Sue

Grandma, I second the 'Talented Mr. Ripley' and I do hope you saw the film, the location shots in Italy were fabulous!

Sue

Grandma, I'm with you on Susan Isaacs. Compromising Positions was a hoot and her other books are good reads, too.

linda

Hi, My vote goes to Matt Reilly's Ice Station. Takes place in Antarctica. World governments are all positioning themselves for rights to the ice station in order to claim an umknown structure determined to be located beneath it. I call it the commando book. The protagonist, Schofield, has to deal with many dastardly situations to both stay alive and maintain the station for the USA. Many twists and turns. What more can one man do? A word of warning...the first few pages feel like sci-fi, then there is a sudden turn thriller/espionage.<BR><BR>Everyone I lend it to cannot put it down.<BR><BR>linda

mariana

Anything by Maeve Binchey is good and entertaining , (Ireland background)...though I like Rosamond Pilcher perhaps a little better (Scotland and England).

Mavis

- The Chatham School Affair by Thomas Cook<BR>- Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon<BR>- mysteries by Ian Rankin (take place in Scotland)<BR>- Berkut by Joseph Heywood<BR>- Bone People by Keri Hulme<BR>- Zero to the Bone by Mary Willis Walker

Dominic McGibney

Several come to mind....<BR><BR>Michael Dibdin: Aurelio Zen detective novels (set across Italy in various locations - Naples, Rome, Tuscany, Venice etc.- and very, very good: an insight into Italian mores laced with acidic humour and just the right amount of nastiness).<BR><BR>Allan Massie: The Roman Series: "Caesar", "Augustus", "Tiberius", "Nero's Heirs". Historical novels which illuminate the treachery and intrigue of Roman Politics. Covering similar ground to Robert Graves' masterpieces "I, Claudius" & "Claudius the God" but IMHO more of a page turner.<BR>Julian Rathbone: "The Last English King" about the Norman Conquest of England and the downfall of King Harold. Spell binding!<BR><BR>Also for laugh out loud moments, light hearted fun you can't go wrong with any PG Wodehouse (I particularly enjoy the Jeeves & Wooster stories and Blandings Castle series), Tom Sharpe's "Wilt", "Porterhouse Blue" and other titles (ribald comedy by the Wodehouse de nos jours - do not read if easily offended!) and finally the late, great Douglas Adams' "Hitchikers Guide To the Galaxy" series - a trilogy in five parts. If you don't end up getting strange looks when reading those titles from the constant guffaws you're emitting then there's something wrong - or you're sat in the bath.

Joann

Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurty (Lonesome Dove characters' younger days). Very good. Also "Drawing of the Three" by Stephen King. Second of a series - considered science fiction but my favorite. Last but not least, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (forget author - think Smith).

bookworm

other ideas?

janeygirl

Just finished a couple of books by Anita Shreve: &quot;The Last Time They Met&quot; and &quot;The Pilot's Wife&quot; and enjoyed both of them.<BR><BR>I haven't read all of the replies so perhaps I'm repeating someone's suggestion but I also really like books by David Sedaris, particularly &quot;Me Talk Pretty One Day.&quot; There's a hilarious section with him trying to communicate in French before he really has a good grasp of that language.

Teresa

&quot;See Jane Run&quot; Kept me up all night reading. Don't recall who wrote it---read it 10 years ago!

Biff L.

Judith,<BR><BR>The latest bio of Pres. Bush, authored by David Frum, will no doubt satisfy the former, but I have real concerns about its page-turning potential.

Grinisa

&quot;The Lovely Bones&quot; would definitly qualify as a page turner/can't put it down book. Anything by Joy Fielding (who wrote &quot;See Jane Run&quotis good. I enjoy all the Jeffrey Deaver mysteries as well as Kathy Reichs' (a new and better Patricia Cornwell). My husband started Patrick O'Brian's Captain Aubrey series on a trip several years ago and was instantly hooked.

Boo

Geez...<BR><BR>I'm surprised no one has suggested John le Carre. His earlier books are terrific. Sadly, his later efforts are only echos of his greatness. The &quot;Tinker, Tailor...&quot; trilogy is nothing short of brilliant and nemero uno is &quot;Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy&quot;; simply the best spy novel ever written. The only caveat is that it requires you to bring your brain along for the ride.<BR><BR>Enjoy.<BR><BR>You're welcome.

Ron

Not exactly a no-brainer but I think it is a brain-stunner - Seven Years in Tibet by Hienrich Hesse (or something like that) - forget the drippy Brad Pitt movie.

Judy

Hi Judith, &quot;The Beach House&quot;, by Mary Alice Monroe, great read, very touching. In another vein, thriller/chiller, &quot;Blindsighted&quot; by Karin Slaughter, also by Karin, but verrrrry dark, &quot;Kisscut&quot;. I also likes Lisa Gardner's &quot;The Survivors Club&quot;and &quot;the Perfect Husband&quot;, by Lisa is a classic thriller IMO. <BR>Judy

Dutch

One of the best books of last year - The Weather in Berlin - A Novel by Ward Just

Tina

Just finished reading &quot;The Lovely Bones&quot; by Alice Sebold; it grabs you from the start and doesn't let go. Admittedly, it may not be the type for a light vacation read. It's definitely a page-turner with a unique plot --- it's the story of a young 14-yr old girl who was raped &amp; murdered and is now in heaven telling her story.<BR><BR>After flying thru that book, I'm now reading the novel &quot;Bel Canto&quot; by Ann Patchett. It's set in South America and is about a kidnapping ... well, again, maybe not the best if you're traveling outside the country. It's got a diverse group of characters that are being held captive by the revolutionaries.

Ruth

The Master and Margarita by Michail Bulgakov is a book I keep rereading. Not a no-brainer but certainly a page turner.

buffy

I love taking mysteries/suspense novels with me on trips. Those with a touch of humor, such as books by Carl Hiaasen, Tim Cockey, and Anne George are great and engrossing. Christopher Reich and Kathy Reichs are good as well.<BR>In other genres, the Miss Julia books by Ann Ross are pretty engrossing and Bill Bryson or P.J. O'Rourke are amusing and interesting.

xxx

Dont' read a book on a long plane trip! Especially a good book you can't put down. You will arrive totaly jet lagged and waste the first day of your holiday.<BR>Watch the boring movies still they send you to sleep, when you wake up, drink water, do your exercises, go back to sleep.