I Need Some Suggestions
For the first time in my life I am going to go on a cruise. I am really looking forward to it. H has always absolutely refused to venture out on the open water in a big ship. I think he feels it is non-productive... all anyone does on a cruise is sit around, eat, and put on weight. I don't care. I am going. I have a roommate. The cruise is selected. It is in June. Hurricanes better not even think of heading towards the Gulf of Mexico until I return home!
I am going to have a massage. I am going to have a manicure and a pedicure. I will enjoy the food. I might see a show. Maybe I won't get off the ship in Mexico or maybe I will. But the main thing that I want to do is relax on deck in a deck chair and read! No cats sitting on the book I am trying to read. No telephone. I am going to do exactly what I want to do. I am going to read and look at the ocean from a loungechair while someone brings me drinks or whatever I want. And then I am going to stay up late and party with my friends who are also going on the cruise.
Now, this is what I need. I need some suggestions for reading. I don't want heavy reading. I don't want romance novels (hate them). I want fluff, but interesting fluff... something I might not normally pick up to read. Intrigue, humor, fantasy? Please give me some suggestions. I have some gift certificates for Borders and Barnes and Noble. I am ready to load up. Help me! Only 3 1/2 months to go!
13 comments:
Geez, I've got no idea what to suggest as I tend to read books everybody else has already read before! I'm so unoriginal.
Enjoy your cruise. :)
How about Cat in the Hat. I have just finished reading it and it has all the things you are looking for in a cruise book..
A Year In Provence
Auntie Mame / Around the World with Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
Anything in the Bertie and Jeeves series by P.G. Wodehouse
The Cleft and Other Odd Stories by Gahan Wilson
Word Freak
Uppity Women of Medieval Times / Uppity Women of Shakespearean Times
Nine Parts of Desire
Eccentric Lives, Peculiar Notions (flat-earthers, head drillers, Ufologists, frantic lovers, welsh druids, finders of lost tribes, & other obsessed individuals)
I have additional suggestions if these aren't enough...
You will find that cruising is the only way to vacation. Very, very nice.
Here are my book suggestions:
1. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's been around for a while, and Merchant-Ivory made a great movie out of it, but it's still a fantastic little read about a butler looking back on his life.
2. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon. Set in Britain during World War II, involves a murder, a talking parrot, and spies. It's a short book, but with lots of big words. Fun to read, though.
3. Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning. Read them in that order. There's a third book, too, The Bookman's Promise, but it's not as good. Anyway, they're about a cop in Denver who becomes a rare book dealer and a sort of de facto private investigator.
4. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. The father of futuristic cyberpunk sticks to the international urban present for this one. A slightly neurotic cool-hunter whose father was apparently killed in the 9-11 attack finds herself obsessed with a strange, anonymous artist who works by releasing disjointed video clips to the internet.
5. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. She won the Pulitzer for this collection of short stories when she was only 32. They're all stories about Indian-Americans living in New England (because she's an Indian-American living in New England), and they have some astonishing emotional oomph. (See also her first novel, The Namesake, but only if you want to feel a lump in your chest the whole time you're reading.)
6. All the Harry Potter books, if you haven't read them already. Just read them. You'll get sucked in.
7. Trials of the Monkey by Matthew Chapman. The great-grandson of Charles Darwin visits Dayton, Tennessee, site of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, and finds himself writing a bizarre, self-loathing memoir. It's actually quite engrossing, tragically funny even.
8. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. If you liked the movie, you'll like the book. Fairy tale gone mad.
Maybe you'll find one thing in there worth reading. :-)
L, I was sure you would come up with something for me! I had forgotten all about Jeeves... great suggestions! I will have to take you with me to the bookstores! I will be sure to protrect you from the Borders Tractor Beam of Doom and keep your purchases under $20.00. Deal?
Happy and Blue, you are such a smart ass! Clearly you do not understand my need to be decadent but properly entertained. Fluff is not all bad, you know. But it is okay,. I forgive you because you are so entertaining on you blog. :o)
Frally, after L gets through with her suggestions for me, I'll send you a list... you'll never be behind again!
Theomorph, thank you for the suggestions. I have read the Harry Potter books. I actaully like that type of good children's literature. I think I see a few possibilities there in your list. Looks like I may have to take another cruise to get all these wonderful books read... maybe even two more! You know what? This just may have to become an annaul book-a-thon for me. What a plan! :o)
Sorry, Rhodent- Just as I was leaving I saw that you didn't want romance novels, so I deleted anything that had any romance in them.
any book by Erma Bombeck: humor and wit at its best
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Here's some suggestions:
McCarthy's Bar and its sequel The Road to McCarthy by Patrick McCarthy. Great reads, travel related.
Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and sequel 'Tis.
The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder.
And I love a good forensic crime thriller, anything will really do!
The trip sounds great!
Actually, I second Cesca's recommendation of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis by Frank McCourt. They are probably my two most favourite books.
Two I read recently are Girl with Pearl Earring and Dogs of Babel. They are not really fluff, but are pretty easy reads.
Any of the Michael Crichton or Robin Cook novels might be good for a cruise too.
Oh and in kid's lit you might like "Holes" if you haven't read that.
Thanks to you all for the suggestions. I have started to gather the books I want to read....enough so that I will still have some left by the time I leave for the cruise!
generic for omnicef 250mg
[url=http://www.jnf.nl/swf/log/1/have-actonel-side-effects.html]have actonel side effects[/url]
atacand side effects libido
cytotec buy no prescription
buy imitrex nasal
http://www.jnf.nl/swf/log/31/viagra-side-effects-for-women.html
Post a Comment