My favorite books historical fiction and adventure novels

A smash bestseller that spent over six months on the New York Times bestseller list, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER became an instant classic. No one before or since ever captured the world of Navy carrier pilots with the gripping realism of Vietnam veteran Stephen Coonts, who lived the life he wrote about. More than a flying story, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER is also one of the best novels ever written about the Vietnam experience. It's all here-the flying, the dying, the blood and bombs and bullets, and the sheer joy-and terror-of life at full throttle. "GRIPPING...SMASHING."?The Wall Street Journal Grazing the Vietnam treetops at night at just under the speed of sound, A-6 Intruder pilot Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton knows exactly how precarious life is. Landing on a heaving aircraft carrier, dodging missiles locked on his fighter, flying through clouds of flak-he knows each flight could be his last. Yet he straps himself into a cockpit every day. "EXTRAORDINARY!"-Tom Clancy Then a bullet kills his bombardier while they're hitting another 'suspected' truck depot. Jake wonders what his friend died for-and why? Hitting pointless targets selected by men piloting desks just doesn't make sense. Maybe it's time to do something worthwhile. Something that will make a difference... "SUPERBLY WRITTEN."?Washington Times Jake and his new bombardier, ice-cold Tiger Cole, are going to pick their own target and hit the enemy where it hurts. But to get there and back in one piece is going to take a lot of nerve, even more skill, and an incredible amount of raw courage. Before it's over, they're going to fly into hell. "When Grafton is at the controls of his Intruder, the novel comes alive with a jolt." "Washington Post Book World

Set in China on the eve of revolution, the book tells the story of an old U.S. Navy gunboat, the San Pablo, and her dedicated crew of "Sand Pebbles" on patrol in the far reaches of the Yangtze River to show the flag and protect American missionaries and businessmen from bandits. The arrival of machinist's mate Jake Holman, a maverick and loner, dramatically alters the lives of the crew and of the people they have come to save. It is the story of old loyalties versus new values, of violence and tenderness, tragedy and humor, and it engages the reader from the first line to the last.

Marine explorer Dirk Pitt faces off against an elite army from an era gone-by in order to uncover the secrets of an ancient civilization in this #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A group of anthropologists uncover strange inscriptions on the wall of a Colorado mine just as an explosion traps them deep within the earth. But their work won’t stay buried long. Dirk Pitt is on hand during the blast and quick to initiate a rescue operation. He is then tapped to lead a research crew on behalf of the U.S. National Underwater and Marine Agency to further study these uncanny artifacts. And that’s when his ship is set upon and nearly sunk by an impossibility—a vessel that should have died 56 years before. Clearly, another group knows about the relics of this long-forgotten but highly-advanced seafaring culture. And they’ll stop at nothing to keep the rest of the world in the dark.

This Library of America volume of Jack London’s best-known work is filled with thrilling action, an intuitive feeling for animal life, and a sense of justice that often works itself out through violence. London enjoyed phenomenal popularity in his own time (which included the depressions of the 1890s and the beginnings of World War One), and he remains one of the most widely read of all American writers. The Call of the Wild (1903), perhaps the best novel ever written about animals, traces a dog’s sudden entry into the wild and the education necessary for his survival in the ways of the wolf pack. Like many of London’s stories, this one is inspired by the early deprivations of his own pathetically short life: the primitive conditions of life as an oyster pirate in San Francisco; the restless existence of a hobo; the isolation of a prison inmate; the exertion of a laborer in the Oakland slums; and the frustration of a failed prospector for gold in the Alaskan Klondike. White Fang (1906), in which a wolf-dog becomes domesticated out of love for a man, is apparently the reverse side of the process found in The Call of the Wild, yet for many readers its moments of greatest authenticity are those which suggest that, in actual practice, civilization is pretty much a dog’s life for everyone, of “hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, all in blindness and confusion, with violence and disorder, a chaos of gluttony.” Though London was a reader of Marx and Nietzsche and an avowed socialist, he doubted that socialism could ever be put into practice and was convinced of the necessity for a brutal individualism. He thought of The Sea-Wolf (1904), the story of Wolf Larsen and his crew of outcasts on the lawless Alaskan seas, as “an attack upon the superman philosophy,” but the Captain is far more memorable than any of the book’s civilized characters. London is an immensely exciting writer partly because the conflicts in his thinking tend to enhance rather than hinder the romantic and thrilling turns of his plots. The stories of the Klondike, which are based on his personal experiences and the stories of California, Mexico, and the South Seas, span the whole of London’s career as a writer. He is one of the great storytellers in American literature, and his politics, with all their passion and contradiction, come to life through the vigor and red-blooded energy of his prose. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

"In the waning days of World War II, unbeknownst to all but a handful of people, the Japanese tried a last, desperate measure. Two submarines were sent to the West Coast of the United States, their cargo a revolutionary new strain of biological virus, their mission to unleash hell." "Neither sub made it to the designated target. But that does not mean they were lost." "Someone knows about the subs and what they carried, knows too where they might be, and has an extraordinary plan in mind for the prize inside - a plan that could reshape America, and the world, as we know it. All that stands in the way are three people: a marine biologist named Summer, a marine engineer named Dirk ... and their father, Dirk Pitt, the new head of NUMA." "Pitt has faced devastating enemies before, has even teamed up with his children to track them down. But never has he encountered such pure evil - until now."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Thriller.

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