Bill Bryson, One Summer 1927
Quick, light, and relatively short chapters which are conducive to travel, IMO - Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent.
I like short detective novels for that kind of reading. How about:
Raymond Chandler, either The Big Sleep or The Long Goodbye.
Ross Macdonald, The Drowning Pool or The Blue Hammer
Tony Hillerman, Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits, or Sacred Clowns (Hillerman has a lot of books; I think those are his best. They follow on one another in that order, so I would start with Skinwalkers.)
Dorothy Sayers, Whose Body? or Gaudy Night (Gaudy Night is best, but a little long)
Michael Nava, The Burning Plain
Some really short, easy-to-read novels with pretty high literary value:
Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer
William Maxwell, So Long See You Tomorrow
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
and if you haven’t ever read it and don’t particularly care about high literary value:
Erich Segal, Love Story
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick is pretty reliable for short, entertaining, and thought-provoking:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (a/k/a Blade Runner), Ubik, The Man in the High Castle
@JHS, I love, love, love Gaudy Night, but you can’t start there! If you aren’t going to start with the very first Peter Wimsey book (That would be Whose Body), I suppose you could skip ahead to the first one with Harriet which would be Strong Poison.
I liked *The storied life of A. J. Fikry * a lot when we read it for the CC book club. Discussion here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1639495-the-storied-life-of-a-j-fikry-june-cc-book-club-selection-p1.html A surprising number of the short stories that get mentioned in the book are on line. I ended up reading everything that got mentioned and thought it really added a nice dimension to the book.
Other fairly light CC Bookclub reads: Beryl Markham’s West with the Night (Memoir about growing up and flying in East Africa. The Forgotten Garden. Discussion here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1164259-the-secret-garden-and-the-forgotten-garden-%C2%96-august-cc-book-club-selection.html
Speaking of East Africa and memoirs, I loved Don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight
I love Anne Tyler - realistic(ish) novels about quirky families.
Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie
Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
Good for plane rides - funny, fast paced but nothing too difficult to deal with material wise. A bit of mystery, a bit of action and a bit of romance in each book. Safe travels!
Love Isabella Bird <3
I would second the recommendation for Bet Me by Crusie. It’s very clever and fun!
The chilbury ladies choir - small town England in ww2
For plane rides I like an easy reading.
Authors I like for vacation lit-
Daniel Silva -I think you need to read them in order
Faye Kellerman- I prefer her early books
Sue Grafton- her alphabet series are easy reading
Michael Connolly
Donna Leon- detective series set in Venice Italy
Liane Moriarty
My book club friend just loaned me - Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. Several of them loved it but I don’t know if you want to read it on a plane
There are hundreds of mystery “cozy” books with dozens of series do you can keep up with the characters and fun solved problems. Google the subject and there will be a list of authors to scan. Different themes. The kind of books that don’t need concentration, either. Much of it is well written “fluff”. easy to find e-book versions from public libraries.
Big Little Lies. Perfect for reading on plane.
Anything by Sarah Addison Allen
^yes!!! Big little lies! And everything else by Liane Moriarty! My book group members all recently realized we have each read nearly all of her books outside of book group.
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf is rly good if you want to read about the relationship between women and fiction during her time; and very short
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis. Avail in Nook at B/N
Several recent books that I can recommend might fit the bill… I agree about Commonwealth. I can also recommend The Girls by Emma Cline, it is a very absorbing fast read, fictional but based on the Manson family. The Man Called Ove is very pleasant read. I enjoyed it and can see why it was a big bestseller. Two others but they do have plane crashes in the story but maybe you wouldn’t want to read on the plane actually, “Before the Fall” by Noah Hawley and the Judy Blume book, "In the Event Of’. I am also a fan of Alan Furst. His titles are sort of literary spy thrillers, good stories, quick read all with a different slant but somewhat formulaic.
1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. Very easy reads, and pleasant.
I’m overwhelmed with choices! Thank you all so much. Have to run to an event now but will carve out an hour tonight to select. I have read a few listed already so that helps pare it down…I knew I could count on CC!
Ann Cleary–The Children. Quirky characters, dysfunctional
families, real estate and inheritance all come together in this novel. The author tells a good story that will keep you involved and entertained.