Suggestions, please

[askthesky]

I'm flying across the country and back this weekend, and need book suggestions. Ideally I'm looking for nonfiction (but not too heavy), though fiction recs are also welcome, and something available in paperback so it doesn't take up too much room (or cost too much). Please help!

Comments

[askthesky]

Yes, yes, and yes, sadly. I actually read the Mary Russell books years ago, and want to reread them, but I already have copies at my mom's house.

Atlanta. Want to come up and say hi?

[askthesky]

Pants, yes. Beach Music, so many times. I think the problem with us having similar taste is that we've read all the same stuff :) I'll look into Anne Tyler, but Alisa Kwitney will have to go on my "to look into later" list -- after reading two mysteries in less than 24 hours, I am burned out.

[marakara]

Nonfiction: "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter" by Steven Johnson. It isn't a paperback but it is a fun read that argues that TV, video games, the internet, etc. are actually making people smarter. YAY!

Fiction: MaryJanice Davidson's "Undead" series - "Undead and Unwed", "Undead and Unemployed" are the two paperbacks. It is chick lit meets vampire stories. They are laugh out loud funny.

James Patterson's number books aren't bad. "First to Die", "Second Chance", "Third Degree" are all in paperback. Short chapters, fairly interesting characters, decent mysteries - good plane books.

Take Care
Mara

[askthesky]

Ooh, I love Steven Johnson, and that's been on my list for awhile. Maybe I'll cave and get a hardback. :)

The fiction recs will all go on my "to read once I am no longer burned out on mysteries list". Thanks!

[emilyssassylime]

I just read "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory. It's kind of a fun, trashy, absorbing read, and it's all historically accurate so you feel like you're educating yourself! In fact, I've been on a big Henry VII kick lately and also really liked "Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne" by David Starkey. And you did read A Short History of Nearly Everything, right?

And The Count of Monte Christo is still my favorite airplane read.

[emilyssassylime]

I meant Henry VIII.

[askthesky]

I haven't yet, because I wanted to get it in hardback so as not to totally wreck it in the months I imagine it will take me to read it. :) But thanks for the other ideas! I just finished reading two very modern mysteries, each set in a town I've lived in (LA and Albuquerque), and the idea of Elizabethan England is very appealing.

[llemma]

Essays, by George Orwell. Trust me.

[askthesky]

Interesting. I'll look into it. Thanks!

[dianora2]

In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. Read it, then see the movie when it comes out.

[askthesky]

I love this book but don't own it. Not a bad idea, though I wish I could just read it for the first time again.

[dianora2]

Well, rats. *tries to think of something else* OK, here are some other totally random suggestions:

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
Backroads by Tawni O'Dell
The Brimstone Wedding by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine

Nonfiction: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson