Nancy Kress's An Alien Light wasn't as good as her Beggars series books, but it wasn't a bad book to carry around and read random places. First contact SF, basically.

Robert Heinlein's Have Spacesuit -- Will Travel was one of his juveniles. Boy gets spacesuit, gets kidnapped, rescues the girl, etc. Not bad, but it would have been better read around age 12.

Michael Rabagliati's Paul Moves Out is a graphic novel centering around the time when he finally left his parents house and moved in with his girlfriend.

Robert D. Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts tells of his travels around the region before everything blew up in the 90s. Definitely recommended.

William Least Heat Moon's Columbus in the Americas is a slight book describing Columbus's travels. I was expecting something more like his travel memoirs, but this was straight history. Not bad, but not really compelling either.

Simon Winchester's The River at the Center of the World is the story of his trip up the Yangtze from the Pacific to somewhere near its source (that source isn't entirely decided upon, so he got near it at least). I read this one on airplanes and airports. It should tell you something that it managed to keep me awake on the airplane in my sleep-deprived state until I finished it.

Lisa Goldstein's The Alchemist's Door is a novelization of the creation of the Golem in medieval Prague. Not as good as The Red Magician but a good read.
posted by kristin at 2:38 PM