Just finished reading Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund, and was quite taken with the rich story the author weaves about the life of Una, very briefly mentioned in Moby-Dick. How could you not love a book that begins, "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last."

I marked a couple of passages to share with you:

(Ahab speaking) "Beware the treachery of words, Mrs. Sparrow. They mean one thing to one person and the opposite to another. They are like all conventional, land-born habits. Words seem to be well-woven baskets ready to hold your meaning, but they betray you with rotted corners and splintered stays."

And, for lovers of alliteration: "S is the sound of the sea. Her surge and suck, her spray and surf. Sometimes she seethes. She knows the sound of smooth. With her s, the sea marries the shore, and then there is scamper and slush in the sand. With curling s's the sea rises to stroke the side of her superior, the sky, who loves and meets her in the s of spray, spawned in liquid and air."