If you’ve figured out how to do carry on – even for a 3 week cruise – you are ahead of the rest of us.  To reform overpackers, Jeri Lynch’s Secrets of the Packing Queen offers some practical and sometimes humorous hints.  Unlike other self-help travel books, Lynch actually identifies the brand names of the camera (CanonG10), accessories, clothes, and shoes she recommends,  and where you can buy them (Zappos for shoes, of course).

With recommendations for using packing cubes, multitasking outfits, travel folders for planning, and checking the weather, Lynch clearly instructs with a simple readable style, including charts and templates. Many of her suggestions may be familiar, but even if you’ve heard them before, you probably haven’t used them.  Lynch makes packing seem simple with her “3-5-9 Combine” plan.

Lynch has a section of “Must Read Novels BEFORE You Go” with suggestions for 27 books before traveling  to your destination: for Africa ( Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver), for Egypt (Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfounz) and for Hong Kong (Noble House by James Clavell) – among others.  She suggests downloading your books to your Ipod3.

Packing to carry on luggage is getting to be a necessity these days.  If you can, give it a try; I plan to.