Help, I need a good book ASAP!

Actually three or four. Going on vacation with the extended family this weekend and I just found out I'm not driving.

Please tell me some good books I can read to divert my attention from an eight-hour ride in the back of the inlaws' minivan doing the speed limit ...

Genre isn't important but a little description and why you liked it would help. Anything that starts off quick and holds your attention would be preferable.

Thanks in advance. :-*

 

Do you mind fun, rollicking stories that may not be Pulitzer-winning quality, but pass the time and draw you in?

 

Harold and the Purple Crayon

 

Don't mind at all. Actually, I hate to say it, but the classics tend to put me to sleep dissecting all the hidden meanings ... so while I do my best to finish them I prefer Grisham-y type stuff for vacations ...

 

Grisham is WAY high-browed for what I'm about to suggest.

Check out the Janet Evanovich books with Stephanie Plum. They're numbered ("one for the money" "two for the dough" etc.)

They're easy to read, but they're a mile a minute, they're fun and they're filled with crime, hijinks, romance, etc. Fun fun fun. I'm addicted. I buy each one the day they come out and finish it that night, usually. Sometimes it takes me two days.

 

The Pokey Little Puppy

 

The Rum Diary -- Hunter Thompson

Quick, easy read but without the vapidity.

 

In the Time of Butterflies -- Julia Alvarez
Sounds lame, but one of the best books I have ever read and doesn't involve a lot of mental dissecting, but definitely not in the same genre as a Grisham.

If you have never read the Jason Bourne series by Robert Ludlum I would suggest those.

 

'Skinny Legs and All' — Tom Robbins' best
'Illuminatus!' — Robert Anton Wilson, fnord
'Big Sur' — Kerouac suffers a nervous breakdown.
'Me Talk Pretty Some Day' — David Sedaris is laugh-out-loud funny. The title bit is the best.
'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' — Reading it now and loving it. Suskind does creepy good.
'Without Feathers' — Woody Allen might be a creep, but he knows funny.
'Sometimes a Great Notion' — Kesey's better novel

 

Oh. Those.

My wife reads 'em and laughs out loud. I won't touch them.

I think it's a gender thing.

 

Nope. Several men on here read them, though I won't name them for fear of damaging their "perceived" manhood.

Some of us were debating who should be cast in each part for a movie.

 

Too Far From Home by some guy named Chris James or June or something like that.

hears a voice offstage
What? Oh, Jones. Chris Jones. Never heard of him.