a prison escapee, but a former prison guard, skilled in torture

Jean Rhys - "The Wide Sargasso Sea" - the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation. When she comes of age she is married off to an Englishman, and he takes her away

I've read a bunch of others as well, but I can't think of the names right off hand.

I read one about a couple that bought a house in the Bahama out islands that was really wonderful.

And of course you all must be Parrotheads...so after you read "Don't Stop The Carnival" go get the cd by the same name, as Jimmy Buffett produced the play, which never made it to Broadway, and this is the soundtrack. It's my favorite JB cd!

Thanks for a great thread, orangetravelcat!

Diana:Wide Sargasso Sea, the 'pre-quel' to Jane Eyre was made into arguably one of the most seductive movies ever shot in Jamaica, now out on video and DVD.

I second Wind From the Carolinas. It is by Robert Wilder and is a semi historical novel about settling in Great Exuma. It was required reading for our children before we took them to Exuma so they would understand the history, culture etc. Wilder wrote a lot about Florida and the Bahamas. Other good Wilder books are Flamingo Road, The Sound of Drums and Cymbals, The Sea and the Stars, Plough the Sea, An Affair of Honor, Bright Feather, Fruit of the Poppy (Mexico and heroin. For Anguilla try and find Under an English Heaven. I got my copy at the Anguilla Drug Store. Have known Bob and Melinda Blanchard for years and a Trip to the Beach was really good. They now have A Trip to the Beach cookbook out.

Another good one is Seasoned By Salt by Jerry Mashaw. It's about a couple who sail from the U.S. to Bermuda to the Caribbean and back.

Thanks to this post I just requested A Trip to the Beach - Living on Island Time and An Embarrassment of Mangoes from my library. Can't wait...

My recommendation is Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Not necessarily fluffy summer reading - but couldn't put it down. True story about two guys who are deep divers and discover an unidentified u-boat off the East coast.

For Caribbean writers and/or books set in the region, I second the suggestions for Banks' Rule of the Bone and Kurlansky's White Man in the Tree. In addition to the Dew Breaker, I'd recommend all of Danticat's previous works, even her young adult novel. They're exquisitely crafted and remarkable for such a young writer. She also has a knack for taking a character who would be reprehensible in less gifted hands and making him/her sympathetic, or at least pitiful.

Jean Rhys has another novel set partially in the region in addition to a memoir that describes in loving detail growing up there. (I want to say Dominica, but I'm not sure.)

Jamaica Kincaid has several novels and a couple of memoirs, plus one book that compiles all of her writing for the New Yorker (she was the first person to get her name credited for Talk of the Town).
Caryl Philipps' novels are also quite good, as are Patrick Chamoiseau's. (From St. Kitts and Martinique, respectively.)

Hemingway's To Have and Have Not is a pretty good read. I also love Derek Walcott (St. Lucian Nobel prize winner) but I prefer his essays to his poetry. Robert Stone has a terrific book set in Haiti called Bay of Souls. Julia Alvarez has a very lyrical style of writing, and her books are often set in her homeland, the Dominican Republic. A little known but very good book is called Master of the Dew, written by a man named Roumain and translated by Langston Hughes, but it may be a little dark for the typical beach book.

And totally unrelated to the Caribbean, but a darn good read, is Kent Haruf's new book called Eventide. It's set in the plains of Holt, Colorado, and tells the story of the town's resident and all of the little quotidian joys and tragedies that make up small town life. Excellent writer.

Thank you for all those suggestions.
I tend to read only murder mysteries but I think I'll try some of the ones listed here.

I tend to just read murder mysteries, too - but found Embarrassment of Mangoes very enjoyable. If you like mysteries, you will enjoy the book about Harry Oakes.

One more book to recommend, especially for anybody who's been on a Windjammer cruise is "The Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the loss of the Fantome" by Jim Carrier is a great book recounting the story of this terrible tragedy and the loss of the lives of the crew of the Fantome.

Painted Canoe by Anthony Winkler