The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, or Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link. Except that they're both a little denser and weightier than some people like their airplane books to be. Are you looking more for light entertainment or for something to sink your teeth into?

Oh, I almost picked up Time-Traveler's Wife the other day. I'll grab that one, and look for one of Jess's recs, too.

As to style, I like to carry options so that I can read what suits my mood at any given moment. So some assortment of meaty and candycane reads is what I'm hoping to cobble together. It's a long flight, so I think I'll have need of both.

For lighter and shorter books, I like James Alan Gardner's League of People's series a lot, too. (The best three, IMO, are Expendable, then Ascending, then Vigilant.) They're not exactly fluff, but they're very quick reads.

I so so so recommend TTW (again). Such a great story and so unique.

A bit bittersweet, but wonderful.

I always recommend Jack McDevitt's A Talent for War, which was reissued this year. His other books are good, solid science fiction, but with A Talent for War, he hit it out of the park. It's part science fiction, part history and part mystery, and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that it has a moment that redefines HSQ.

A quick rec:

Banewreaker (The Sundering, Book 1) -- by Jacqueline Carey

Back when Kushiel trilolgy came out I offended some people by having very mixed reactions to the series, while thinking that Carey had tremendous talent.

Well this new book has my unmixed endorsement. Good storytelling, no Mary Sues (well maybe the elves a little - but with good story telling and plot reasons for them to be.)

Also if you don't mind my using a dirty word, a really marvelous deconstruction of the Lord of the Rings. Umm, while I like the parallels I'm betting some will find them a mite anvilicious.

[On edit - not related to any particular request - just a general rec.]

Hi, TB. I'm second on the hold list for Banewreaker in the Seattle library system, but they're still listing it as "on order." Hopefully it'll be here when I'm back from Thanskgiving.

And I think in the intervening time since we had the argument over the Kushiel series, I've gotten confident enough in the excellence of my taste that I don't take it quite as personally when someone criticizes something I'm wholeheartedly enthusiastic about.

(OK, maybe not. But at least I usually manage to keep my mutterings of, "What's he talking about? I love it! And there's nothing wrong with either my taste or my intellect!" private, and keep my actual public comments to, "Well, I thought it was brilliant.)

ETA--I read the first few pages of Banewreaker last time I was at a bookstore and found myself wondering if I was going to enjoy Carey's writing so much without the intimacy and intensity of a strong first person narrator, so we could well end up with opposing opinions on which is her better work.

Gar, I wasn't sold on Kushiel either. In fact, I couldn't finish the first one (I stopped at the point where she gets raped in her first client meeting or whatever), and it's been sitting on my desk for about five months so I can ship it to Micole, who wants it.

It all felt wayyy too ornate, and that kind of sexual kink really doesn't do it for me. Prostitution still feels like prostitution. ::shrugs::

Suela, you got further into it than I did. I should give my copy to someone who would appreciate it. People I generally trust loved it, but it was just not my cup of tea at all.

I made it all the way through, based on the strength of Carey's world-building and wondering how she was going to resolve the pleasure/pain thing, but while I'm glad I read it, Phaedre has become my textbook example of a Mary Sue - no matter who else is involved in the conflict, or what their intelligences or expertises are, it's Phaedre who always comes up with the right answer. And everyone falls in love with her! And in lust!

But I thought it was brave of the author to center a series around a character with unusual sexual wiring, and the friend I gave my copy of it to LOVED it, so I'm looking forward to Banewrecker.