Books Set on Cape Cod & the Islands

The Brewster Flats are a defining feature in our beautiful town. If you close your eyes and think about what makes this town unique and special, a vision of the Brewster flats will inevitably enter your mind: other-worldly. Alive. Ever-changing. A wonder.

     This essential guidebook presents the most abundantly illustrated and fascinating account of the natural history of Cape Cod, its nearby islands, Block Island, the western coast of Rhode Island, and southeastern Long Island ever published. Exploring the ecology and most common plants and animals of the various regional environments— beaches, dunes, salt marshes, heathlands, and coastal forests— the book also encompasses marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish offshore.
 

Swirling Currents tells the story behind the headlines. Sharks chasing seals chasing fish. Highly endangered right whales getting closer to their demise. Hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles on frigid Cape Cod beaches. Fishing industry reduced to harvest by quotas as shellfish aquaculture skyrockets. The Gulf Stream, driving the world’s climate, slowing down and the Gulf of Maine heating up faster than predicted with potentially grave global consequences. Swirling Currents describes what led to controversies, compromises and hope for the future as we live with dynamic coastal change.

     What do the wreck of the Liberty ship James Longstreet, Provincetown dune shacks, a great white shark, and surfers at Wellfleet's Lecount Hollow have in common? They're all captured from altitudes of up to 400 feet in photographs by Cape Cod native Christopher Seufert. More than 100 images reveal the cape's ocean currents, tide pools, geological forms, and orderly town grids from never-before-seen angles and perspectives. They also give equal exposure to both hidden corners and well-traveled landmarks of every town on the cape, including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

     Cape Cod has become the world’s hotspot for the Great White shark. In growing numbers, scores of the fearsome predators patrol local waters to hunt for their favorite prey among the crowded seal colonies. But, unlike JAWS, where a shark terrorized an island community, the beasts that have flocked to the shores of the world-renowned summer resort have been good for business. The spotter planes, shark warning pennants, beach closings, and occasional seal kills have created an air of excitement rather than fear.

     This charming story about three California sisters spending the summer on Cape Cod is perfect for fans of The Penderwicks—as a starred ALA Booklist review raved—and The Mother-Daughter Book Club.

     A classic of Cape Cod literature and a great piece of nature writing, The House on Nauset Marshis a lyrical, poignant and often humorous work of a much-loved land and the people who called it home in a simpler time.

Riptide may be an unusual name for a dog, but it is one that suits this one well. Rip is resolutely drawn to the salty ocean breeze, and the crash of the waves, and he simply cannot be discouraged even in summer when he is forbidden to follow his instincts and race miles along the coast. "No Dogs on Nauset Beach!" the sign reads, and the guards protest, calling for his young owner Zach to come retrieve him daily. Yet Rip will not be deterred, and after one summer storm, it is lucky that he is not.

     Her mother's third marriage is only hours old when all hope for Clare's fifteenth summer fades. Before she knows it, Clare is whisked away to some ancient cottage on a tiny marsh island on Cape Cod to spend the summer with her father—a man she hasn't seen since she was three. 
     Clare's biological father barely talks, and when he does, he obsesses about endangered turtles. The first teenager Clare meets on the Cape confirms that her father is known as the town crazy person. 

A poignant, candid chronicle of a beloved nature writer’s fifty-year relationship with an iconic American landscape.Those who have encountered Cape Cod―or merely dipped into an account of its rich history―know that it is a singular place. Robert Finch writes of its beaches: “No other place I know sears the heart with such a constant juxtaposition of pleasure and pain, of beauty being born and destroyed in the same moment.” And nowhere within its borders is this truth more vivid and dramatic than along the forty miles of Atlantic coast―what Finch has always known as the Outer Beach.