Cruising for a Good Book

Since I now spend much of my week surrounded by books, I can’t help but notice trends in book publishing: copycat covers, titles that duplicate one another¹ and plots that ring familiar. Recently, I have noticed an abundance of stories set aboard cruise ships. I am not sure if cruising in general is having a moment, but books set on cruises are. Cruise ships make for interesting settings because you have a little bit of everything set within limited parameters. There’s usually a pool and outdoor activities, nightly entertainment, restaurants with forced proximity and repeat interactions, and bars, lots of bars where drinks flow, and characters lose their inhibitions. A cruise ship setting is basically a version of a classic road trip story with characters on literal and figurative journeys.

This subgenre lends itself particularly to romance and mystery thrillers. For a romance, people on cruise ships are likely to keep bumping into each other and have multiple opportunities for connection and mishaps. Katherine Center’s upcoming new rom-com, The Shippers, takes place on a cruise ship.² For mysteries, the cruise ship can provide the perfect “closed circle” setting. But even beyond mystery and romance titles, I spotted three literary books all set aboard ships releasing during the first half of this year. The biggest and buzziest is Emma Straub’s American Fantasy. I loved Straub’s last book, This Time Tomorrow, but this one missed the mark for me a bit. Her writing is great, and she captures the vibe of a party cruise, but I am not her audience here. This book is calling to someone who is a huge fan of boy bands and questioning the direction of their life. Yep, pretty specific here, but I do think this book has an audience and will be a hot title later this spring. All The World Can Know (out 3/10/26) and Man Overboard are two others that lean more literary. I have dipped into both of them, and it is unlikely I will finish either.

Enough about new releases, here are some books set on cruise ships that I highly recommend:

• The Unsinkable Greta James has flown under the radar for a few years now. I really loved this book about a father and daughter reconciling their relationship on a cruise through Alaska.

• Distress Signals is one of my favorite cruise ship mysteries, where a man searches for his missing girlfriend by retracing the same cruise where she recently went missing. Great setting and lots of twists and turns.

• Do Not Become Alarmed is a fast-paced suspense novel that is not for the faint of heart. Two families are on a cruise to Central America, and the children go missing during a beach excursion. Told from the perspectives of both the parents and the kids, it is riveting, well-written, and the characters are well fleshed out.

• Murder Take a Vacation was a favorite last summer. It is set on a European river boat cruise with an older protagonist who finds herself embroiled in a who-dun-it with her best friend.

Some authors have set just parts of their books on cruise ships, but those sections really stand out to me as stronger parts of the story. I am thinking of:

• Where’d You Go, Bernadette contains a large section set on a ship in the Antarctic. (Note: Maria Semple has a new book releasing in April.)

• Killers of a Certain Age has a fantastic opening that takes place on a cruise ship.

• Kristen’s Hannah’s The Winter Garden concluded with a mother-daughter cruise to Alaska, which had me rethinking my summer vacation plans because the cruise sounded so wonderful.

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Fun Links

How fantastic is this poster for the Virginia Festival of Books?

Artist: Katie McBride

• I am happy to report that David Sedaris has a new book coming out, A Land and Its People. I have read a couple of the essays, and it is terrific. He also wrote the Academy Award-nominated short film Retirement Plan. It’s charming, funny, and a bit poignant. Watch on YouTube.

• A spring recipe: Grapefruit Loaf from Sally’s Baking Addiction. This received rave reviews when I made it recently. Quick and easy, this is a nice switch from the traditional lemon loaf. The only change I made was adding grapefruit zest to the icing as well as the batter.

Recent Reads

How to Get Away with Murder is a new release that is pretty darn fantastic. The book is structured in two parts. One is a straight-up police procedural. The protagonist is a detective who comes back from medical leave to search for a young girl’s killer. A calling card left at the scene indicates it may have been committed by a serial killer who wrote a book called “How to Get Away with Murder.” The chapters of that “How To” book make up the other part of the story. This structure is clever and well executed. I love a good police procedural, and I was so amused by the book-within-a-book aspect. The police are trying to figure out if there are additional crimes that need to be solved in addition to the current one. There are twists and turns and multiple crimes, which I am always here for. There’s a lot to this book, and it could have unraveled easily, but it holds together so well. [Published: 2/26; Pages: 368]

I wanted to sneak a back list into my reading, and The Rom-Commers caught my eye. I don’t read a lot of romance, but when I find one I like, I always consider it a win. Katherine Center reliably puts out one romance a year and manages to write consistently funny, smart, and fresh stories. The plot revolves around two scriptwriters - one hugely successful and another struggling. Forced to work together on a rom-com movie script, they first find friendship and then maybe something more. Bonus: I always appreciate a realistic Los Angeles setting. Knowing a lot of plot details isn’t critical going in, just trust that you are in capable hands. This is a great option if you feel like adding some levity and escapism to your reading life. I found this to be quite charming. Center’s writing had me giggling along with the story, and it was an enjoyable read between some heavier books. [Published: 5/25; Pages: 352 ]

The Keeper of Lost Children, a recent historical fiction release, is an unexpected delight. The subject covers an overlooked perspective in history that I had not heard of: mixed-race children left behind in German orphanages after World War 2. Beginning in 1950 and traveling into the mid-1960s, Johnson provides three distinct voices in this story. This can be hard to juggle, but I found each perspective authentic and interesting. We follow a woman who set up an adoption program in Germany to find homes for these children in the US; a young American soldier struggling with the consequences of his action; and a teen girl in boarding school who starts to question her own family and where she came from. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, this book has everything you want - an interesting story based on real events, well-developed and thoughtful characters, and a plot that moves along and ties up in a meaningful way. I listened to this one, and the audio is excellent. [Published 2/26; Pages: 464]

The Country Commonplacd Book arrived last fall from across the pond. I am a big fan of Miranda Mills’ work on YouTube and bookstagram. She has made a unique space for thoughtful literary gems that lean into classics and hosts an online comfort book club. I have her to thank for introducing me to Enchanted April. This is a compilation of seasonal quotes and poems, along with a few recipes and book recommendations. I wrote about commonplace books in my April 2023 newsletter. What I love about this book is the seasonality. I dove into the winter section last November, reading a short paragraph or poem in the mornings throughout the winter months. Now I am starting to dip into the spring section and am finding so many little gems on the pages. This book would make a lovely gift for yourself or others. [Published: 9/25; Pages: 256 ]

1. Two books titled “Irish Goodbye” in just a few months. Two books titled “North of Ordinary” in just over a year.

2. If you enjoy a smart but also funny romance and are not reading Katherine Center, you are definitely missing out.