The Books List, Part 12

 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

The days are starting to get longer, and there's nothing like sitting in a sunny window to read. Time for another Books List post!

My likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in which I read them.

1. Brother Odd – Dean Koontz

2. The Yo-Yo Diet Syndrome – Doreen Virtue

3. Speed – Mark Harris

4. MAD about the Sixties – MAD Magazine

5. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer

6. FU, Penguin – Matthew Gasteier

7. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer

8. Wonder Woman: Love and Murder – Jodi Picoult

9. Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman? - Allan Heinberg/Terry and Rachel Dodson

10. Justice Society, vol. 2 - asstd

11. Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story – Peter Bagge

12. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits – Laila Lalami

13. Eva Luna – Isabel Allende

14. Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race – Debby Irving

15. Hunger – Roxane Gay

16. DC Comics Backstories: Wonder Woman, Amazon Warrior – Steve Korté

17. Locke and Key, vol. 6: Alpha & Omega – Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez

18. The Pushcart Prize, IX: Best of the Small Presses – ed. By Bill Henderson

19. The Innocent Man – John Grisham

20. The Numbers Game – Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

1. Boston Darkens – Michael Kravitz – I reviewed it https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-review-of-boston-darkens-by-michael.html

2. The Nose – Nikolai Gogol

3. They Who Do Not Grieve – Sia Figiel

4. Tales from a Traveling Couch – Robert Akeret

5. The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and Strange Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words – Anu Garg

My Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the reasons they made it onto my list:

1. They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;

2. They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or

3. I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.

#1 can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks of stuff by author (apologies).

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K. Dick

2. Doctor Faustus – Thomas Mann

3. Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

4. Dog Soldiers – Robert Stone

5. Don't Move – Margaret Mazzantini

6. Downriver – Iain Sinclair

7. Dracula – Bram Stoker

8. Drop City – T. Coraghessan Boyle

9. Drunkard – Émile Zola

10. Dusklands – J. M. Coetzee

11. Effi Briest – Theodor Fontane

12. Elective Affinities – Johann von Göethe

13. Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq

14. Elizabeth Costello – J. M. Coetzee

15. Embers – Sandor Marai

16. Émile, or On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

17. Empire of the Sun – J. G. Ballard

18. Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

19. England Made Me – Graham Greene

20. Enigma of Arrival – V. S. Naipal

21. Erewhon – Samuel Butler

22. Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton

23. Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac

24. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit – John Lyly

25. Eva Trout – Elizabeth Bowen

26. Evelina – Fanny Burney

27. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Foer

28. Everything You Need – A. L. Kennedy

29. Exercises in Style – Raymond Queneau

30. Extinction – Thomas Bernhard

31. Eyeless in Gaza – Aldous Huxley

32. Faces in the Water – Janet Frame

33. Falconer – John Cheever

34. Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry

35. Fanny Hill – John Cleland

36. Fantômas – Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre

37. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

38. Farewell My Lovely – Raymond Chandler

39. Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession – Kulick, Meneley

40. Fateless – Imre Kertesz

41. Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev

42. Fear – L. Ron Hubbard

43. Fear and Trembling – Amelie Nothomb

44. Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

45. Felicia's Journey – William Trevor

46. Ficciones – Jose Luis Borges

47. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters

48. Flaubert's Parrot – Julian Barnes

49. Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives – Helen O'Neill

50. Foe – J. M. Coetzee

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these links:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-books-list-part-11-20-books-i-would.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-reading-a-book-on-a-couch-5490056/

The Books List, Part 11: 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

 

Time for another Books List post! Curl up by the fire (or the fan, depending on the season) and enjoy (or avoid) these titles:

My likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in which I read them.

1. Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison

2. The Engish Patient – Michael Ondaatje

3. Making Money – Terry Pratchett

4. The Secrets of Harry Bright – Joseph Wambaugh

5. Bloody Mary – J.A. Konrath – read my review! https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2025/12/book-review-ja-konraths-murder-mystery.html

6. Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? - Peter Walsh

7. Whiskey Sour – J.A. Konrath

8. Not Buying It – Judith Levine

9. It's All Too Much – Peter Walsh

10. Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver

11. A Son of the Circus – John Irving

12. Nightmares and Dreamscapes – Stephen King

13. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas – Tom Robbins – I wrote about how good the writing is, here https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-best-in-writing-half-asleep-in-frog.html

14. The Hour I First Believed – Wally Lamb

15. Obsession – Jonathan Kellerman

16. Post Mortem – Patricia Cornwell

17. The Target – Catherine Coulter

18. True Detectives – Jonathan Kellerman

19. Hemlock Bay – Catherine Coulter

20. Forever Odd – Dean Koontz

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

1. New Moon – Stephenie Meyer

2. Life After Death – Elizabeth Hanley

3. The Almost Moon – Alice Sebold

4. The Great and Secret Show – Clive Barker

5. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis

My Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the reasons they made it onto my list:

1. They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;

2. They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or

3. I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.

#1 can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks of stuff by author (apologies).

1. Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee

2. Cigarettes – Harry Mathews

3. City of God – E.L. Doctorow

4. City Primeval – Elmore Leonard

5. City Sister Silver – Jachym Topol

6. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

7. Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks

8. Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard

9. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

10. Come Back, Dr. Caligari – Donald Barthelme

11. Coming Up for Air – George Orwell

12. Complicity – Iain Banks

13. Concrete – Thomas Bernhard

14. Concrete Island – J.G. Ballard

15. Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

16. Confessions – Jean-Jaques Rousseau

17. Contact – Carl Sagan

18. Correction – Thomas Bernhard

19. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell

20. Crash – J.G. Ballard

21. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

22. Critique of Pure Reason – Immanuel Kant

23. Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley

24. Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton

25. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson

26. Cutter and Bone – Newton Thornburg

27. DSM-IV Made Easy – James Morrison

28. Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre de Laclos

29. Dangling Man – Saul Bellow

30. Daniel Deronda – George Eliot

31. Dark as the Grave wherein My Friend Is Laid – Malcolm Lowry

32. Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler

33. Das Kapital – Karl Marx

34. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

35. Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

36. Dead Air – Iain Banks

37. Dead Babies – Martin Amis

38. Death in Venice – Thomas Mann

39. Death Sentence – Maurice Blanchot

40. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh

41. Deliverance – James Dickey

42. Delta of Venus – Anais Nin

43. Diary of a Nobody – George and Weedon Grossmith

44. Dictionary of the Khazars – Milorad Pavic

45. Dining on Stones – Iain Sinclair

46. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams

47. Disappearance – David Dabydeen

48. Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee

49. Disobedience – Alberto Moravia

50. Dispatches – Michael Herr

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these links: 

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/a-book-book-gift-heart-gift-read-1760998/

January 7 is Eastern Orthodox Christmas

 

Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7th. This might seem odd to us, but it is very close to Epiphany (January 6th), otherwise known as "the twelfth day of Christmas ", when the three kings reached Bethlehem and presented their gifts to Jesus. However, the actual reason for the discrepancy is that Eastern Orthodox Christian holidays follow the Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar now widely used. For this reason, Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate New Year's Day on January 14th.

Like the Catholic custom of Lent, there is fasting up until the holiday, and during this fast period, adherents must eat no animal products except for fish. I have shared some dinners over the fasting period, and we've been doing a lot of pasta and veggies and rice with fish, fish, fish. Fortunately, I like fish, so no problem. Also during the fasting period, it s forbidden to drink alcohol and to have intimate relations. And this goes on for weeks! It can be pretty tough, I'm sure.

My Serbian friends will be very busy in preparation for the religious holiday. They will roast a whole pig on a spit the night before, but it will not be consumed until dawn, or shortly before. I'll bet they can hardly wait to have meat again! There will also be a church service on their Christmas Eve, January 6, as well as on the holiday itself. If you have any friends who are Eastern Orthodox Christian, wish them a Merry Christmas next week! 

Image of Serbian E.O.C. church from Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/en/st-sava-serbian-church-349912/

Book Review: J.A. Konrath's Murder Mystery, Bloody Mary

I first became acquainted with young writer J.A. (Joe) Konrath via his brace of articles in Writer's Digest magazine about being a young novelist and the process one goes through to get published for the first time. His writing style was very funny and appealing, and I determined to read his work, the first of which was coming out under the name Whiskey Sour, a play on the name of his lead character, a Chicago Police Department lieutenant and violent crimes investigator Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels. He'd signed a contract to produce a second book, as well, which was unnamed at the time.

That book turned out to be Bloody Mary (Hyperion, 2005), and Bloody Mary turned out to be the first book I ended up reading. And what a read it is-fast-paced, layered, touching, and very funny at times. Since Jack (who is, remember, a female) is a homicide cop, the story is a murder mystery, and a serial-murder mystery, at that. Jack is even in personal danger, which ups the stakes considerably.

At the same time, she is dealing with major issues n her personal life, brought to bear by the reappearance of her ex-husband, Alan Daniels, in the middle of a very good relationship with her boyfriend, Latham Conger. This is at the request of Jack's mom, who has run into trouble in her retirement community in Florida and has to stay with Jack in Chicago. On top of all this, there is even an incredibly antisocial cat, Mr. Friskers, that Jack has no choice but to adopt after his owner is slain by the serial killer.

The case, albeit gruesome, presents some funny challenges, as well. Jack's partner, Herb Benedict, is a good cop but provides much comic relief with his dieting and relationship issues, and her nemesis, PI Harry McGlade (who used to be her partner), manages to make any situation he touches miserable for Jack, and yet he helps, in his annoying way. One of the most interesting facets of this book is that not only is it not that difficult to figure out who the killer is, they catch the killer only about halfway through the book, and yet despite all this, it's still a completely riveting read.

Another very appealing thing about the character of Jack Daniels is that she is not the typical TV "sexy cop"-she is attractive, but she is in her 40s, with realistic personal and professional concerns. Konrath has done an impressive job capturing her point of view and resulting internal dialogue, considering the age and gender differences between him and his character.

After this most satisfying and entertaining experience reading Bloody Mary, I am looking forward to checking out Whiskey Sour as well, and more books in this series by J. A. Konrath. All the drinks out there with interesting names have kept the author busy for quite some time!

More book reviews: 

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-james-pattersons-quickie.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/01/review-of-dexter-in-dark-by-jeff-lindsay.html

Quick and Easy Ways to Save Time at the Grocery Store

 

I'm not a big fan of grocery shopping, mainly because of the time it takes. But we need food, and I don't want to pay extra for a shopping service. If you're like me and you don't want to spend much time in the store, here are some very easy ways to make your grocery shopping trip quicker and easier.

Shop the Perimeter

In a typical grocery store, all the fresh food is around the perimeter, or the outer edges, of the store. Produce, meat, seafood, dairy, the deli and the bakery are all on that outer ring. The rest of the store has the shelf-stable items like cereal, candy, soda and snacks, etc. Those shelf-stable items are often full of preservatives and artificial colors, and are not very nutritious. They also tend be “convenience foods” that are more expensive. 

So if you can shop the perimeter and avoid the shelves – unless you need specific staples like coffee, tea, spices, oil, flour, or sugar – you will be eating healthier as well as sparing yourself all that time going up and down the inner aisles. With fewer things to look at, you can also avoid getting snagged by impulse buys, which can save a lot of money, too!

Plan Ahead

You know where everything is in the grocery store, so make a plan before you get there. As you're making your grocery list, write the items in the order you will encounter them in the store. I always turn right after I enter and go around the store counterclockwise, so I know I will see the produce section, then frozen foods, then meat, etc. I write my items down in the that order so that I never have to run back to a section I was already in

Load and Unload Your Cart the Right Way

As you go through the store, be mindful of how you put your food in the shopping cart. It won't take you any extra time to put your cold food all together, your produce all together, and your heavy stuff all together. When you get to the checkout, you will be ready to unload your cart onto the conveyor belt in a way that will make sense and save time for both you and the cashier.

Place all the heavy items, like cans, on the belt first so they can go into the bottom of the bag (also place your reusable shopping bags/cloth totes here). Follow up with lighter items and delicate items that need to go on top, like eggs or baked goods. Place all your cold items together so they can be bagged together and keep each other cool while you are taking them home.

Last but not least, your produce, because most of those items will need to be weighed. Placing them all together in a group will ensure that the cashier can be in “weighing mode” and do the same tasks in a group, instead of stopping the flow of scanning over and over to weigh items that you've stuck haphazardly in with all the other things. Having all your like items grouped together will also save you time at home when putting them away, so consider that a bonus!

If you follow these tips and tricks, you will successfully hack your grocery store shopping trip and save a lot of time and money. You might even start to like grocery shopping!

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/couple-buying-groceries-at-a-supermarket-4198970/

More shopping tips: 

http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-guide-to-purchasing-amateur-boxing.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2018/11/top-five-gift-cards-for-goth-kid.html

The Skeeve: An Analysis

 

Some of you folks may be unfamiliar with the term “skeeve”, commonly used to refer to an instinctive, immediate, physical reaction of shock and disgust to an unpleasant stimulus. I will attempt to clarify by using examples to illustrate, as well as to address some concepts that are related to the skeeve, such as the wiggins and the huzz.

A skeeve is not to be mistaken for a wiggins. A wiggins is the chill that accompanies a feeling of fright, or at least of weird, Twilight-Zone-ish coincidence. You know that saying, “A goose just walked across my grave”? That is a wiggins. A skeeve is also not exactly a huzz, which is a wonderful Southern term (anything with a short “u” sounds best when uttered with a serious drawl; my favorite is “whut?!?”) that describes that “ick-nasty” feeling you get when you suddenly realize either that there was a worm in your apple (half a worm = Super Huzz) or that the extremely pervy guy who sits in the back of the class just took a picture of you with his phone when you bent over to pick up a pencil you dropped.

A skeeve is more physical than the mere shiver of a wiggins or the stomach drop of a huzz. A minor skeeve typically involves a rapid shaking “no” of the head with shoulders trembling and is frequently accompanied by what I like to call “involuntary jazz hands”. The full-body skeeve combines the abovementioned with shaking of the lower body, as well, and a sufficiently disgusting or creepy stimulus may also induce the “walking skeeve”, which is a full-body skeeve that requires the sufferer to pace around a bit while skeeving, in order to diffuse the shock. The ultimate skeeve would be a walking, full-body skeeve starting from a seated position. If you can tell your drinking buddies a story so severely jacked up that you can propel them from their chairs and make them march around writhing and making the baby-tasting-a-lemon face, you have scored.

Lastly, the root word “skeeve” is both a noun (as in, “That gave me such a skeeve”) and a verb (as in, “Richard’s breath made me skeeve so hard”), including other common forms, such as skeeving and skeeved, and has also been adapted as an adjective (as in, “Who is that skeevy guy in the corner?”), so there should be a skeeve derivation for pretty much any purpose. 

And there you have it: a thorough analysis of the skeeve. Now the next time you find yourself making involuntary jazz hands over something that tastes (or just sounds) terrible, you'll know what to call it!

Here are some creepy songs that might make you skeeve: https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-creepiest-songs-by-beatles.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-with-a-disgusted-facial-expression-8637946/

Top Five Books to Read on the Plane

 

Here are my best suggestions for interesting reading on the plane. Engrossing novels for travel and great nonfiction picks, too!

Going to take an airplane trip soon? If you’re like me, you won’t be able to simply lean back and snooze away the flight, so let’s make sure to have reading material handy. Magazines just won’t do for reading on the plane. Not only do they not usually last the whole flight, with no continuous story to keep a reader engrossed, there are too many opportunities to stop reading and go back to boredom, anxiety, drinking an inadvisable amount, or working up irritation over the silly things people do on airplanes that wouldn’t even get to you if you were lost in a nice, spellbinding read (add those last two together, and you’ve really got a problem). To that end, here are my recommendations for in-flight entertainment of the literary kind:

1. The Horror Story: As long as it doesn’t involve airplanes, a horror story is a great pick, because they are usually quite riveting and your objective is to make the hours pass. Also, since you will be on a well-lit airplane surrounded by people instead of alone in a dark, creaky house on a windy night, you shouldn’t be able to get TOO traumatized. My recommendation in the horror category is Duma Key by Stephen King, which takes place in the Florida keys (no airplanes involved) and is very well-paced to keep you reading, creepy enough to get your horror fix fulfilled, and long enough to last through all but the longest flights. Click to read the whole review.

2. The Mystery: Ah, nothing keeps one immersed in Bookworld like a good mystery. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is my all-time favorite mystery, plunging the reader into the shadowy, intricate world of a medieval monastery. If you’ve already read the Eco, try the scary, thrilling The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which covers a broad historical span from the Byzantine Era to modern times, as well as a large swath of the globe. You will learn some things, be creeped out, and follow a tantalizing mystery throughout this satisfyingly long book. Click to read review of The Historian.

3. The Thriller: One of my favorite thriller authors is James Patterson. His novels are breathlessly-paced, can’t-put-‘em-down works of sheer adrenaline. A lot of Patterson’s novels feature Alex Cross, the Washington D.C.-based homicide detective. Each of the Cross books stand alone, but if you don’t want to get into a continuing-character series (references to past events and in-jokes are just less fun, aren’t they?), a good one-book story like The Quickie makes for an engrossing read. Click to read review of The Quickie by James Patterson.

4. The Learning Experience: Fiction may not be your bag, but although non-fiction can be thought-provoking, informational and even entertaining, what you want here is something that will keep you going for the whole flight, not something divided by subject or exercise. A great nonfiction story is the right call, here; you can follow along and learn things the whole time. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy is a gripping story that gives the reader a vicarious ride along with the author as she experiences life with a disfigurement. If you want a more lighthearted read, any of Bill Bryson’s travelogues (Notes from a Small Island and In a Sunburned Country are good choices, especially if you are headed to England or Australia) or the “green” comedy-of-errors Almost Green: How I saved 1/6^th of a Billionth of the Planet by James Glave. Click to read review of Glave book.

5. The Literary Novel: Here, we have to tread carefully; it’s awfully easy to pick something that’s good but that might end up making you cry (The Red Tent by Anita Diamant), which could be a tad embarrassing in front of a planeload of strangers. We also might want to avoid a choice that might make you howl with mirth (anything by David Sedaris, Dave Barry or Dave Eggers—those Daves will make you giggle and jiggle and truly annoy your seatmate). So something that makes you think, touches you without torturing you and leaves you feeling fulfilled is in order. I recommend anything by Barbara Kingsolver, especially The Poisonwood Bible if you have a very long flight. For a shorter flight, try Unless: a Novel by Carol Shields. Click to read full review for Unless. Click to read full review of Prodigal Summer

Now that you have an armload of recommendations, have a great flight! Oh, and you might want to take a magazine anyway; they’re good for shutting up a chatty seatmate. No, don’t whack the person with the magazine; just offer kindly. They will usually take the hint. If they don’t, you can always whack them until they do!

image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-reading-a-book-3884217/