<p>After the hiking the Grand Canyon part of spring break will come the vegging at a resort in Phoenix part of spring break. I need a book (or books) to take with me. Critiera:</p>
<li><p>Fiction or non-fiction. But fiction must be well written. I like history (but not war history) and biographies.</p></li>
<li><p>Must be in paperback.</p></li>
<li><p>Long enough that I won’t finish it on the plane ride there.</p></li>
<li><p>Can be current, or a classic that I’ve never gotten around to reading.</p></li>
<li><p>Must be easy to find - no time to order.</p></li>
<li><p>No books on economics, college planning or finances. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I recently read “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks. It was easy reading but interesting. Not so easy that you would finish it on the plane. I got it from the library but I saw it at the local bookstore and even at Costco recently.</p>
<p>Either The Road or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Larry McMurtry Trilogy: (well, maybe not the entire trilogy)
Last Picture Show
Texasville
Duane’s Depressed
Sara Coen(sp?) Water for Elephants
Pat Conroy My Losing Season
Prince of Tides</p>
<p>Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (historical fiction based on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright) Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury by Alison Wright (see the review at [Imperfect</a> Union - The Atlantic (January/February 2009)](<a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/woolf]Imperfect”>Imperfect Union - The Atlantic) )</p>
<p>Missypie, I regularly visit the Salvation Army, our library paperback shop and a local hospital book shop. I get books at the top price of $2.99. Read them and donate them back or keep them if worthwhile. I took a bunch with me on a trip and just left them there as we had so much luggage and bags coming back home. At what I paid, it was just fine with me. I just went to SA last week and came with a big bag full of books, many of the last year’s best sellers.</p>
<p>I’ll second one of wharfrat2’s choices. Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides is one of my very favorite books ever. D read it and then took Beach Music with her to Europe and read it twice while she was there. I’d say Beach Music is a close runner up to Prince of Tides.</p>
<p>Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Sad, but gets very happy towards the middle/end. Every one of my friends who have read it loved it without exception. :)</p>
<p>Another vote for Prince of Tides, and Gone with the Wind is an amazing book that I’m now reminded to revisit.</p>
<p>Middlesex is very interesting, as is The Girls by Lori Lansens, but it may be harder to find. You should be able to find The Story of Edgar Sawtell by David Wroblewski. Two books by Julia Glass, The Three Junes and I See You Everywhere are very well written.</p>
<p>The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is wonderful, but a big book to lug around. Water for Elephants is quirky, but hard to put down. I enjoyed Loving Frank, but some of these other books are, I feel, a little more compelling.</p>
<p>Now, if you had a Kindle, you could bring them ALL with you!</p>
<p>The only thing I didn’t like about Loving Frank was…FRANK. Such a selfish and egotistical man. It was never clear to me how Mamah Cheney could love him.</p>
<p>Anyway…if you like history, how about Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry? You definitely won’t finish that on the plane. Yes, it’s often dark and violent, but fascinating as well.</p>
<p>Agree about Frank in Loving Frank being a jerk, but I thought they deserved each other, both very selfish and self-centered! Really makes you want to pick it up, eh Missypie? ;)</p>
<p>Pillars of the Earth, though it may be longer than you want. It’s a pretty good read, though I wouldn’t suggest the sequel. Here’s the short description from Publisher’s Weekly: “Set in 12th-century England, the narrative concerns the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The ambitions of three men merge, conflict and collide through 40 years of social and political upheaval as internal church politics affect the progress of the cathedral and the fortunes of the protagonists.”</p>
<p>^I didn’t like Memah. She was incredibly selfish. Actually, I didn’t like either one of them, and therefore wasn’t crazy about the book in general.</p>
<p>Pillars of the Earth is a good suggestion. I read that last summer on vacation. Well, part of it anyway. It’s a LONG book.</p>