On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why? David McCullough tells the extraordinary and truly American story of the two brothers who changed the world.
Struggling to care for her ailing father and raise her teenage children, Adrienne Willis is forced to reconsider her entire life when her husband leaves her for a younger woman so she escapes for a weekend to the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where she meets Paul Flanner, a former surgeon running from his past.
Fire on the Beach recovers the heroic, long-forgotten story of the only all-black crew in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1871 the Life-Saving Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard, was created by Congress to assure the safe passage of American and international shipping and to save lives and salvage cargo. This book tells the story of Station 17 of Pea Island, North Carolina, and its courageous captain, Richard Etheridge. A former slave and Civil War veteran, Etheridge was appointed Keeper of the Pea Island station, but when the white crew already in place refused to serve under him, he recruited and trained an entirely black crew. Although they were among the most courageous in the service, leading many daring rescues and saving scores of men, women, and children along the treacherous stretch of coast known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic," civilian attitudes toward the Pea Island surfmen ranged from curiosity to outrage. When a hurricane hit the Banks in the late 1890s, they managed to save everyone aboard the wrecked E.S. Newman. This incredible feat went unrecognized for a century until, in 1996, the Coast Guard posthumously awarded Etheridge and his men the Gold Life-Saving Medal.
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens. Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Tales from the Beach

Outer Banks Books

Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction…Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what each of them needs. Ty Bazemore is their landlord. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about. Maryn Shackleford is a stranger on the run who needs just a few things: no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity.
aura Williams hasn’t stepped foot in her hometown since she was old enough to leave. But when a doctor calls about her mom’s declining medical condition, she has no choice but to return home and look after her. Besides, it couldn’t be as bad as living in a city with the man who broke her heart. 2 weeks before their wedding. As a 35-year-old journalist, hanging onto her job by a thread, and healing from a broken heart, Laura goes back to North Carolina to take care of her mom, agreeing to take on any stories that come her way. When she arrives, the small-town is on edge because a thirteen-year-old girl has gone missing from Lighthouse Lane…again. Memories come flooding back, and it all sounds eerily similar to when Laura’s best friend went missing from that exact location 17 years ago… It gets more complicated when she realizes she knows the missing girl’s father. Harry Matthews, who is just as handsome as she remembers. Laura makes it her mission to do whatever it takes to help Harry find his daughter. Join Laura and Harry in this small-town romantic mystery as they work together to unravel this high-stakes case, while facing their past and finding love in the most unexpected ways.
Some summers will stay with you forever... Callie Weaver and best friend Olivia Dixon have finally done it: put their life savings into the beach house they admired through childhood summers, on the dazzling white sand of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. They’re going to buff the salt from its windows, paint its sun-bleached sidings, and open it as a bed and breakfast. Callie’s too busy to think about her love life, but when she catches the attention of local heartthrob Luke Sullivan, his blue eyes and easy smile make it hard to say no. He’s heir to his father’s property empire, and the papers say he’s just another playboy, but as they laugh in the ocean waves, Callie realizes there’s more to this man than money and good looks. Just when true happiness seems within reach, Callie and Olivia find a diary full of secrets... secrets that stretch across the island, and have the power to turn lives upside down. As Callie reads, she unravels a mystery that makes her heart drop through the floor. Will Callie and Luke be pulled apart by the storm it unleashes, or can true love save them?
“Captures the richness and complication of female friendships in a way few writers have done. . . incredibly rich characterizations and a profound sense of place.” — Cosmopolitan In her magnificent classic Outer Banks, acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Anne Rivers Siddons brilliantly recalls a lost time of hope and dreams—of comradeship, love, secrets, and betrayal—and creates characters brimming with life who will live in the heart forever. In the uncertain ‘60s, four young women came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus: elegant Kate; sensitive, sensible Cecie; sexy, vibrant and richer-than-sin Ginger; and poor, hopeless, brilliant Fig. At Nag’s Head, North Carolina, over the course of two idyllic spring breaks, their bonds of friendship were strengthened into something rare and powerfully binding. Now, thirty years later, they are returning to the isolated strip of barrier islands, hoping to recapture what has been lost—the love, the enthusiasm, the passion—and to finally understand what pulled them apart and cast them adrift.
Good Night Outer Banks highlights the Duck Town Boardwalk, North Carolina Aquariums, Jennette's Pier, Jockey's Ridge State Park, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Carova Beach and wild horses, Wright Brothers National Memorial, Currituck Beach Lighthouse, pirates, ghost crabs, and more. This book is part of the bestselling Good Night Our World series, which includes hundreds of titles exploring iconic locations and exciting, child-friendly themes. This charming and educational board book takes young readers on an unforgettable tour of the Outer Banks. From beaches and lighthouses to fishing and sea turtles, no seashell is left unturned!
Learn about the real life of beloved actor Andy Griffith. The world loves Sheriff Andy Taylor. Yet the actor who played him was intensely private. Here, for the first time, is the real Andy Griffith, his career and life defined by the island that made him in the years soon after World War II. He achieved his artistic breakthrough while acting in The Lost Colony drama on Roanoke Island, then spent the rest of his life repaying the island for giving him that start. Here, in unique closeup, is Andy of Manteo, reveling in wild, watery and loving ways with his fellow islanders. Author and journalist John Railey paints an intimate portrait of Andy, based on interviews with many of those who knew him best on the sand where he lived and died.
n the summer of 1967, nineteen-year-old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared. She was a mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony. Her body was found five days later, floating in the sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to the state investigative file and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of her unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes séances, a suicide and a supposed shallow grave. Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and mistakes to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth of what happened to Brenda Holland that summer on Roanoke Island.

Many writers have been inspired by Outer Banks’ beauty and history, including celebrating the Wright Brothers, who changed flight forever in Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. There’s plenty of novels, historic fiction, mystery, romance, nonfiction, and poetry inviting readers to explore this spectacular place. At Moonrise OBX, we love reading and know that guests are always seeking a good book for the beach so we have books for you to explore in every room.  Make your stay at Moonrise OBX a Writer’s Retreat. Read more about authors living in OBX.


Enjoy these poems and excerpts from fiction & nonfiction:

Poems about the Outer Banks

“The Outer Banks,” a poem by Muriel Rukeyser, originally published in The Speed of Darkness (1968)

“The Outer Banks,” by Lee Evans, originally published in Muse

“Kill Devil Hills,” a poem by David Miller, 2020

Poems celebrating the Wright Brothers in the Outer Banks

“Kitty Hawk” a poem by four-time Pulitzer Prizer winner Robert Frost, originally published in The Atlantic in 1957. Frost first visited Kitty Hawk in 1894 and then returned in 1953 for the 50th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight read more here.

“Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright,” a poem by the Pulitzer-Prize winning Stephen Vincent . 

“At Kill Devil Hills,” by Miles T. Ranter

“Kill Devil Hills,” a poem by Jason Crane, 2013. 







The Wright Brothers first flight, Dec 17, 1903, Kill Devil Hills

Visit the National Park’s Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, Only a Mile and a Half from  MoonriseOBX 

The Wright Brothers Excerpts & Author Interviews

“Q&A with David McCullough,” a discussion on The Wright Brothers, C-SPAN, Video

“The Wright Brothers and the Conquest of Flight,” Interview with author  David McCullough, CBS Sunday Morning, watch or read

“The Wright Brothers: Even More Badass Than You Thought,” Interview with author David McCullough, Popular Mechanics 2016

The Wright Brothers, Audio Excerpt read by author David McCullough

The Wright Brothers Excerpt, “Success…” Downloadable pdf describing their first flight. 

The Wright Brothers, Excerpt from the opening of the book, info about author David McCullough, and more. 

To learn more about the Wright Brothers, visit the National Park Service’s Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills 


Fire on the Beach Excerpts, Interview & Videos 

New Yorker interview with author David Wright 

“The Sand Banks, 1861” by David Wright, read or listen to this story from the New Yorker 

Video on Pea Island Surfmen from BET and slideshow about Richard Etherridge 


Where the Crawdads Sing Excerpt & Video Interview

jInterview with author Delia Owens, CBS Sunday Morning, watch or read 

Excerpt from Where the Crawdads Sing


Comfortable, Convenient & Close to the Sea

Relax in this dog-friendly, non-smoking 3-bedroom home, only a 7-minute walk to the ocean beach (2-minute drive) and 11-minute walk to Kitty Hawk Bay. Make homemade ice cream with the ice cream maker. Moonrise OBX features a massaging, adjustable bed, four flatscreen HD TVs with Roku, full kitchen, deck, outdoor seating & grills, and a coffee & tea bar. Convenient, comfortable, and close to the sea. 

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