Recommended Books

Most of the books listed below have been printed in Bermuda. Thus, while they're readily available on the island, they may be hard to find in the United States and elsewhere.

The Mysterious Bermuda Triangle

Many writers have attempted to explain the Bermuda Triangle. None has sufficiently done so yet, but all of these books make good reads for those of us intrigued by this tantalizing mystery.

The best of the lot is The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved (Prometheus Books) by Larry Kusche. It's a good read even though it doesn't "solve" the mystery. A mass-market paperback, Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle (Berkley Pub group), by Greg Donegan, also digs into the puzzle, as does another paperback, The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle (Heineman Library), by Chris Oxlade.

Art & Architecture

For Bermuda style, both inside the house and outside, two books lead the pack: Bermuda Antique Furniture and Silver, published by Bermuda National Trust, and Architecture Bermuda Style, by David R. Raine, issued by Pompano Publications.

Divers, Hikers & Shipwrecks

Daniel Berg has written the finest book on the shipwrecks of Bermuda -- a great choice for a diver to read before actually going under the water. It's called Bermuda Shipwrecks: A Vacationing Diver's Guide to Bermuda's Shipwrecks (Aqua Explorers).

Divers might also like to pick up a copy of Marine Fauna and Flora of Bermuda (Wiley Publishing, Inc.), edited by Wolfgang Sterrer. Another good book for divers is Diving Bermuda (AquaQuest Publications), part of the Aqua Quest Diving Series, this one authored by Jesse Concelmo and Michael Strohofer. Its second edition is the most up-to-date of all the sports guides to Bermuda.

History

In Bermuda's bookstores you can find several books devoted to the colorful history of the island. Making for the best reads are the following titles: The Rich Papers -- letters from Bermuda by Vernon A. Ives (Bermuda National Trust and the University of Toronto Press); Biography of a Colonial Town by Jean de Chantal Kennedy (Bermuda Bookstores Publisher); A Life on Old St. David's by Ernest A. McCallan (Bermuda Historical Society); Chained on the Rock: Slavery in Bermuda by Cyril O. Packwood (Baxters); and Bermuda's Story by Terry Tucker (Bermuda Bookstores Publisher).

Flora & Fauna

If you're a devotee of the lushness of beauty, from Mother Nature's point of view, seek out Bermuda Houses and Gardens by Ann B. Brown and Jean Outerbridge (Garden Club of Bermuda); Bermuda: Her Plants and Gardens 1609-1850 by Jill Collett (Macmillan Caribbean); and A Guide to the Reef, Shore and Game Fish of Bermuda (self-published) by Louis S. Mowbray.

Fiction

One of the most sensitive portraits, capturing Bermuda of long ago, is The Back Yard by Ann Z. Williams (Macmillan), an account of growing up in Bermuda in the 1930s and '40s.