June's GeoCat - Islands and Bodies of Water

Welcome to June's GeoCAT. Our location for this month is a rather broad one, Islands and Bodies of Water.

Oceans



♦Oceans cover about 70% of Earth's surface and contain approximately 97% of our water supply.
♦The oceans of Earth are unique in our solar system. No other planet in our solar system has liquid water, though recent findings suggest Mars may have had some liquid water at one time.
♦Prior to the year 2000, there were four recognized oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic. In the Spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization delimited a new ocean, the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica and extends to 60 degrees latitute.

Ocean Fiction Possibilities:
Life of Pi
Moby Dick
Sphere
Jaws
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Ocean Nonfiction Possibilities:
Blue Latitudes
Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders
Godforsaken Sea
Over the Edge of the World

Islands



♦Greenland is by far the world's largest island that is not a continent. It covers 822,706 square miles which is more than double the second largest island, New Guinea. For such a large island, Greenland only has a population of around 56,000 people making it one of the least densely populated places in the world.
♦Java is the world's most populated island with over 130 million people
♦Some islands are manmade. One example of this is the Kansai Airport in Japan which sits on a manmade island.
♦Around 1 in 6 people on the planet live on an island.

Island Fiction Possibilities:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Iceland's Bell
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Lighthouse
Shutter Island

Island Nonfiction Possibilities:
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Ghost Soldiers
Lost in Shangri-La
And the Sea Will Tell

I've not included them here, but obviously bodies of water could include lakes, seas, rivers, etc. And, if you're wanting to go off the map a bit, you could even venture to Atlantis.

Be sure to add your selection to the WIKI

June's focus is the Atlantic Ocean.



♦The Atlantic Ocean is the world's second largest ocean, behind the Pacific Ocean.
♦With a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres, it covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area.
♦A List of Islands in the Atlantic Ocean

Fiction Possibilities:
The Hunt for Red October
Raise the Titanic!
The Lifeboat

Nonfiction Possibilities:
The Perfect Storm
A Night to Remember
Atlantic: The Biography of an Ocean

>1 virginiahomeschooler: Great job on these intro posts! I did not know there was a 5th ocean...where have I been since 2000?

For this CAT, I am planning to read Death in the Andamans by M.M. Kaye, which is set in the Andaman Islands between India and Burma.

I'm thinking White Nights by Ann Cleeves which will also fit the MysteryCAT.

I'm really looking forward to this GeoCAT. June is a do-what-you-want month for me reading wise, so other than catching up on a couple of books I'm lagging behind with, I'll have free range. I'm sure I'll get at least one book to fit this challenge.
You just HAD TO go and tempt me with Moby Dick, didn't you? I really don't have the time to read that, but I so want to. Argh!

I'll probably read the latest in the Ann Cleeves Shetland Island series, Dead Water. I can probably come up with a non-fiction book for this month's challenge, too.

>1 virginiahomeschooler: Great setting and wonderful top images, thanks :)

I'm planning on Over the Edge of the World - my first non-fiction GeoCAT this year!

Beautiful set-up to this thread!

I am planning on reading Voices by Arnaldur Indridason which is set in Iceland, and for the focus on the Atlantic, The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott which is about the Titanic.

I've had Trawler: A Journey Through the North Atlantic by Redmond O'Hanlon on my TBR for awhile. I'll start with that.

I've got Independent People by Halldór Laxness waiting to be read, so I'll use that. I'll be reading it in German.

I'm planning to read something about the Atlantic, and probably about the Titanic -- most possibly Down with the Old Canoe by Steven Biel.

I'm using the GeoCAT to narrow down my choices for the MysteryCAT. My shortlist includes:

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon (Venice)
The Likeness by Tana French (Ireland)
Necessary As Blood by Deborah Crombie (Great Britain)
They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer (Great Britain)
Past Tense by Cahterine Aird (Great Britain)
Something by Ruth Rendell (Great Britain)

And these non-MysteryCAT books:
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
The Hooded Hawke by Karen Harper (Great Britain)
A Royal Murder by Elliott Roosevelt (Bahamas)
The Foundling by Georgette Heyer (Great Britain)

Great intro!

I will definitely be reading something for this one. I have quite a few possibilities on my shelves. The first one I can think of without actually going to look, is The Bungalow by Sarah Jio, it is set on a Pacific Island. I have also had my eye on The Dressmaker for a while so thanks for reminding me of that one Judy.

Can you give me a ruling, virginiahomeschooler? I have several reads planned, but my question is about Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. That one fits every CAT and KIT. But does it qualify for the Atlantic Ocean focus? The setting is The Shetland Islands, which wikipedia says "form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. To me, that reads that The Shetland Islands border both seas, therefore on the very edge of the Atlantic, therefore qualifies. But am I getting too excited about finding, for my first time, a book that fits everything, and carrying this too far? :)

GeoCAT: Islands and Water: Shetland Islands
GeoCAT Focus: Atlantic Ocean: ????
MysteryCAT: Police Procedural
RandomCAT: Rose in the Title: Black Baccara Hybrid Tea Rose
AlphaKIT: A & Q: Author: A-Ann
GastroKIT: Meat or Red Wine: Linganore Winecellars Black Raven (dry red wine)

>15 countrylife: The Wikipedia list of Atlantic islands linked to in message >2 virginiahomeschooler: above includes Shetland. I think you're good.

Even if it didn't fit the sub-focus, it still fits the broader theme of oceans & islands.

I loved Raven Black when I read it several years ago. I hope you enjoy it too!

>15 countrylife: The North Sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean so the Shetlands definitely count!

Yay! CAT-trick!

>15 countrylife:, Yes, it absolutely counts! Well done on the CAT-trick!

You've all got some great looking books planned. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to read, yet, but I'm leaning toward something Titanic related.

In memory of Alistair MacLeod who died last month, I'll be reading No Great Mischief set in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

I have a couple of science fiction classics waiting on the kindle that would work: The Island of Doctor Moreau and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I'm already way behind in my reading for May, so I'm hoping to get to everything I plan to read in June. (Wow! Summer already. Where does the time go? lol)

I'm going to head over to the South Pacific for my book and read Breadfruit by Celestine Vaite which takes place on Tahiti. I read Frangipani by her last year and since I had this in my TBR also, I thought I'd read it.

oh! I think White Nights will be a CAT-trick! Yay for me. First for the year!

I'll be reading The Lighthouse by P.D. James also for a cat trick.

Other possibilities from Planet TBR:

The Beak of the Finch - (Galapagos Islands) - Jonathan Weiner
Rainbow's End - (Orcas Island/ San Juan Islands) - Irene Hannon
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

>24 majkia: CAT tricks have been hard to come by this year.

My top choices for this one included (before I saw the focus):

- Shutter Island / Dennis Lehane
- Annabel / Kathleen Winter
- The Sea of Monsters / Rick Riordan

Now, one of my possibilities for the MysteryCAT is The Likeness / Tana French, so that puts it at the top of my list for both, especially as it fits the focus. And Annabel, I believe, is in Newfoundland.

So, those are two more likely. It's possible I'll be reading others that might fit, as well (especially with England even fitting the focus).

Annabel also fits June's alphaCAT, but there is a huge hold list at the library for the ebook. I'll check the print, but I bet it's similarly long. So, that one may or may not happen.

I went ahead and started Over the Edge, about Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, when the last audio book I'd picked for May turned out to be a dud. I just hope I can make it last until June!

edit - corrected touchstone

I have a few planned for this CAT:
The Shadow Line - sea captain stranded on his ship in the tropics with a feverous crew.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - I think the ocean of the title is actually a pond though.
Max Havelaar - takes place in Indonesia.

>30 aliciamay: Well, it's both a pond and an ocean at the same time, IIRC.

I am reading a mystery, Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley.

I have a book waiting for me to pick it up from the library that would fit this theme perfectly. The Ghost of the Mary Celeste is about a ghost ship discovered on the Atlantic Ocean.

I'm currently reading A Sailor of Austria about an Austrian U-Boot Captain in WWI, which would also work well. It's also very good. I may have to get the rest of the series.

I really liked Starvation Lake, Roberta -- I hope you will, too.

>29 sjmccreary:
Just wanted to let you know that your touchstone is pointing to the wrong book.

Thanks, ccookie - I corrected it above, but the correct book is Over the Edge of the World. And it's very good so far - the expedition has just discovered the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America. About half way through the book.

I plan to read:

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America - John M Barry.

The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert. Set partially in Tahiti

I'm planning on:

White Nights set in the Shetlands
A Burial at Sea - Suez Canal
The Blackhouse - the Hebrides

Possibilities: on my TBR shelves:
Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowatt
The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell
Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke
Second Nature by Alice Hoffman
Sons for the Return Home by Albert Wendt
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Treasure Island by Robert. Louis Stevenson
20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

>35 RidgewayGirl: Can't wait!

My first book for this theme is Hannibal: Clouds of War it is set in Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and is the third book in Ben Kane's Hannibal series.

I haven't been that successful at reading to themes etc this year, but have lined up Tina Makereti's first novel which came out recently, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings is mostly set in the Chatham Islands, also the South and North Island of New Zealand.

I think I'm going to read Islands out of Time. It's a fictional memoir of the last days of Atlantis--heaven knows how long I've had it since I came across it in my childhood bedroom while sorting through old books, but it's one I never got around to in the past!

As mentioned earlier, I started Over the Edge of the World last week, and I finished it last evening. A nonfiction account of Magellan's expedition to discover a westward route to the spice islands in the far east. It drew heavily on the diary kept by one of the men on board and told the story of the mutinies, the crew's fear and distrust of Magellan, the wretched weather conditions, the search for the longed-for strait across the American continent, the immensity of the Pacific Ocean, the different native people they discovered, and their eventual landing on the spice islands. Of course, after taking on a cargo of cloves, they continued to sail west to complete the first circumnavigation of the world. It was tedious at times, as was the voyage, but informative and interesting overall. Recommended.

I'll be reading Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley, about the fight for the Eastern Mediterranean in the 16th century.

I've started Dead Water by Ann Cleeves, from the Shetland Island series.

I've changed my mind about the June GeoCAT reading. I'm no longer planning to read anything about the Titanic; I have already read several books about that ship, and have reviewed at least 2. Currently, I'm reading Quaker Nantucket by Robert J. Leach and Peter Gow about the history of Quakers on Nantucket Island with special emphasis on their role in the whaling industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I also have a hold at our public library on Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman about Michael Rockefeller's disappearance in the area of New Guinea in the early 1960s; I'm expecting to receive it around the middle of the month. I heard Mr. Hoffman speak at the Virginia Book Festival this past March; he thinks that Rockefeller was a victim of cannibalism on New Guinea instead of drowning trying to reach the island after his boat capsized. Also this month I'm hoping to receive the book I won through the LT early review program which is Victura by James W. Graham about the Kennedy family's sailboat and their sailing; of course, sailing is done on water! I should have plenty of books to read for this challenge.

I finished my first book for this challenge. A Royal Murder is set in the Bahamas in 1940, with Eleanor Roosevelt solving a murder and uncovering a Nazi plot.

I just finished Hannibal: Clouds of War set on the island of Sicily. It was a very good addition to Ben Kane's Hannibal series. As I suspected, there will be another to follow this one at some point in the future.

I've completed Voices by Arnaldur Indridason. Set in Iceland I was a little disappointed with this one as most of the book was set in a large hotel and so I didn't get any of the flavor of Iceland that I look forward to with this series.

I've finished my Geo book for this month - Breadfruit by Celestine Vaite which takes place in Tahiti.

I finished Moloka'i by Alan Brenner, for the Islands piece. I'm hoping to read The Secret Life of Lobsters which deal with lobster fishing off the coast of Maine, so that should meet the focus challenge.

I finished Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry and just realised that it fits this challenge as it's set on an island in New England. Most of the action takes place in the local bookstore called, Island Books. A bit whimsical but definitely a book for booklovers.

and, I'd love one of the promotional t-shirts:

and the posters for bookshops to promote her book

>53 LoisB: - Lois - I started reading that last month and never thought about this challenge. Luckily (?) I haven't finished it yet. So I'll be counting it for this challenge too. I've gotten bogged down about 20 pages from the end. Rainy day today so maybe I'll plunk myself down and finish it.

>54 avatiakh: - Kerri - looks like I'll be taking a BB for this one. Books about books always interest me.

>54 avatiakh: Ooh, that's a great quote! If there's a bookstore near you that's displaying those posters, you can always ask them for one! I think most places would just throw the posters away once they were done promoting the book, so they wouldn't mind giving one to you, I'm sure!

Love the T-shirt!

Starting Alexander McCall Smith's The Charming Quirks of Others, set in Edinburgh, which is on an island.

I finised Dead Water by Ann Cleeves -- set in the Shetland Islands. I've started Rolling Thunder by Chris Grabenstein, set at the New Jersey shore on a barrier island.

COMPLETED The Charming Quirks of Others

>53 LoisB:. I hope you liked it, Lois!

>62 LibraryCin: I loved Moloka'i. Here's what I said on my 75 challenge page:

This is a story of a young Hawaiian child with Hansen's disease (leprosy), at the turn of the twentieth century, who is taken from her family and sent to live on Molokai. The author provides considerable detail about Hawaiian culture and topography, as well as the treatment and struggles endured by the patients.

I enjoyed this immensely; any story that leaves me crying gets 4 stars.

The Likeness / Tana French
4 stars

When Lexie is found murdered and the police come to investigate, they are surprised that the victim is a dead ringer for former-Murder and former-Undercover (now in Domestic Violence) cop, Cassie Maddox. Not only that, “Lexie Madison” was the former identity of Cassie at one point while she was undercover – Lexie Madison is a completely made up person! Frank, Lexie's former undercover partner suggests sending Cassie in to live with Lexie's roommates as Lexie, telling the roommates that Lexie lived, in order to hopefully get some inside information on what happened.

I really liked this! I know some people didn't because it wasn't really believable, and I agree that it's not, but I enjoyed it, anyway. I was still waiting to see if/when Lexie's roommates/friends would figure out that something wasn't right with Lexie and I wanted to know what happened.

>63 LoisB:. I'm so glad to hear it! :-)

The Sea of Monsters / Rick Riordan
3.5 stars

In book 2 of the series, half-human/half-god Percy is looking forward to heading back to Camp Half-Blood for the summer after grade 7, but there have been problems at the camp. Percy and his friends must go on a quest to save the camp.

I had hoped that listening to the audio might draw me in a little more. The audio was fun and I did enjoy it, enough to rate it “good”, 3.5 stars. I did lose focus occasionally and I thought the Grover storyline was just silly, but it's a kid's book, so I suppose for most interested in reading the book, silly is ok.

Just realized my Eco read The Island of the Day Before as a perfect fit for the June GeoCAT. The story focuses on a shipwreck on board an abandoned ship within sight of (but not within reach of) an unidentified island in the Pacific Ocean.

I've finished The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trveor Corson. I started it last month not intending it for this challenge but didn't finish it and was reminded it would fit this challenge when LoisB mentioned she was going to read it.

I finished Shutter Island, which was very good, I resisted reading it a little bit at first because I saw the movie, but I'm glad that I finally read it.

I'm going to count Eco's The book of legendary lands for this. Not only are many of these lands islands, but the others are also mostly reached by sea.

It may seem peculiar to chose something about 'legendary' geology, but Eco spends a lot of time on trying to compare legendary geography with the real lands that inspired them, and on how we went from quite unsure ideas of geography to our current understanding of the world.

>68 dudes22: That's next up on my list. You can also count it for the June TIOLI challenge #7 if you do those.

Not an Atlantic island, but a Pacific one -
I finished The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama - truly enjoyed it.

>72 mysterymax: Great to know, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms was one of my top ten read of last year. It's a hit !

>73 electrice: Thanks for the BB!

>73 electrice: I really liked The Street of a Thousand Blossoms too

I finished Rolling Thunder by Chris Grabenstein, part of the John Ceepak mystery series set on a barrier island at the New Jersey Shore. I love this series, and this was one of the better ones, IMO.

I started The Summer Book today to discover it takes place on an island in the Gulf of Finland.

Starting The Malay Archipelago by the 19th century naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace.

I have read The Lost Duchess which starts in England, journeys over the sea to Roanoke Island, where the bulk of the story takes place. I would say this book is an historical, romance adventure.

Just finished Rilla of Ingleside, set on beautiful Prince Edward Island, Canada. This might be my favourite of the series, primarily because of the WW1 aspect.

Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses / Alison Weir
3.5 stars

In the century before Henry VIII, there was a struggle for the English crown, between the Houses of York and Lancaster. This was later called the “Wars of the Roses”.

I've read only a small bit of fiction on this topic, but not much and only fiction. This one is nonfiction, though, and as with most nonfiction, there were a lot of names to remember (and at this time a lot of names (and titles) were used and reused, so it did get confusing sometimes), and it does read slower than fiction. However, I learned about a time and people I really didn't know much or anything about, which is always interesting. And something I know about myself is that I tend to be more interested in historical women, so someone I've learned I'd like to read more about is Margaret of Anjou. Overall, an interesting read, but definitely not quick.

I went looking for the wonderful historical novel series about the women in the War of the Roses. I see you have also read some of it: http://www.librarything.com/series/Cousins%27+War In the process I discovered that Philippa Gregory also wrote part of a book of straight history about The Women of the Cousins' War. I think I need to buy it.

Weir is always good, but often somewhat heavy.

I'm reading Trawler: A Journey Through the North Atlantic by Redmond O'Hanlon. I'm only forty or so pages in, but I'm thinking this may be how I spend my Sunday. One child is off at a birthday party, the other will be recovering from a sleep-over (they were still giggling at 2:30 this morning) and my SO is making BBQ, so I should be able to concentrate without interruption.

>82 MarthaJeanne: Thank you for that! I did find out after I wrote my review that I do have one book on Margaret of Anjou already on my tbr: The Queen of Last Hopes by Susan Higginbotham.

Yes, I have read both The Red Queen and The White Queen and really liked both of them. :-)

The Women of the Cousins' War sounds particularly interesting. I could see myself trying everything in that series at some point, as well.

Thanks again!

And yes, I really like Alison Weir, but the nonfiction can get heavy. I loved her fiction book Innocent Traitor, but I have loved reading about Lady Jane Grey since I was in high school.

I finished The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez, it is set in the Caribbean which is part of the Atlantic and it is an island but fictional place. Good writing even with extreme run on sentences and never ending paragraphs.

I finished The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker which is predominantly set on New York's Manhattan Island.

I finished Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton, set on Lake Superior's shore.

I read We Are Water by Wally Lamb this month. It was set in Connecticut and part of the story takes place on the Atlantic ocean (swimming) and walking the beach. I hadn't thought of posting it because I kept thinking island.

I recently finished Death in the Andamans by M.M. Kaye, a vintage mystery (published in 1960) set in the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. There's a small British community on one of the islands, and a huge storm leaves them all trapped on the island with no communication with the outside world. And then, of course, there's a murder.... It was a fun read and a great pick for this CAT, because the island setting was integral to the plot!

>86 lkernagh: Although I didn't read it specifically for this challenge, I also completed The Golem and the Jinni.

I've finished both my planned reads for this challenge. Both 4 star books:

The Signature of all Things - Elizabeth Gilbert. A book about botany. Set partially on boats in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, plus basically everywhere that Captain Cook explored and on the island of Tahiti. Highly recommended and a fast read.

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America - John M Barry. Set in, on, around and even under the Mississippi River and it's tributaries. Informative and not at all boring.

So far this month I've finished A Royal Murder by Elliott Roosevelt (historical mystery set in the Bahamas), The Best Man to Die by Ruth Rendell (Great Britain), Heat Wave by Richard Castle (Manhattan), and Murder at Hatfield House by Amanda Carmack.

I finished So Terrible a Storm: A Tale of Fury on Lake Superior by Curt Brown.

I've finished White Nights by Ann Cleeves, for my CATtrick. It's also a Quad Trick since it fits the unofficial AlphaKit. :) It is also a damn good book!

I finished a couple more - The Likeness by Tana French, set in Ireland, and Towards Zero by Agatha Christie, set on the island of Great Britain.

I'm now reading A Ring of Endless Light.

Lots of water.

And very moving.

I read Savage Harvest: a Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman tells the probable story of Michael Rockefeller's being killed and eaten by the leaders of the Asmat, a "primitive" people living in Asmat, a place in what was at that time Dutch New Guinea. This book also examines the life and culture of the Asmat people, and describes Hoffman's pursuit in tracking down the story of Rockefeller's death, and why it occurred. Mr. Hoffman twice took trips to Asmat; the second time after he had taken lessons in Bahasa Indonesian so that he could communicate with the people without an interpreter. This was a book I was especially interested in reading after hearing Mr. Hoffman describe it at the Virginia Book Festival last March. An excellent book, 5 stars.

I've finished The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott and although I really enjoyed the parts about the Titanic and the enquiries that followed the sinking, I wasn't enamoured with the love story.

Finished Islands Out of Time: A Memoir of the Last Days of Atlantis: A Novel...not half as interesting as it sounds, I'm afraid.

I've finished and reviewed two very enjoyable books for the challenge so far this month:

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley, about the battle between the Ottoman Empire and various Western European powers for control of the Mediterranean.

and

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, an archaeological romance-thriller whose setting on the North Sea coast of Scotland is crucial to its plot.

I wonder if The People in the Trees would count for this challenge. It's set on a fictional island in Micronesia, but the author has said in an interview that the island's history and physical characteristics were inspired by Hawaii and Angra dos Reis (an archipelago off the coast of southern Brazil). In any case, I though it was a fabulous novel, though it's received mixed reviews from readers.

#101 by mathgirl40> Sounds like it should fit fine.

>102 majkia: Thanks, I'll add it to the wiki page!

Shutter Island / Dennis Lehane
3.5 stars

Teddy is a U.S. Marshal heading out to Shutter Island with his partner, Chuck, to investigate an escaped convict/patient. Shutter Island holds a penitentiary/hospital for those who have been convicted of very violent crimes, and someone, somehow has escaped.

Though the opening/introductory chapter peaked my interest, after that, it started a bit slow. It never reached a page-turner status like I was expecting. It was good and I was surprised at the twist, but it wasn't quite the suspenseful, thrilling page-turner I thought it would be. The very last chapter had me a bit confused. I also had to turn back to the start to remind myself who wrote that bit of journal at the beginning, as it's not referred to again at the end.

>104 LibraryCin: Interesting - it's one of those books that I started but never finished. I've been thinking about reading it for my Second Chance category this year.

I just finished an ARC of The Summer Wind by Mary Alice Monroe that fits this category. It's set on Sullivan's Island. It's well-written for its genre and has some great characters!

I had to ditch Starvation Lake for now because I read 3 detective/police procedural novels this month already. I started Treasure Island narrated by Alfred Molina. So far he has done a wonderful job.

I listened to The Tempest, which is set on an unnamed island probably somewhere in the Mediterranean. It was my first experience with this play, and I was surprised at how many common quotations originate from it.

>108 cbl_tn: Full fathom five thy father lies / Of his bones are coral made / Those are pearls that were his eyes / Nothing of him that doth change / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange.

One of my favorite quotes from Shakespeare. I saw it performed this year. It is one of my favorites of his plays.

>105 LoisB: Good luck if you decide to give it another try!

I just finished China Mountain Zhang, which fits this challenge because a long section of the book is set on Baffin Island in the Arctic. Other sections are set in Brooklyn on Long Island.

>108 cbl_tn: & >109 sturlington: I first came into proper contact with The Tempest about two years ago when I listened to an audio drama version of it (and loved it, as I tend to do with all things Shakespeare). It's a wonderful piece of writing and I'd love to see it on stage.

The Tempest was a lot more fun than I was anticipating. I'd love to see it on stage too. Maybe then I could get rid of my mental image of the setting as Gilligan's Island!

Having done The Tempest as one of my O Level set books many years ago, I greatly enjoyed the recent film version with Helen Mirren as Prospero.

>113 cbl_tn: My mental image is largely influenced by a children's cartoon version I watched some 20 years ago. It's a great version, but still...

I read another: Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye was set on Lake Superior, north of Duluth, MN.

I finished two last books for this month's challenge. They Found Him Dead is another mystery that takes place on the island of Great Britain. Donna Leon's Death at La Fenice is set in the island city of Venice. It's a series I've intended to start for a while, and this challenge finally gave me the nudge I needed.

Just finished The Blackhouse set on the Hebrides Island of Lewis. Amazing and disturbing, and the setting is done beautifully.

My reads for June's GeoCAT challenge:

GeoCAT (Islands and Water):
Focus (Atlantic Ocean) (boldened):

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (3.8 stars)
The Lighthouse by P. D. James (3.6)
The Blackhouse by Peter May (4.6)

Trawler: A Journey through the North Atlantic by Redmond O'Hanlon has been on my TBR for some time and I'm glad to say I should finish it tonight, having just a few dozen pages to go. The information on the ocean around the Orkneys, Shetlands and Rockall is fascinating.

I finished my second book for this challenge, Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason.

Annabel / Kathleen Winter
4 stars

Wayne was born a hermaphrodite, with both boys' and girls' parts. He and his family live in a small town in Labrador, Canada. The only people who know about Wayne are his parents and a family friend, Thomasina. Wayne's parents choose to raise him as a boy, and he has to take medication. Wayne is an adolescent when he finds out, but can feel the girl inside him, a girl he calls Annabel.

I quite liked this. It doesn't move quickly (though it covers a long time period, as Wayne grows up and moves to St. John's, Newfoundland, after high school). I think it's done really well, as Wayne struggles to figure out exactly who he is.