Summer Challenge 2025: Ocean Books

Looking for help completing your Summer Challenge Bingo Card? Dive into one of the books about the ocean!

Updated June 26, 2025
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The underworld : journeys to the depths of the ocean
Casey, Susan
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From bestselling author Susan Casey, an awe-inspiring portrait of the mysterious world beneath the waves, and the men and women who seek to uncover its secrets "An irresistible mix of splendid scholarship, heart-stopping adventure...
Waves in an impossible sea : how everyday life emerges from the cosmic ocean
Strassler, Matt
Paper Book
Longlisted for the 2025 PEN / EO Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Big Think's Best Science Book of 2024 A theoretical physicist takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey--found in "no other book" (Science)--to discover how the universe...
Around the ocean in 80 fish & other sea life
Scales, Helen
Paper Book
This is an inspiring tour of the world's oceans and 80 of its most notable inhabitants. Beautifully illustrated, the book includes fascinating stories of the fish, shellfish and other sea life that have somehow impacted human life - whether in our medicine, culture or folklore - in often surprising...
The brilliant abyss : exploring the majestic hidden life of the deep ocean and the looming threat that imperils it
Scales, Helen
Paper Book
A marine biologist vividly brings alive the extraordinary ecosystem of the deep ocean--a realm about which we know less than we do about the Moon--and shows how protecting rather than exploiting it will benefit mankind. "The oceans have always shaped human lives," writes marine...
The Island of sea women
See, Lisa
Paper Book
A #1 New York Times Bestselling AuthorMi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village's all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook's mother...
The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder
Grann, David
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager...
Into the planet : my life as a cave diver
Heinerth, Jill
Paper Book
From one of the world's most renowned cave divers, a firsthand account of exploring the earth's final frontier: the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planet More people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest, and we...
The sound of the sea : seashells and the fate of the oceans
Barnett, Cynthia
Paper Book
Seashells have been the most coveted and collected of nature's creations since the dawn of humanity. They were money before coins, jewelry before gems, art before canvas. In The Sound of the Sea, acclaimed environmental author Cynthia Barnett blends cultural history and science to trace...
How far the light reaches : a life in ten sea creatures
Imbler, Sabrina
Paper Book
A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: this "miraculous, transcendental book" invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live (Ed Yong, author of An Immense World). A queer, mixed race...
Squid empire : the rise and fall of the cephalopods
Staaf, Danna
Paper Book
Before there were mammals on land, there were dinosaurs. And before there were fish in the sea, there were cephalopods--the ancestors of modern squid and Earth's first truly substantial animals. Cephalopods became the first creatures to rise from the seafloor, essentially inventing the act of...
Below the edge of darkness : a memoir of exploring light and life in the deep sea
Widder, Edith
Paper Book
A pioneering marine biologist takes us down into the deep ocean to understand bioluminescence--the language of light that helps life communicate in the darkness--and what it tells us about the future of life on Earth in this "thrilling blend of hard science and high adventure" (The New...
The silent world
Cousteau, Jacques
Paper Book
Before becoming the man who introduced us to the wonders of the sea through his beloved television series, Jacques Cousteau was better known as an engineer and the inventor of scuba. He chronicled his early days of underwater adventure in The Silent World--a memoir that was an instant, international...
Deep : freediving, renegade science, and what the ocean tells us about ourselves
Nestor, James
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of Breath, a "fascinating, informative, exhilarating" voyage from the ocean's surface to its darkest trenches (Wall Street Journal) New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * An Amazon Best Science Book of 2014 * Scientific American...
Why we swim
Tsui, Bonnie
Paper Book
A Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020 A Best Book of the Season: BuzzFeed * Bustle * San Francisco Chronicle A Best Book of the Year: NPR's Book Concierge * Washington Independent Review of Books...
Women and water : stories of adventure, self-discovery, and connection in and on the water
Straub, Gale
Paper Book
Women and Water is a visually driven celebration of women who love nature, adventure, and water sports. This inspiring collection combines breathtaking photography with powerful narratives from women who swim, surf, kayak, study glaciers, advocate for water...
Ocean : a history of the Atlantic before Columbus
Haywood, John
Paper Book
A magisterial cultural history of the Atlantic Ocean before Columbus, ranging from the early shaping of the continents and the emergence of homo sapiens to the story of shipbuilding, navigation, maritime exploration, slavery, and nascent European imperialism. A...

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