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Looking for a good read to speed your trip to Grandmother’s house? There’s a bumper crop of good new books by, for, and about women to suit journeys long or short.

Over the River and Through the Woods
At 546 pages, “The Poisonwood Bible” will probably get you to your destination, through a long weekend and home again. Barbara Kingsolver’s vivid bestseller grips you with the saga of a hapless American missionary family caught up in The Congo’s bloody struggle for independence from Belgium in the late 1950′s.

Susan Minot’s “Evening” pulls you back and forth through time, as a dying mother and grandmother wafts between her disorienting final days and the tragic weekend she spent as a young single woman, where she both met and lost the love of her life forever. Minot’s beautiful writing skillfully carries the reader between reality and reverie.

Hop, Skip, Jump
“The Evolution of Jane,” by Cathleen Schine, is witty, engaging company. If you’ve ever outgrown a friend — or been outgrown — you will find special resonance in this clever divertissement on the nature and evolution of female friendships. Jane, recently divorced and lonely, takes a cruise to the Galapagos Islands, where she encounters not only the blue-footed booby, but also her long-lost best friend and cousin, Martha.

A longtime devotee of Darwin, Jane muses on the origin and mutation of relationships — as well as species — as she tries to unravel the mystery of a longtime family feud that may have driven Martha away.