Advice depends on your use. For home defense I’d choose a Judge, which is a five shot .410. You can’t beat the reliability of a revolver coupled with the knockdown power of 4 .32round balls. If you’re carrying and you don’t dress so you can easily cover a full frame semiautomatic then a small frame 3.5 inch barrel single or double stack .380 (Glassier) or 9mm.
http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=199&category=Pistol
That being noted, as others have said, go rent, stick with quality and get trained