Ahoy Matey! 20 Adult books on Pirates

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean
by Edward Kritzler
At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish Inquisition forced many Jews to flee the country. The most adventurous among them took to the high seas as freewheeling outlaws. In ships bearing names such as theProphet Samuel, Queen Esther,andShield of Abraham,they attacked and plundered the Spanish fleet while forming alliances with other European powers to ensure the safety of Jews living in hiding.

Dangerous Waters, modern piracy and terror on the high seas
by John S. Burnett
Entire ships, cargo, and crews simply vanish, hijacked by pirates working for multinational crime syndicates; these modern-day ghost ships turn up later carting illegal immigrants to the United States or running drugs. Burnett probes this dangerous world of thievery and mayhem, from the life-and-death struggles of brave captains and their crews, to the pirate hunters with bounties on their heads, and to the shadowy groups themselves who employ these ruthless, modern-day mercenaries.

Terror on the Seas
by Daniel Sekulich
Visiting such ports as Mombassa and Singapore, voyaging through the notoriously piratical waters off Somalia, and, yes, interviewing a real pirate, the adventurous Sekulich vividly renders the contemporary realities of an ancient maritime scourge.

The Republic of Pirates
by Colin Woodard
Woodard, a journalist and author, recounts the lives of early eighteenth century Caribbean pirates known as the "Flying Gang." He draws from archival materials from Britain and the Americas to describe the Golden Age of Piracy and four of its most prominent figures: pirates Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy, Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch, Charles Vane, and Woodes Rogers, who was sent to confront them.

The Pirate Hunter
by Richard Zacks
Captain Kidd has gone down in history as America's most ruthless buccaneer. However, Captain William Kidd was no career cut-throat; he was a tough, successful New York sea captain who was hired to chase pirates. Across the oceans of the world, the pirate hunter, Kidd, pursued the pirate, Culliford. One man would hang in the harbor; the other would walk away with the treasure.

Empire of Blue Water
by Stephan Talty
Awash with bloody battles, political intrigues, natural disaster, and a cast of characters more compelling, bizarre, and memorable than any found in a Hollywood swashbuckler—including the notorious pirate L’Ollonais, the soul-tortured King Philip IV of Spain, and Thomas Modyford, the crafty English governor of Jamaica—Empire of Blue Waterbrilliantly re-creates the passions and the violence of the age of exploration and empire.

True Tales of Pirates and Their Gold
by Edward Rowe Snow
Edward Snow wrote for the Boston Herald for many years and published many books on about shipwreaks,treasure, and sea mysterys. Anybody who likes Pirates of the Carrabean, will love his true stories of real pirates.

The Privateers, a raiding voyage to the great South Sea
by Fleming MacLeish & Martin L. Krieger
The Story of the 1708 expedition of Captain Woodes Rogers who, awarded letters of marque against the Spanish, set out to hunt the famed Manila Galleon which, once a year carried the gold of South America to Manila and returned with the riches of the Indies.

Expedition Whydah
by Barry Clifford & Paul Perry
Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy and his band of pirates terrorized the high seas, looting gold from more than 50 ships and loading it onto the WHYDAH, a captured slave ship, before running aground and sinking in the Great Storm of 1717.

Pirates, Privateers and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast
by Lindley S. Butler
Chronicles the adventures of some of the nation's most famous maritime figures, from Blackbeard to Confederate raiders.

The History of Piracy
by Philip Gosse
A thorough overview of worldwide piracy concentrating on the Mediterranean and Caribbean, but including the Far East. Even three cases of female pirates are covered.

Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates
by Robert C. Ritchie
Armed with tales of hidden treasure and cold steel cutlasses, professor Robert Ritchie weaves a wonderful tale of the time of the pirates as they plundered shipping and coastal towns from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean in search of excitement and riches.

Jolly Roger
by Patrick Pringle
Pringle's 1953 volume separates the fact from the fiction and examines the lives and deeds of Henry Morgan, Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Anne Bonney, and other maritime marauders.

The Pirates Pact
by Douglas R. Burgess Jr.
Burgess recounts the stories of the political and business figures who supported the pirates and their voyages of plunder and murder, describing how the colonial governors in North America and the West Indies engaged in pirate brokering, selling privateering commissions that legitimized the armed seizure of treasure-laden ships as far away as the Red Sea.

The Pirate Wars
by Peter Earle
Professor Earle mines British Admiralty records to find that the romance of the pirate life was certainly not an invention of those who made the mistake of choosing to live it. Piracy was a costly and deadly business, a fact of which those responsible for making shipping safe and profitable were well aware.

Under the Black Flag
by David Cordingly
Widespread piracy began in the Western world in 1650 and ended abruptly around 1725. Cordingly, formerly on the staff of the National Maritime Museum in England, describes who became pirates, what they wore (scarves or handkerchiefs around their head, just like in the movies); and how they lived.

Pirates Predators of the Seas
by Angus Konstam
Chock-full of great photos and artwork Konstam dispels falsehoods and illuminates the truth. Shipwreck, betrayal, torture, chests of stolen gold, this exciting book has it all.

The Age of Piracy
by Robert Carse
Carse an experienced sailor has prowled the most inaccessible areas of the Caribbean in search of the former haunts of the great buccaneers. All the great names are here, Morgan, kidd, Teach, Lafitttes, Hawkins, Drake and many others. Carse looks at how they lived, sailed, fought, and divided their spoils.

Raiders and Rebels
by Frank Sherry
From 1692 to 1725 pirates sailed the oceans of the world, terrorizing seamen and plundering ships laden with the riches of India, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. Beneath these well known facts lies the true story of pirates. They were common men and women escaping the social and economic restrictions of 18th-century Europe. Sherry does a great job showing the evolution from early buccaneers to king's privateers to outright pirates and describing the joy and pain of daily priate life as well as the reality of the pirate's activities.

Sack of Panama : Captain Morgan and the Battle for the Caribbean
by Peter Earle
The book covers not only the scandalous events in the Colonial West Indies, but also the alarmed reacions of diplomats and statesmen in Madrid and London.While Morgan and his men were laying siege to Panam , the simmering hostilities between the two nations resulted in vicious political infighting that rivaled the military battles in intensity.With a wealth of colorful characters and international intrigue, The Sack of Panam is a painstaking history that doubles as a rip-roaring adventure tale.

TB

Do you enjoy listening to audiobooks?

One of the newest features on our homepage is Overdrive , a digital download service for audiobooks and ebooks. You can 'check out' the latest thriller, peruse a cookbook, or read a well loved classic from the comfort of your own home. Genres include, but are not limited to, business, current events, foreign language instruction, health and fitness, biography, mystery, romance and historical fiction. If you are new to downloadable media, a
comprehensive guided tour of the website and a list of compatible devices is available online.




-DB

Going Rogue or Going Rouge?

On Sarah Palin

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the new autobiography , Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin, watch out! On the very day Palin’s book is due out (Nov. 17), there will be another book with a very similar title and a similar cover also appearing. According to its publisher, Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare will have an entirely different perspective on Sarah Palin than that of the autobiography. Such authors as Joe Conanson, Naomi Klein, Tom Perrotta and a dozen others are contributors. If you'd like to see some heated discussion of the legal issues involved in the Rogue/Rouge books check out the Volokh Conspiracy blog.

--RL

Looking for a few good books?

Ever found yourself at the library, wanting to pick up a book but not sure what you want to read next? Tired of browsing the shelves without anything catching your interest? Well, we've got a couple of great solutions to your reader's blues.





First, you can check out & subscribe to our Staff Reads blog at http://wellesleystaffreads.blogspot.com/ (we've also put a link to it in the upper-right corner of this blog). It's a great resource to keep you up-to-date about what the library staff has found of note, and you can stay updated on what your favorite librarian has enjoyed! And it's not just limited to books--we suggest movies, music, spoken word, graphic novels, and more. We've really enjoyed adding our suggestions and hope you will enjoy reading them.

If you're already at the library and haven't been keeping current with our Staff Reads blog (shame on you!) there's another option: our librarians have been putting together displays that are packed with book ideas. Located next to the Reference Desk and in the New Books area, these displays feature brochures compiled by the Reference Staff, Kirkus book reviews, New York Times Bestseller lists, and tons of other information.

Last, but certainly not least, you can always ask us what you should read next--we're some of the most enthusiastic people around when it comes to books!

MW

Freakonomics Squared

Would you like a second dose of Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner? You're in luck! On October 20, Superfreakonomics will make its appearance on bookshelves across the country.

Don't know what Freakonomics is? Take a look at our link on the catalog to see a summary and book reviews. It was a major bestseller due to Levitt's ability to apply economics to real life issues . Both books would be great holiday gifts. SH

Man Booker Prize

Well, our guesses as to who was going to win the Booker Prize were all wrong. The winner this year was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. The book is a historical novel about Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540), Henry VIII's "go-to man for his dirty work" according to Library Journal.

Wolf Hall beat out these other shortlisted titles:

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

Summertime by J.M.Coetzee (U.S. pub. date of 12/24/2009)

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds (U.S. pub. date of 6/29/2010)

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer (U.S. pub. date of 12/8/2009)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

maf

Two search engines you don't want to miss

Really.
With the thousands of search engines, directories, portals and meta-search engines to guide our way through the ever-expanding web, it's become ever more necessary to find a few good guides, use them often and learn them well. Allow me to suggest a couple to add to your inner circle of search engines: Bookfinder.com searches dozens of used book search engines and web sites. Instead of separately searching AbeBooks, Alibris, Amazon, Powell's etc. you can go to one site and search them all. It's fantastic!
Argali.com does similar magic for online phone directories by searching multiple engines at once: Yahoo, Anywho,Infospace, Google, Switchboard, Superpages and more. It's the best.
--RL

Men Willingly Believe What They Wish

It was in part the greatness of Rome that led to its eventual collapse and fall, and this singular fact has exercised the mind of the historian ever since. See what the latest take is with these recent books.

Rubicon : The Last Years of the Roman Republic
by Holland, Tom

Tom Holland's enthralling account tells the story of Caesar' s generation, witness to the twilight of the Republic and its bloody transformation into an empire. From Cicero, Spartacus, and Brutus, to Cleopatra, Virgil, and Augustus, here are some of the most legendary figures in history brought thrillingly to life.

Scipio Africanus : Rome's Greatest General
by Gabriel, Richard A.

Hannibal is known to most school children because he took elephants across the Alps in his bid to conquer Rome. Few, if any, would learn about the general who defeated him, Scipio Africanus. Gabrial describes Scipio in terms of his belief in republican principles and intense Roman patriotism. He finds much that contemporary military leaders might emulate.

Are We Rome? : The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America
by Murphy, Cullen

Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinding, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of corruption; border issues; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of "privatization.

The Fall of the Roman Empire : A New History
by Heather, Peter

Heather explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled the Empire apart.

Augustus : The Life of Rome's First Emperor
by Everitt, Anthony

Augustus found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. The world that made Augustus–and that he himself later remade–was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history–Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra–whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings.

The Day of the Barbarians : The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire
by Barbero, Alessandro; Cullen, John (Translator)

A revisionist history of the relatively obscure battle of Adrianople, arguing that the course of world history changed after the clash in 378 A.D., in the eastern Roman province of Thrace, between an army of Goths and a Roman imperial army.

TB