Vacation Reads Under 200 Pages
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I get it. You think you are going to read War and Peace on your vacation. You think of all the time you’ll have at the airport, on the plane, waiting in line for tickets, but the reality is that you’ll see the Barbie movie is available on the in-flight entertainment system and you’d rather stare and quietly judge other families, than read.
Here are a few books that are under 200 pages for you to take on your vacation. You’ll finally finish a book on that trip and you’ll have something to hide behind as you quietly judge or hide from family members and look incredibly smart at the same time.
This brief book, less than 100 pages. Foster is about a neglected and perhaps abused child, sent off to live with relatives for the summer. Their quiet kindness and attention is transformative for the entire family.
I loved this book so much, I read it twice. Then I got both my boys and their middle school friend to read it. It was made into a film called The Quiet Girl, which we all watched together. It is equally brilliant.
The glamour! The drunkenness! The drama!
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Yep. This classic is under 200 pages. This means you can finally read it! You’ll be surprised how easy a read it is.
“It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets. If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany’s, then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name.”
You may have seen the classic film with Audrey Hepburn, now read the novella of Holly Golilghtly’s charm, style, wisdom and naiveté. The woman is a wistful conundrum and you are here for it.
“As they carried along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?”
This quite tale set in Ireland, is a redemptive story of a father of four daughters whose father is larger than the church he is up against. Prepare yourself to cry happy tears.
“Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”
What strikes me the most about this novel is its simple language and story but the depth of its message of aging and courage.
““You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
Debauchery and Human Depravity? It’s trashy vacation reading I can get into. As Dorian lives in sensuality, his portrait shows the effects of his sin on his soul.