Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book about pirates.


I know this is a popular theme for a lot of you!!! I have never read a good pirate book, so I'm giving this some side-eye, and I'm hoping for good suggestions in the Listopia!! What have you all got for suggestions??? Give me something good!


Listopia list is Here: A Book About Pirates

Yay pirates! Obviously if there's a sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, this is perfect.

I also have my eye on a couple of 2024 releases, Saltblood based on a real female pirate I think, and Running Close to the Wind which is a queer fantasy pirate romance maybe.

Nadine, there are always space pirates if you don't fancy the more traditional kind.

Ellie wrote: "Nadine, there are always space pirates if you don't fancy the more traditional kind. ..."




Yes please add all the space pirate books to the Listopia! I might love that! I usually like the books you like, so I'm feeling confident that I can find a good one from your recs (no pressure!)

Yes, reccing The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi for anyone who hasn't read it yet. On the series page, book 2 doesn't have an expected pub date, but book 3 is listed for 2024, so not sure if that's totally unreliable or if we might get 2 next year!

Starless has pirates in the last third, but I'd say they're important enough to count - that section actually reminded me quite a bit of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.

I'd also recommend Stardust, Red Seas Under Red Skies (2nd in a series), The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Ship of Magic and the rest of the Liveship Traders trilogy,

I have a number of pirate books on my TBR, including Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune, A True Account, Cinnamon and Gunpowder, and Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas. Or I may go classic and read Treasure Island, since I just started watching Black Sails.

Here is another option: Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook

If anyone hasn't read the classic Treasure Island, I finally read it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. There is a reason Hollywood keeps remaking it

This book isn't going to be released until April, but it will be the one I work on.

The Penguin Book of Pirates

@Nadine Anything connected to Firefly the tv show counts for space pirates.

Erica wrote: "@Nadine Anything connected to Firefly the tv show counts for space pirates."

Oh love that!

If you've read A Darker Shade of Magic, the second book, A Gathering of Shadows, introduces a pirate character and spends a lottttt of time on pirate-y activities.

To whoever put Bloody Jack on the Listopia, thank you for propelling me back to high school. I hadn't thought about that series in years! Maybe a re-read is in order

Courtney wrote: "To whoever put Bloody Jack on the Listopia, thank you for propelling me back to high school. I hadn't thought about that series in years! Maybe a re-read is in order"

That might have been me. I have a whole "pirates" shelf, so I just dumped the contents onto the list! :D

I think I found my book! Daphne du Maurier's Frenchman's Creek involves a pirate!

Also, pirates show up in The Scar so that's my backup plan if, for some reason, Daphne lets me down.

For some reason, back when I was part owner of a vintage clothing /book store, we had Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean on our shelves. I've read bits and pieces over the years - maybe this is the year to read it cover to cover.

Also, for 2023's prompt book based on a popular movie, I read Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and I liked it better than I thought I would. Tui T. Sutherland has written a couple of others in the series, so that could be a fiction option.

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship

If you're looking for some nonfiction pirate books, I really enjoyed Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates, as well as The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates' Wives, Families and Communities.

Pirate Queen: A Story of Zheng Yi Sao is also really good, especially if you're looking for a short, beautifully illustrated children's book.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom and Star Wars: Pirate's Price are a couple that would definitely quailfy.

Pirates: A New History, from Vikings to Somali Raiders would probably count.

Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop would also work for this prompt.

Switching out the fiction one and instead going with:

Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay: From the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars

Will probably go with Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas.

Just because no one else has mentioned it, I'm thinking My Salty Mary will probably be my choice for this one.

I read The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

I'm almost finished with the The Wager. It's not a traditional pirate book but they are chasing down a Spanish treasure ship so they are definitely pirates. I enjoy Grann's writing (author of Killers of the Flower moon, also a good read). I would not normally have picked up a book about shipwrecked pirates, but he has me interested and invested in the story

I am reading Frenchman's Creek right now and it is definitely about a pirate! This is the most romantic book I've read by duMaurier, a bit of a departure from what I expect from her. It's not her best novel, but I'm enjoying it a lot and I am glad I was pushed to read it.

If you need a YA, Fable would fit.

Piracy: some definitions to keep in mind
- the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work "software piracy"
- the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright
- the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea

Would Darling Girl by Liz Michalski work for this prompt?? It's a modern take on Peter Pan including Captain Hook :)


Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

Happy Reading!!

Lisa Marie wrote: "Would Darling Girl by Liz Michalski work for this prompt?? It's a modern take on Peter Pan including Captain Hook :)


Any input wo..."

There aren't really any pirates or pirates references in the book

Eek! I am struggling with this one. I am not really big on fantasy or retelling. More of a literary fiction gal. Anything anyone can recommend? Are there modern day pirate books?

I'm going to try A High Wind in Jamaica. Still on hold from the library, so I can't give a view on it, but it would be classed as literary fiction.

Pam wrote: "Eek! I am struggling with this one. I am not really big on fantasy or retelling. More of a literary fiction gal. Anything anyone can recommend? Are there modern day pirate books?"



allow me to once again recommend Frenchman's Creek!!! If you've already read that one, Jamaica Inn deals with smugglers, which are sort of like pirates

A High Wind in Jamaica is one of the strangest books I have ever read.

I'm just going to quote the writer Meg Rosoff, who wrote an Afterword for the edition I read. She says every man who had read this as a boy told her it was a book about pirates (and it is about a group of children aged between 13 and 3 who are taken aboard a pirate ship). Roscoff says the book is about childhood. About children and the dawning of self-consciousness. About conscious and cruelty....about sex. And murder. Suffering. The fathomless gulf between children and adults. It's about the structure of society......and I guess you could say it's about pirates

It was written (very poetically) in 1927 so contains some attitudes from that period on race. Also contains (very unexplictedly) sexual abuse, and some cruelty to animals.

A weirdly fascinating book.

I loved the books The Pirate Hunters and Pirate Hunters. Both were great!

I read The Aeronaut's Windlass for an author's 24th book and I think I'm going to read the sequel, The Olympian Affair, for this prompt. The captain is quite insistent that they are privateers not pirates, but I'm taking the perspective that those are the same things with different PR.

I just finished reading Poor Man's Fight and it's a good one for space pirates! If you enjoy "kid goes to boot camp, struggles, goes into space & becomes a reluctant hero" type books, this one's for you!

I'm going to try Fable for this, but does anyone have good space pirate recommendations? I love science fiction.

Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas spent a surprising amount of time on land for a book about pirates:

http://www.lauraruthloomis.com/whats-...

I didn't like this prompt because I don't read a lot of fantasy, non-fiction or sci-fi. Yet, I managed to find a book that peaked my interest. Blind Space by Marie Sexton.

I see other people have recommended Fable too! it's a good read!

Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas

A fun kids book! A fun kids book!

In August, I plan to read The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

If you enjoy reading please avoid The Barbary Pirates

I finished Daughter of the Pirate King this week. Could have read it in one sitting but didn't have time lately to read. I purchsed it because the cover and sprayed edges are gorgeous. I gave it 4 stars but it isn't great literature LOL

Saltblood by Francesca De Tores - just read a review - Mary Read - a woman pirate.

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry is the origin story for Capt. H.

Finished Fable by Adrienne Young

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...