Water fascinates us, perhaps because we humans are largely made up of water and here in coastal North Carolina, we’re surrounded by it. And wherever we go, we have our bottle of water handy, reminding ourselves to stay hydrated. So, celebrate World Water Day 2022 on Tuesday, March 22, a day sponsored by the United Nations to celebrate water in all its forms.

While we take clean and readily available drinking water for granted, 2.2 billion people around the world struggle daily with unsafe or inadequate drinking water supplies. Partners in the UN World Water Day, including governments, nonprofits, and industry, are working to close this gap and to ensure the sustainability and quality of surface water and groundwater supplies.

The connection between books and water runs deep, and readers often seek out the beauty and serenity of the lake or the beach to relax and let great writing wash over them. If you’re fishing for a water-themed book in the ocean of titles, here are a few suggestions:

• Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
• Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
• The Water Dancer – Ta Nehisi Coates
• The Weight of Water – Anita Shreve
• The Water is Wide – Pat Conroy
• Ring of Bright Water – Gavin Maxwell
• The Water Horse – Dick King Smith
• Mystic River – Dennis Lehane
• A River Runs Through It – Norman MacLean
• The River Why – David James Duncan
• Dark Rivers of the Heart – Dean Koontz
• The Light Between Oceans – M. L. Stedman
• The Hungry Ocean – Linda Greenlaw
• The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
• The Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
• The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea – Yukio Mishima
• The Sea Wolf – Jack London
• Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie – Maya Angelou
• The Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy
• On Stranger Tides – Tim Powers