frumiousb

Today's Sunday Salon is dedicated to those unsung books that get us through our long flights. I'm on my way to Sweden again tomorrow, and so I am considering today which books will make the flight.

*****

A coworker asked me the other day which books I tended to read on the airplane while backing and forthing to Sweden. "Oh, just airplane books", I replied modestly.

"My husband loves airplane books!" she said with great excitement. "He collects them. Maybe the two of you could share!"

I was a little bit puzzled, since it did not seem to me to be that uncommon of an interest, and she seemed so excited. "Who are his favorite authors?" I asked. "I've been reading a lot of Val McDermid lately."

Then it was her turn to look puzzled. "Val McDermid?" she asked. "Does she write about airplanes?"

Oh. Airplane books. Explanations and laughter followed.

Anyhow, this got me wondering what books you all like to bring on airplanes? Do you have particular authors who you never read in real life, but always buy at the airport bookshop? Any favorite genres or publishers who get you through the fear of flying?

Just curious.



Die With Me
Elena Forbes

This is a debut novel for Forbes. I picked it up at the airport bookshop partially because of all the reasonably good blurbs on the back cover. The Literary Review liked it. The Times liked it. I'll go along with those worthies. I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

The story features a string of murders of vulnerable young women. At first glance, they appear to be suicides. It is only by chance that the police realize that there seems to be a serial killer involved. D.I. Mark Tartaglia is assigned to the case. Tartaglia is too good looking and aggressive for his own good (and for his career's own good). The case causes him to reexamine a number of relationships (both romantic and otherwise) that he thought he well understood.

I did not find the novel terribly memorable, and I was at least a teeny bit disenchanted with the ending. This said, an admirable airplane book. It was precisely the ticket for helping the time pass by.

Not Dead Enough
Peter James

Like many readers, I first knew Peter James from his horror novels. I have been reading these Roy Grace detective novels with some interest, although I have to say that I still find myself missing something in his work.

Not Dead Enough spins a tale about a man who is a seemingly obvious murder suspect, if it only were not for the fact that it required him to to be in two places at the same time. The themes of the day are obsession and revenge. It kept me reading, I will give it that much. I do have to say that had I not been on an airplane, the overly complicated plot would most likely have struck me as rather tiresome.

The quality of the writing is good, and I like Roy Grace as a character. I plan to give James the benefit of the doubt and see if I can find something in the series than I like better than Not Dead Enough.

Not bad though, as airplane reading.