Today's Recommended Read: 'Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea' by Gary Kinder

Rare is the book that grabs you from the first page and takes you along on a memorable journey through the final sentence.

"Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea" manages to do just that. Author Gary Kinder spent more than 10 years researching and writing this classic recounting of the S.S. Central America, a steamship carrying an estimated 21 tons of gold from California to New York in 1857.

Kinder's time and effort pay off big in the book. The Central America sank in a horrific storm 150 to 200 miles off the coast of South Carolina.

It was discovered in 1988 by an innovative team led by Tommy Thompson, and more than $50 million in gold was pulled from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinder seamlessly moves back and forth in the book, giving readers rich profiles on many of the roughly 600 passengers on board the Central America while detailing the extraordinary lengths Thompson and his team went to find the historic wreckage.