Theme Thursday: Airplane Reads

Am I the only one who notices weird commonalities in my books. They pop up all the time for me, unplanned generally. But it got me thinking and I've decided to do a new occasional post series of recommendations along a theme.

For my first pick, I'm doing airplane reads. And no, not just books that are good to read on a plane. I mean books that have something to do with planes. Inspired by last week's read of David Bell's Layover, Carter Wilson's brand new release The Dead Girl in 2A and his post here, as well as the news that broke last week that my first pick is being adapted for TV!

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian. From Goodreads: Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She's a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them, and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, already counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police—she's a single woman alone in a hotel room far from home—Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it's too late to come clean—or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did?

The Flight Attendant has been in my TBR for a while, patiently waiting for me to squeeze it into my reading time. Guess I'll need to get to it sooner rather than later so I can read before the show airs!

Next up is one I have read, and oldie but goodie in my opinion, Mayday by Nelson DeMille and Thomas Block. From Goodreads: Twelve miles above the Pacific Ocean, a missile strikes a jumbo passenger jet. The flight crew is crippled or dead. Now, defying both nature and man, three survivors must achieve the impossible. Land the plane.

I mean, this book is a little crazy, it's basically realistic zombies on a plane. But boy is it fun!!!

And finally, I had the pleasure of listening to this one on audio Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent. From Goodreads: Welcome to Flight or Fright, an anthology about all the things that can go horribly wrong when you’re suspended six miles in the air, hurtling through space at more than 500 mph, and sealed up in a metal tube (like—gulp!—a coffin) with hundreds of strangers. Here are all the ways your trip into the friendly skies can turn into a nightmare, including some we’ll bet you’ve never thought of before... but now you will the next time you walk down the jetway and place your fate in the hands of a total stranger.

Featuring a collection of tales, new and old, all centered around airplanes, this is the perfect read for the paranoid flyer. Or not.