The Sailors Bookshelf

Download or read book The Sailor's Bookshelf written by James Stavridis and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2021-12-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Admiral Stavridis, a leader in military, international affairs, and national security circles, shares his love of the sea and some of the sources of that affection. The Sailor's Bookshelf offers synopses of fifty books that illustrate the history, importance, lore, and lifestyle of the oceans and of those who “go down to the sea in ships.” Stavridis colors those descriptions with glimpses of his own service—“sea stories” in popular parlance—that not only clarify his choices but show why he is held in such high esteem among his fellow sailors. ​Divided into four main categories—The Oceans, Explorers, Sailors in Fiction, and Sailors in Non-Fiction—Admiral Stavridis’ choices will appeal to “old salts” and to those who have never known the sights of the ever-changing seascape nor breathed the tonic of an ocean breeze. The result is a navigational aid that guides readers through the realm of sea literature, covering a spectrum of topics that range from science to aesthetics, from history to modernity, from solo sailing to great battles. ​Among these eclectic choices are guides to shiphandling and navigation, classic fiction that pits man against the sea, ecological and strategic challenges, celebrations of great achievements and the lessons that come with failure, economic competition and its stepbrother combat, explorations of the deep, and poetry that beats with the pulse of the wave. Some of the included titles are familiar to many, while others, are likely less well-known but are welcome additions to this encompassing collection. Admiral Stavridis has chosen some books that are relatively recent, and he recommends other works which have been around much longer and deserve recognition. ​

Download or read book Destroyer Captain written by James Stavridis and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This memoir of James Stavridis' two years in command of the destroyer USS Barry reveals the human side of what it is like to be in charge of a warship—for the first time and in the midst of international crisis. From Haiti to the Balkans to the Arabian GulfBarry was involved in operations throughout the world during his 1993–1995 tour. Drawing on daily journals he kept for the entire period, the author reveals the complex nature of those deployments in a "real time" context and describes life on board the Barry and liberty ashore for sailors and officers alike. With all the joy, doubt, self-examination, hope, and fear of a first command, he offers an honest examination of his experience from the bridge to help readers grasp the true nature of command at sea. The window he provides into the personal lives of the crew illuminates not only their hard work in a ship that spent more than 70 percent of its time underway, but also the sacrifices of their families ashore. Stavridis credits his able crew for the many awards the Barry won while he was captain, including the Battenberg Cup for top ship in the Atlantic Fleet. Naval aficionados who like seagoing fiction will be attracted to the book, as will those fascinated by life at sea. Officers from all the services, especially surface warfare naval officers aspiring to command, will find these lessons of a first command by one of the Navy's most respected admirals both entertaining and instructive.

Download or read book The Sailor's Bookshelf written by James Stavridis and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Admiral Stavridis, a leader in military, international affairs, and national security circles, shares his love of the sea and some of the sources of that affection. The Sailor's Bookshelf offers synopses of fifty books that illustrate the history, importance, lore, and lifestyle of the oceans and of those who "go down to the sea in ships." Stavridis colors those descriptions with glimpses of his own service--"sea stories" in popular parlance--that not only clarify his choices but show why he is held in such high esteem among his fellow sailors. Divided into four main categories--The Oceans, Explorers, Sailors in Fiction, and Sailors in Non-Fiction--Admiral Stavridis' choices will appeal to "old salts" and to those who have never known the sights of the ever-changing seascape nor breathed the tonic of an ocean breeze. The result is a navigational aid that guides readers through the realm of sea literature, covering a spectrum of topics that range from science to aesthetics, from history to modernity, from solo sailing to great battles. Among these eclectic choices are guides to shiphandling and navigation, classic fiction that pits man against the sea, ecological and strategic challenges, celebrations of great achievements and the lessons that come with failure, economic competition and its stepbrother combat, explorations of the deep, and poetry that beats with the pulse of the wave. Some of the included titles are familiar to many, while others, are likely less well-known but are welcome additions to this encompassing collection. Admiral Stavridis has chosen some books that are relatively recent, and he recommends other works which have been around much longer and deserve recognition.

Download or read book To Risk It All written by Admiral James Stavridis, USN and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the great naval leaders of our time, a master class in decision-making under pressure through the stories of nine famous acts of leadership in battle, drawn from the history of the United States Navy, with outcomes both glorious and notorious At the heart of Admiral James Stavridis’s training as a naval officer was the preparation to lead sailors in combat, to face the decisive moment in battle whenever it might arise. In To Risk it All, he offers up nine of the most useful and enthralling stories from the US Navy’s nearly 250-year history, and draws from them a set of insights that we can all put to use when confronted with fateful choices. Conflict. Crisis. Risk. These words have a distinct meaning in a military context that we hope will never apply identically in our own lives. But at the same time, as Admiral Stavridis shows with great clarity, many lessons are universal. To Risk it All is filled with thrilling and heroic exploits, but it is anything but a shallow exercise in myth burnishing. Every leader in this book has real flaws, as all humans do, and the stories of failure, or at least the decisions that have been defined as such, are as crucial as the stories of success. In the end, when this master class is concluded, we will be better armed for hard decisions both expected and not.

Download or read book Sea Power written by Admiral James Stavridis, USN and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the most admired admirals of his generation—and the only admiral to serve as Supreme Allied Commander at NATO—comes a remarkable voyage through all of the world’s most important bodies of water, providing the story of naval power as a driver of human history and a crucial element in our current geopolitical path. From the time of the Greeks and the Persians clashing in the Mediterranean, sea power has determined world power. To an extent that is often underappreciated, it still does. No one understands this better than Admiral Jim Stavridis. In Sea Power, Admiral Stavridis takes us with him on a tour of the world’s oceans from the admiral’s chair, showing us how the geography of the oceans has shaped the destiny of nations, and how naval power has in a real sense made the world we live in today, and will shape the world we live in tomorrow. Not least, Sea Power is marvelous naval history, giving us fresh insight into great naval engagements from the battles of Salamis and Lepanto through to Trafalgar, the Battle of the Atlantic, and submarine conflicts of the Cold War. It is also a keen-eyed reckoning with the likely sites of our next major naval conflicts, particularly the Arctic Ocean, Eastern Mediterranean, and the South China Sea. Finally, Sea Power steps back to take a holistic view of the plagues to our oceans that are best seen that way, from piracy to pollution. When most of us look at a globe, we focus on the shape of the of the seven continents. Admiral Stavridis sees the shapes of the seven seas. After reading Sea Power, you will too. Not since Alfred Thayer Mahan’s legendary The Influence of Sea Power upon History have we had such a powerful reckoning with this vital subject.

Download or read book The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats written by Steve Henkel and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2010-01-15 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time ever, a comparative survey of 95 percent of the fiberglass pocketcruising sailboats ever built Author Steve Henkel has researched hundreds of cruising sailboats less than 26 feet long--pocket cruisers--to create this definitive gallery and handbook of the small cruising sailboats built in the last 45 years. With detailed plans, specifications, performance indexes, and commentary for every model the author could find (360 in all!), The Sailor’s Book of Small Cruising Sailboats is your ideal core reference for the used and new boats you see on the water.

Download or read book Sailing True North written by Admiral James Stavridis, USN and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the most distinguished admirals of our time and a former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, a meditation on leadership and character refracted through the lives of ten of the most illustrious naval commanders in history In Sailing True North, Admiral Stavridis offers lessons of leadership and character from the lives and careers of history's most significant naval commanders. He also brings a lifetime of reflection to bear on the subjects of his study--naval history, the vocation of the admiral, and global geopolitics. Above all, this is a book that will help you navigate your own life's voyage: the voyage of leadership of course, but more important, the voyage of character. Sailing True North helps us find the right course to chart. Simply as epic lives, the tales of these ten admirals offer up a collection of the greatest imaginable sea stories. Moreover, spanning 2,500 years from ancient Greece to the twenty-first century, Sailing True North is a book that offers a history of the world through the prism of our greatest naval leaders. None of the admirals in this volume were perfect, and some were deeply flawed. But from Themistocles, Drake, and Nelson to Nimitz, Rickover, and Hopper, important themes emerge, not least that serving your reputation is a poor substitute for serving your character; and that taking time to read and reflect is not a luxury, it's a necessity. By putting us on personal terms with historic leaders in the maritime sphere he knows so well, James Stavridis gives us a compass that can help us navigate the story of our own lives, wherever that voyage takes us.