Riot Recommendation: 42 of Your Favorite Books About Pirates
Born into abject poverty in the British Empire, our narrator aspires to a better life as a ship’s surgeon—until a tyrannical captain provokes a mutiny, forcing him into a life of piracy and eventually to a tropical commune of maroons called New Madagascar. Told through a series of confessions to those who visit the narrator during his imprisonment at Marshalsea, The Anatomist's Tale relates one man’s brush with the heady freedom of outlaws—and the price of returning to “civilization.”
Ahoy, me hearties! These stay-at-home orders have us feeling like landlubbers and we’re jonesing for stories about life back on the high seas. So we asked you for yer favorite books about the pirate life. You gave us fictional tales and nonfiction accounts alike, then we rounded up yer answers. We’re back to share the bookish bounty with all ye Riot scallywags!
After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman
Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin
The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini
The Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer
The Captain Alatriste series by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown
Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
Frenchman’s Creek by Dauphne du Maurier
The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
Heart of a Pirate – Pamela Johnson
The History of Pirates – Angus Konstam
How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean by Edward Kritzler
Lady Smoke by Laura Sebastian
The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner
Ned the Knitting Pirate by Diana Murray and Leslie Lammle
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Pirate Cruncher by Jonny Duddle
Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson
The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd by Richard Zacks
Pirate Latitudes by Micheal Crichton
Pirate Princess by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Pirates: A New History, from Vikings to Somali Raiders by Peter Lehr
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Port Side Pirates by Oscar Seaworthy
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Sea Scoundrel by Annette Blair
The Sweet Trade by Elizabeth Garrett
The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson
These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates by Brian Kilmeade & Don Yaeger
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly
The Vampirates series by Justin Somper
The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found by Martin W. Sandler
The Wild Irish: A Novel of Elizabeth I and the Pirate O’Malley by Robin Maxwell
