Book-to-Movie Alert: In the Heart of the Sea

This March, Ron Howard brings Nathaniel Philbrick's true life adventure story In The Heart of the Sea to the big screen starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and Ben Whishaw.

In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex--an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby Dick and recounts its doomed crew's ninety-day attempt to survive whale attacks and the elements on three tiny lifeboats.

"A gripping chronicle of an epic voyage of hardship and survival that deserves to be as well known now as it once was." (Kirkus Reviews)

Read more about the movie here.

True Military Intrigue

Chosen as a July "Pick of the Month" by the folks at Amazon, War of the Whales: a True Story by Joshua Horwitz recounts the true story of  two men who face off against an all-powerful navy—as the fate of the ocean’s most majestic creatures hangs in the balance.

 

Crusading attorney Joel Reynolds stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine detection system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound—and drives whales onto beaches. As Reynolds launches a legal fight to expose and challenge the Navy program, marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas. Investigating this calamity, Balcomb is forced to choose between his conscience and an oath of secrecy he swore to the Navy in his youth.

 

When Balcomb and Reynolds team up to expose the truth behind an epidemic of mass strandings, the stage is set for an epic battle that pits admirals against activists, rogue submarines against weaponized dolphins, and national security against the need to safeguard the ocean environment. Waged in secret military labs and the nation’s highest court, War of the Whales is a real-life thriller that combines the best of legal drama, natural history, and military intrigue.

 

Nonfiction for Novel Lovers

Non fiction sometimes gets a bad rap as being boring or dull.  Check out these true stories that read like novels.

• Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian American, chooses to ride out Hurricane Katrina in his New Orlean home.  After the storm, he travels the city in a canoe rescuing neighbors and caring for abandoned pets until his is arrested by a group of National Guardsmen, accused of terrorist activity, refused contact with his family, and held with charges or trial for 23 days.  Dave Eggers tells his story in Zeitoun.
• Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger follows a Texas high school football team as they pursue the state championship. The story attempts to understand a football crazy small town where sports overrules academics and most other aspects of life.
• Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal.