Princess Cruises Book Club : Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises Book Club

The Princess Cruises Book Club offers an opportunity for fascinating literary discussions among passengers. Debuting on the Pacific Princess World Cruise, the book club offers a selection of books that are reflective of the interest of the ship’s passengers.

Selections for the Princess Cruise Book Club are drawn from the New York Time’s best-seller’s list and depending on the length of the voyage one or more Book Club meetings will be scheduled. Passenger can check the ship’s Princess Patter for details about the Book Club selection and meeting time.

Each Book Club meeting will be led by the ship’s Librarian who will provide a short history of the author and lead the group discussion. For those who wish to participate on their voyage but haven’t yet read the selection, multiple copies of the book will be available at the ship’s library, as well as for purchase in the boutique stores.

The Choice, Nicholas Sparks

January 10 to January 26 - Port Everglades to Easter Island

Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, The Choice ultimately confronts us with the most heart wrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?

Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965. Sparks lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. In 1994 at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. Other well known books followed including Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Wedding –all of which were domestic and international best sellers.

Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert

January 27 to February 13 - At Sea to Sydney

Eat, Pray, Love, is Elizabeth Gilbert’s travelogue of spiritual seeking. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. The novelist and journalist provide a frank rundown of her traveling skills, built on the notion of a woman trying to heal herself from a severe emotional and spiritual crisis.

Elizabeth Gilbert was born in Connecticut in 1969, raised on a small family Christmas tree farm. Elizabeth went to college in New York City in the early 1990’s, and spent the years after college traveling around the country and the world. In addition to writing books, Elizabeth has worked steadily as a journalist writing for publications such as New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Travel and Leisure and Allure. Her GQ memoir about her bartending years became the Disney movie Coyote Ugly.

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

February 14 to February 27 - At Sea to Iwo Jima

Jacob Jankowski is pushing 90 and wallowing in a nursing home, abandoned by his family and surrounded by aged octogenarians who irk him with their senility. Sara Gruen’s mesmerizing new novel is a compelling story of a man who lies in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, lucidness and dreams. Surprising, poignant and funny, Water for Elephants is that rare novel with a story so engrossing; one is reluctant to put it down.

Sara Gruen lives with her husband and three children in an environmentalist community outside of Chicago. An award-winning technical writer, she made her fiction debut in 2004 with Riding Lessons, followed by Flying Changes. Water for Elephants is her third novel.

Into the Wild, John Krakauer

February 28 to March 15 - At Sea to Singapore

Jon Krakauer's best-selling Into the Wild tells the true story of Chris McCandless, an honors graduate from Emory University who walked into the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. The story unfolds when Chris breaks contact with everyone he knows, gives away everything he owns and disappears into the Alaskan wilderness as a homeless man for two years. This beautiful but wrenching story tells a tragic and exulting journey of spirit and moral inquiry.

Krakauer was born in Massachusetts in 1954, moved to Oregon with his family shortly thereafter, and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Krakauer is an unfaltering outdoorsman with a love of nature. His writing career includes a lifelong passion for adventure, the wilderness, and mountain climbing.

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

March 16 to March 27 - At Sea to Dubai

An unforgettable and heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant. The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, the possibility of redemption and the power of fathers over sons--their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980. The Kite Runner is his first novel.

The Secret, Rhonda Byrne

March 28 to April 11 - At Sea to Civitavecchia

Is there a “secret” to wealth, abundance—to life? Rhonda Byrne and a host of professional doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs and others believe so. Byrne and these experts share their wisdom and examples of the “secret” principles in Byrne’s new bestselling book aptly titled, The Secret. The Secret begins with Byrne’s own story of how “The Secret” appeared in her life and how she sought to share it. While The Secret has taken the world by storm, critics and supporters alike question its principles, particularly in regard to health.

Rhonda Byrne was born in Australia. Her hugely popular self help book, DVD, and media products called "The Secret" focus on the law of attraction and thinking positively.

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

April 12 to April 22 - Cannes to Southampton

The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature, one that captures the horrors of the Great Depression as it probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. In stark and moving detail, John Steinbeck depicts the lives of ordinary people striving to preserve their humanity in the face of social and economic desperation.

John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902 of German and Irish ancestry. After graduating from Salinas High School in 1919, Steinbeck attended Stanford University. His first novel, Cup of Gold was published in 1929 but attracted little attention. During World War II, Steinbeck was a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. Some of his dispatches were later collected and made into Once There Was a War. John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 “…for his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and a keen social perception.” Throughout his life John Steinbeck remained a private person who shunned publicity. He died December 20, 1968, in New York City.