Page Against the Machine Book Group (July 2026 Theme)

Check out this space for suggested titles of Page Against the Machine book group's current month's theme!

For July 2026 , the theme is: The Sea/Ocean: Read any book that’s central setting is the sea/ocean, or is about the sea/ocean.




Updated June 2, 2026
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The blue machine : how the ocean works
Czerski, Helen
Paper Book
A Financial Times Best Science Book of 2023 A scientist's exploration of the "ocean engine"--the physics behind the ocean's systems--and why it matters. All of Earth's oceans, from the equator to the poles, are a single engine powered by sunlight, driving huge...
Blue water, green skipper : a memoir of sailing alone across the Atlantic
Woods, Stuart.
Paper Book
Stuart Woods had never owned more than a dinghy before setting out on one of the world's most demanding sea voyages, navigating single-handedly across the Atlantic. How, at the age of thirty-seven, did this self-proclaimed novice go from small ponds to the big sea? Now with a new...
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 cat's table
Ondaatje, Michael
Paper Book
Booker Award-winning author Michael Ondaatje has penned a stunning new novel. Electrifying and poignant, it tells the story of the sometimes forbidden discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a sea voyage.In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy boards a ship...
The dark frontier : unlocking the secrets of the deep sea
Marlow, Jeffrey
Paper Book
An awe-inspiring investigation into the hidden world of the deep sea--the most mysterious, unforgiving environment on Earth--whose secrets can radically revise our understanding of life itself and chart our planetary future. "A brilliant scientist and storyteller, Jeffrey Marlow...
The deep
Katsu, Alma
Paper Book
From the acclaimed and award-winning author of The Hunger comes an eerie, psychological twist on one of the world's most renowned tragedies, the sinking of the Titanic and the ill-fated sail of its sister ship, the Britannic. Someone, or something, is...
The Endurance : Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition
Alexander, Caroline.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BEST SELLER * A riveting account of Shackleton's famed Antarctic expedition, recounting one of the last great adventures in the Heroic Age of exploration--perhaps the greatest of them all--the shipwreck that stranded the crew for twenty months. Including never-before published...
The eternal Zero
Hyakuta, Naoki
Paper Book
At the 60th Anniversary of the End of World War II, sibling journalists Kentaro and Keiko are given an opportunity to research the death of their estranged grandfather. Apparently he may have been a Kamikaze bomber, but there is much more to his story than just his death. He was a plane builder who...
Frenchman's creek
Du Maurier, Daphne
Paper Book
The hundred days
O'Brian, Patrick
Paper Book
Napoleon, escaped from Elba, pursues his enemies across Europe like a vengeful phoenix. If he can corner the British and Prussians before their Russian and Austrian allies arrive, his genius will lead the French armies to triumph at Waterloo. In the Balkans, preparing a thrust northwards...
In the heart of the sea : the tragedy of the whaleship Essex
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of Valiant Ambition and In the Hurricane's Eye, the riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller and a major motion picture starring Chris Hemsworth, directed by Ron Howard "With its huge, scarred head halfway out of...
Into the drowning deep
Grant, Mira
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Mira Grant, author of the renowned Newsflesh series, returns with a novel that takes us to a new world of ancient mysteries and mythological dangers come to life. The ocean is home to many myths, But some are deadly. . . ...
The last pirate of New York : a ghost ship, a killer, and the birth of a gangster nation
Cohen, Rich
Paper Book
Was he New York City's last pirate . . . or its first gangster? This is the true story of the bloodthirsty underworld legend who conquered Manhattan, dock by dock--for fans of Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire. "History at its best . . . I...
Life of Pi : a novel
Martel, Yann.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The international bestseller and modern classic of adventure, survival, and the power of storytelling is now an award-winning play.  After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only...
Manhattan Beach : a novel
Egan, Jennifer
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A New York Times Notable Book * Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad comes a sweeping historical novel set in the Depression...
Moby-Dick, or, The whale
Melville, Herman
Paper Book
Herman Melville's masterpiece in a deluxe 150th anniversary edition, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history   Over a century and a half after its publication, Moby-Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It is the story of...
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Forester, C. S.
Paper Book
Horatio Hornblower, only seventeen years old, gets his sea legs in this "absolutely compelling" (San Francisco Chronicle) first installment of C. S. Forester's classic naval adventure series. The year is 1793, the eve of the Napoleonic...
The next ship home : a novel of Ellis Island
Webb, Heather
Paper Book
"An unflinching look at the immigrant experience, an unlikely and unique friendship, and a resonant story of female empowerment."--Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman with the Blue Star Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: "Give...
The old man and the sea
Hemingway, Ernest
Paper Book
Story of an old fisherman's struggle against natural obstacles that hinder the catch of a huge marlin.
Other minds : the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paper Book
Philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousness inOther Minds Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has...
The outlaw ocean : journeys across the last untamed frontier
Urbina, Ian
Paper Book
"A riveting, terrifying, thrilling story of a netherworld that few people know about, and fewer will ever see . . . The soul of this book is as wild as the ocean itself." --Susan Casey, best-selling author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
Piranesi
Clarke, Susanna
Paper Book
The award-winning, New York Times bestselling fantasy sensation that Madeline Miller called, "a miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling," Piranesi is an intoxicating, hypnotic novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.<...
Salt to the sea : a novel
Sepetys, Ruta
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A journey to freedom is rocked by an epic disaster in this masterpiece of historical fiction that shines a light on one of World War II's most devastating--yet overlooked--tragedies. WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL "Masterfully crafted."--...
The sea around us
Carson, Rachel
Paper Book
Published in 1951, The Sea Around Us was a phenomenal success. Rachel Carson's rare ability to combine scientific insight with moving, poetic prose catapulted her book to first place on The New York Times bestseller list, where it remained on top for thirty-one consecutive weeks. It stayed on the...
Sextant : a young man's daring sea voyage and the men who mapped the world's oceans
Barrie, David
Paper Book
In the tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude comes sailing expert David Barrie's compelling and dramatic tale of invention and discovery--an eloquent elegy to one of the most important navigational instruments ever created, and the daring mariners who used it to explore, conquer, and map the world....
Sing like fish : how sound rules life under water
Kingdon, Amorina
Paper Book
A captivating exploration of how underwater animals tap into sound to survive, and a clarion call for humans to address the ways we invade these critical soundscapes--from an award-winning science writer "Sing Like Fish is that rare book that makes you see the world...
Sphere : a novel
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton, a riveting science fiction thriller about group of scientists sent to investigate a ship resting on the ocean floor and a discovery that defies imagination. "Crichton keeps us guessing at every turn."--Los Angeles Times ...
Toilers of the sea
Hugo, Victor
Paper Book
"Work can be epic. I want to glorify work, will, devotion, all that makes man great." So wrote Hugo of Toilers of the Sea, his novel about the rescue of a shipwrecked engine by a lonely visionary named Gilliatt. Armed with nothing but primitive tools and a tremendous inventiveness, Gilliatt...
Twenty thousand leagues under the sea
Verne, Jules
Paper Book
Trapped aboard a fantastic submarine with a mad sea captain, a French professor and his companions come face to face with exotic ocean creatures and strange, forbidden sights hidden from the world above. This is the classic deep sea adventure from the world's first and best science-fiction author.
You, me, and the sea : a novel
Donohue, Meg
Paper Book
From the USA Today bestselling author of All the Summer Girls and Dog Crazy comes a spellbinding and suspenseful tale inspired by Wuthering Heights that illuminates the ways in which hope--and even magic--can blossom in the darkest of places. To find her way, she must...

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