Crocodile on the Sandbank (by Elizabeth Peters)

I jumped the gun on my vacation reading by finishing the first book in the Amelia Peabody series, Crocodile on the Sandbank.  I was downloading Kindle samples as per usual, trying to find something to read on vacation. Given my current mood, some light genre fiction sounded good. I decided to sample this one a little further. And further. And further. And then, oops, I finished it.

This book fit the bill perfectly. Elizabeth Peters is an Egyptologist, so her setting (a trip down the Nile and an archaeological dig of Akhnaten 's palace) is fully realized and detailed. Plus, Akhnaten is my favorite pharaoh! The unspooling of the mystery is fun, but secondary to the wonderful main characters, starting with Amelia herself, a smart, independent, feminist, independently wealthy Englishwoman in 1880. But all four main characters are delightful.

This is the first novel in a 15-book series -- I wonder how many of these I will burn through while on vacation! I'm assiduously saving the second one, which I just downloaded, for the first leg of our trip.

Beauty (by Robin McKinley)

Sorry to drag my election depression over here to my beloved book blog, but I have to say that it is making it really difficult to find something to read. This retelling of Beauty and the Beast hit the sweet spot, though. Genre, nothing political, and decent from a feminist perspective. I really enjoyed it.

McKinley did a second, different retelling of the same fairy tale but the opening didn't grab me.  I may try her Sleeping Beauty retelling next.  But further suggestions welcome, because I honestly have no idea what to read next. (I am listening to the audibook of Scalzi's The Dispatcher, and it is also hitting the spot. So maybe sci-fi/fantasy is where I should be looking.)