Ivylad and I will be going here in nine days (can’t wait!) and he wants to make a bookstore run before we go.
Nothing heavy, and I’m not into Harelequin romance bodice rippers. A good mystery would be nice. Fiction only…I don’t want to think too much while we celebrate our 20th.
Well there’s this book called Outlander … oh, wait, nevermind. 
You might look at A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley. When I read Outlander I was vaguely reminded of this book, and I think Gabaldon has it on her Methadone List.
I usually try to read heavy novels (a subject for some other thread), but last vacation, I found the following 2 books very relaxing:
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Anything by P. G. Wodehouse (I think I actually read Damsel in Distress)
Oh, Claire, you know me so well. Sept 22! (Yes, I will keep reminding everyone of the date.) I actually found Gabaldon from the Jean Auel Earthchildren Methadone List. Funny, huh?
I’ve never read Wodehouse…I might have to go hunting for him (her?)
Trying to think of stuff that’ll be in bookstores as opposed to Amazon.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society isn’t really a mystery but it’s a good vacation read, I think. It’s an epistolary novel about happenings on Guernsey during WWII. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is a delicious haunted house story. Serena by Ron Rash is a real page-turner about an evil woman (think Rhoda from Bad Seed all grown up – it should be out in paperback by now.
If your heart’s set on a mystery, you can’t go wrong with James Lee Burke, John Connolly, Michael Connelly, Rennie Airth, Greg Iles, Andrew Pyper – depends on how dark you want to get.
Have fun on your trip!
How about some breezy reading? Try Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella - it’s about a British woman who has a really bad day ending with her having a total meltdown with a perfect stranger. Only - well - he doesn’t end up being a total stranger. This book had me laughing out loud.
Not Harlequin - more Bridget Jones.
Of course, I also love Anna Maxted: * Running in Heels *is a good introduction. How a girl copes with her best friend getting married while her life is all a mess.
And then there is the Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind is the first one. Imagine being a proper southern lady, well respected in the community, and then having your husband die suddenly, leaving you in charge of his previously carefully guarded fortune. And his mistress dropping off his illegitimate offspring on your front doorstep the next day and disappearing!
I guess, when I’m on vacation, I like to keep it lighthearted. Hope that helps!
I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, a memoir by Giulia Melucci, rather short , but with Sicilian recipes. This is an old, Old, OLD story - well-off single gal living a busy and interesting life in NYC but can’t find a man who will commit. This is a collection of stories about the various losers she dated, and cooked for, and is very entertaining; the recipes sound easy and very good!
Last year on vacation, I read “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.” It’s about a retired widow who joins the CIA. It’s not great lit, but it’s cute, fun, and an easy read: perfect for lounging with in the sun. I also like to read Stephen King on vacation. For me, he’s kind of like junk food for the mind.
I’ve read all the Stephen King I want, and have no desire to reread everything of his, mainly because I’ve reread to death the ones I like. I’m looking for something new.
These are great suggestions, guys…thanks! Keep 'em coming!
I plan to keep a journal while we’re down there, because we won’t have access to a computer. So if you wonder where I got to for two weeks, that’s why!
A mystery, eh? How about some Sherlock Holmes stories? I’d suggest “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” “The Norwood Builder,” “Silver Blaze,” “The Red-Headed League,” “The Blue Carbuncle,” “The Greek Interpreter,” “The Musgrave Ritual” and “The Speckled Band,” to start. June Thomson has also written some wonderful Holmes pastiches that are as good as the best of Conan Doyle. Begin with The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes.
Or consider:
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien - a creepy, Vietnam-influenced mystery
Everybody Smokes in Hell by John Ridley - scabrously funny novel about a suicidal rock star and a beautiful assassin
My Dark Places by James Ellroy - nonfiction; the author investigates the murder of his own mother
Fatherland by Robert Harris - convincing, chilling alt-history about a murder investigation in 1964 Nazi Germany
Both good suggestions.
Have you read Rumpole? I find John Mortimer’s Rumpole stories to be reliable light entertainment.
Historical murder mysteries:
Dissolution, C.J. Sansom (Tudor England)
Silver Pigs, Lindsey Davis (ancient Rome, and it’s funny)
Death Comes As Epiphany, Sharan Newman (medieval France)
Silliness:
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, starts with One for the Money
Paranormal murder mystery:
Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
Have you read Connie Willis? To Say Nothing of the Dog is a very funny novel about time travel to Victorian England.
I know, I’m wiggly with glee. 
One thing I do leading up to a new book is re-read at least the previous book. I’ve recently gotten into audiobooks for the first time, so now that most of the series is available unabridged, I’m LISTENING to them, starting from the beginning. Our library has a newfangled digital audio book thingy available called Playaway, so you’re not tied to a CD player. Pretty cool, although the reader’s character voices don’t sound the way the characters sound in my head when I’m reading. I’m currently in the middle of Voyager.
As for the Stephanie Plum series – I second. Light, funny mystery stories.
I can’t wait! I’ll need to re-read at least A Breath of Snow and Ashes before then.
Claire, *Voyager *is probably my favorite.
Oh, yes, the scene where she walks into the print shop…that makes me melt into a puddle of goo every single time.
Sigh.
I’m bookmarking this thread so I’ll have it handy when it’s time to hit the bookstore. Thanks, guys!!
In a lot of ways it is mine, too. I think there are places where Gabaldon’s patchwork quilt style of writing starts to show its seams, and I generally dislike her penchant for bringing people back from the dead in subsequent books. (I don’t know how to do a spoiler box so I’ll just leave it at that.) But, there are a lot of things about Voyager that are near and dear to my heart, the print shop scene being chief among them. “I thought I’d pissed myself.” heh
I definitely love the first trilogy above what came after, although I thought Breath was a nice effort and felt more like the first trilogy. I rarely re-read Drums. There are things I like about Fiery Cross but things that irritate me.
I love Outlander because it was the first, and because it’s so surprising. Overall though, put a gun to my head, I might have to say that Dragonfly is my very favorite. Hard to choose.
To me, Watership Down is the perfect summer read.
Someone above mentioned mysteries, and so I must add The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne (yes, the author of Winnie-ther-pooh)
It is the best whodunit I’ve ever read.