Lest the winter doldrums set in, boating writers have been quite prolific lately, churning out a host of new marine-related books to whet our nautical tastes and help us stuff Christmas stockings. From a mystery-thriller to true hair-raising tales of rescues at sea, here are a few picks:

So Others May Live, Coast Guard's Rescue Swimmers

By Martha J. LaGuardia-Kotite(The Lyons Press)

Now available in paperback, this award-winning history of the U.S. Coast Guard's rescue swimmer program shines a spotlight on those who are brave (or crazy) enough to place themselves in extreme peril in order to rescue mariners. After recent hurricanes, people may now take for granted that a highly trained hero will materialize from a helicopter to bail them out of a bad fix, but it wasn't so just a few decades ago.

The author is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and served as a commander aboard ships for 10 years on active duty and is well suited to chronicle the rescue swimmer's genesis and report the hair-raising details of some of their more incredible missions.

The program was born out of two tragic events in the 1980s when dozens of lives were lost in two cold-water disasters. One was the crash of Air Florida flight 90 into the frozen Potomac River on Jan. 13, 1982, and the other was the sinking of the 500-foot coal collier Marine Electric Feb. 13, 1983, 30 miles off the coast of Virginia in a winter storm. Subsequent congressional hearings and accident investigations found that many people who survived the initial accidents perished because they could not reach rescue lines and baskets on their own in the cold water, due to hypothermia or injury. The result was the Coast Guard's creation in 1985 of a specially trained cadre of rescuers who literally jump from rescue helicopters into the water to assist accident victims. Anyone who's seen the films "The Guardian," or "The Perfect Storm" has an inkling of what it must be like to perform this job.

"So Others May Live" contains riveting chapters on a host of maritime accidents and disasters in which the Coast Guard saved the day, from flying a helicopter into a cave along the stormy coast of Oregon to saving hundreds of hurricane victims in the panicky aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. It takes a remarkable person to plunge themselves into danger to aid a complete stranger and this book is a fitting tribute to them all.

BIG: The 50 Greatest World Record Catches

By Mike Rivkin; Paintings by Flick Ford (Greenwich Workshop Press)

From the brush of watercolor artist Flick Ford who produced "FISH, 77 Great Fish of North America" in 2006, comes this stunning coffee table book of world record catches from around the world.

Like the previous book, this one showcases Ford's unique ability to combine the clarity of scientific illustration with the true artist's eye for color and detail. But here, through species research and archival photography of the record-breaking event, he's tried to capture each record catch as it must have looked when it came out of the water on the end of a line.

Because these fish are of record-breaking size, anglers who know one species or another well may be surprised at some of the features or coloring reflected in Ford's paintings. But that's how his research into each record showed these fish to be. They are, after all, anomalies of their species and may have had odd features.

Each catch is a world record as verified by the International Game Fish Association. The text, written by IGFA historian Mike Rivkin, captures the stories of 50 casual and dedicated anglers who have captured crowns in their classes. His engaging stories of each record catch are supplemented with short bites of information about the particular species, like its range and habitat, fishing techniques and favorite baits or lures anglers might use to pursue their own records.

The stories range from Dr. John W. Cook's legendary – and still-standing – record brook trout of 14 lbs. 8 oz., caught in Ontario's Nipigon River in 1916 to Texas teen angler Sara Hayward's whopper of a wahoo that weighed in a full 30 lbs. over the previous record.

Sloop: Restoring My Family's Wooden Sailboat – An Adventure in Old-Fashioned Values

By Daniel Robb (Simon & Schuster)

You don't have to be in love with wooden sailboats to enjoy this charming and humorous saga of one man's determination to restore a special boat, one that's been in his family for three generations. While it's hard to explain to non-boaters how we can form an emotional attachment to an object, anyone who's sailed or cruised can relate to the notion that a boat, like this one, is part of the family.

Robb, who previously published "Crossing The Water," is "called" to the family sloop, run-down in their yard under an old tarp. And she is not just any old boat but a Herreshoff 121/2, a classic design purchased by his grandparents in 1939, sailed by his mother as a girl off Woods Hole, MA, and by the author as a boy. Restoring Daphie to her original glory, piece by piece, becomes a quest both emotional and practical as Robb encounters endless problems and eccentric characters while searching for the unusual parts and supplies he needs for the job. Along the way it becomes apparent that the world he's wandered into is rapidly vanishing. Sloop is as much about a maritime culture in New England that may soon vanish as it is about the author's family, his carpentry skills and the enduring value of preserving a piece of our past.

Macedonia Passage

By Wright Gres (Riverhouse Books)

If you need a break from reality, try this seagoing adventure novel filled with shifty characters and an unfolding mystery aboard a schooner heading for exotic ports. An engaging modern-day mystery, the story unfolds as a new captain, Frank Brown, takes over the ship as she departs the Caribbean for a transatlantic voyage to the Mediterranean after the original captain and cook have inexplicably disappeared. With a secret cargo hidden in the bilges, the voyage goes from strange to dangerous. Once in the Mediterranean, the captain is caught between some sinister forces, intelligence agents and foreign authorities. With the help of an attractive Turkish agent, Brown tries to unravel and escape the increasingly dangerous web of intrigue.

Author Gres is a lifelong sailor who knows his stuff, having sailed everything from one-designs to large yachts as a delivery captain, and served as an instructor aboard the 137-foot brig Unicorn. His tour on a staysail schooner, a transatlantic crossing and time spent sailing in the Mediterranean add detail and authenticity to this tale.

Paper Captain: The Paper Boat Captain's Manual

By Juliette Cezzar (Universe Publishing)

Here's a clever book to help while away those long winter nights between haul-out and spring commissioning. Paper Captain is a quick trip through a couple centuries of nautical history, with brief tales of 20 famous vessels – but with a twist. Or maybe it's a clip, snip, fold and stick.

For each ship, the author has included die-cut paper models that you can assemble yourself – best if done with a small sailor to help you – and actually launch in the bathtub. The book features famous ships, from HMS Victory to the USS Monitor, and smaller vessels, from harbor tugs to speedboats.

Each entry includes a brief history of the vessel with its basic statistics and dimensions, plus photographs or drawings from its past coupled with full-color, to-scale paper models to punch out and assemble. The book includes detailed instructions for assembly and the publisher swears they will float, at least for a while, since the book is printed on specially coated paper.

But be warned, assembling these vessels could be difficult for children without adult help. Conversely, adults are cautioned that they could spend many hours with this fascinating book, both reading it as well as cutting, and folding and gluing.

Oliver's Surprise

By Carol Newman Cronin; Illustrated by Laurie Ann Cronin (Gemma)

The subtitle of this young-adult novel is "A boy, A Schooner and the Great Hurricane of 1938" – and it's an engaging tale woven by one of sailing's modern-day racing stars. Carol Cronin's name is well known to those who follow competitive racing as she's a veteran of numerous match-racing regattas, capped off by her berth on the U.S. Olympic sailing team for the 2004 games in Athens. She raced for the U.S. Sailing team from 2001-2007 but now focuses on writing fiction and graphic design in Jamestown, RI.

Cronin spins a delightful tale of a boy playing hooky from school who climbs aboard an old run-down schooner, Surprise, and falls and hits his head. He wakes up in his grandfather's era of the 1930s just before a massive hurricane is about to forever change the face of their Rhode Island coastal community, Jamestown. Oliver is taken in by his grandparents and he gets to know them when they were young and experience how strangely different everyday life was in the 1930s.

The young-adult tag should not preclude anyone from reading the 84-page novelette, from boomers to pre-teens. It's a pleasant time-travel adventure for all ages.