Read any good books lately?

Ok, Honey Bunch...this is for you. Don't say I never did anything for you. :0)
This is the list of books I have read since January {I think anyway...it's hard to keep track}. I love to read. I have been known to stay up until the wee hours of the night in order to finish a book. In fact, just the other night I was up until past 1:00 a.m. finishing off this one.....

This is the latest book by one of my new favorite authors, Stephenie Meyer. It was not at all what I expected it to be like. I knew it had to do with aliens taking over human bodies, but the story line was so intriguing and thought provoking it kind of took me off guard. It made you think about what qualities make humans truly human and perhaps if some of us don't act very humanely at all.
This one honestly, just looked interesting to me. I've always been curious about weegie boards, but never dared even touch one. Bad karma. The main character of this book is able to see and speak to the spirit of a man who was wrongly accused of several murders. Nobody else can see him but her, as she did the whole weegie board thing. The real murderer is back out on the prowl and so she has to try to figure it out with the help of a handsome policeman. Yeah, I know...typical story line. It was an ok book though.
This one was interesting. Two little twin girls are kidnapped. One is returned. The other is assumed dead. The one still alive appears to have some sort of "twin connection" with the other one, making some believe that her sister is really still alive and out there somewhere. Made me wonder if twins really do have that kind of connection. You've heard about twins separated at birth that knew they were "missing" something and ended up along similar paths in life. Weird stuff.
My friend, Alicia, totally hooked me up with this book. She literally brought it to my house. Now that I think of it, I read this in September. Oh well...can't leave it off the list right? I read the book in 2 days and borrowed the last two in the trilogy from her immediately after. I read the other two in only a couple more days. I couldn't put them down. When I was done with the third one, Eclipse, I was angry that the next book wasn't out already. I mean, seriously...what is up with making me wait? Don't they know I don't "do" waiting? Sigh.
This one was another mystery sort of book. A retired attorney, who is also a single dad, ends up having to come out of retirement to help out an old friend accused of rape and murder. Interesting storyline. It was ok.
Yes, Ashlee read the "devil books". My brother has not let me live it down. There was so much hype over these books and everyone just kept saying that you weren't supposed to read them or watch the movie....yada yada yada. I knew at some point, my book loving son would want to read them and I needed to be able to make an educated decision over whether or not I would allow it. So, I read the books. I'm an adult. If the books were really evil, I would figure it out pretty quickly and/or be able to look past the subtleties. It doesn't really get into the taboo stuff until the third book. But, honestly, whether or not the authors intentions were to portray man killing God or whatnot, I read it strictly as a fairytale. People can read whatever they want into pretty much anything these days. The characters live in a different reality, a different world actually. In their world, things are different. Their souls live outside their bodies. Anyway, it's all pretty much fictious and as long as it is read that way, there's not too much to worry about. It's kind of like reading into Narnia. Sure, one could say that the big lion is portraying Jesus, but really? He's just a lion. See my point? Anyway...the books were pretty decent up until the end of the third. I was seriously let down. Three books leading up to the big finale.....that wasn't so big. I was pretty disappointed. They weren't horrible, but not that great. Moving on....

Santa brought this book to my son this last year. Apparently Santa didn't pay too much attention because this book is way too old for an 8 year old. Sigh. Good times. Not old as in "too mature", just old as in....he wouldn't understand half the stuff or half the words. It's kind of like Harry Potter...made up words for a made up place. So, I stole it and read it. They said on the cover it was supposed to be like Harry Potter....not so much. The wizards don't really have powers. They summon demons to do their dirty work. I know, I know...here I go with demons and evil blah blah blah. They are not evil demons. They are creatures that are like nymphs and fairies and stuff. They are forced to do the will of the wizard that enslaves them. Got it? It was just ok. Perhaps a tween might like it.
Ah, yes. This fabulous book comes out in just a couple of days. I have been DYING for it to come out. I hope they don't run out of copies for me. Actually, I'll be in Boise this weekend, so I probably won't be able to even focus on getting a copy for myself until I get back next week. But then...I'm off to scavenge for one. This is book #4 in the Twilight Series. yes, the one I couldn't wait for, but was forced to because Stephenie hates me. Not that she really knows me, but if she did and she really loved me, she wouldn't make me wait. Right?
This one was wierd. But, apparently not wierd enough {or maybe just weird enough} for Hollywood. The movie version of it has already been made. It will be in theatres next October...meaning 2009. A teenage girl is raped and murdered {I know, again with the violence} and her murderer is never found. She goes up to heaven and is able to look down on her family and see what happens to them after her death. Like I said, weird.
This one was interesting. They made it into a "made for TV movie", which didn't do the book justice. They left out half the stuff. Sigh. A doctor ends up having to deliver his own baby one blizzardy night in the 1960s. Turns out, his wife was pregnant with twins. Though the first born, which was a boy, is perfectly healthy, the second born, a little girl, is born with downs syndrome. Back in that generation, people thought that this meant the baby would die soon after birth. The doctor, and new father, is afraid of what it would do to his wife to deal with that kind of loss, so he gives the baby to his personal nurse that is there to help him and tells her to take it to a home for people with this "disease". He tells his wife that the girl died. It destroys her. The nurse can't give the baby up and ends up raising her as her own. The book describes what life is like for both children and the parents afterwards. It wasn't my favorite book, but it was enlightening and interesting.
This book was almost the death of me. It was over 1000 pages long. Longest book {besides a text book} that I have ever read. Holy cow! Though the descriptions of the architectural elements were totally boring to me, the storyline was good. I was completely involved with the characters and their relationships with each other. It was interesting to see how they all affected each others lives.

I bought the book, Wicked, to take with me this weekend. Don't know if I'll have time to read, and really I should be reading my chapters for next weeks assignments instead, but I figured what the heck. This book is the same story as the musical, which I would love to go see. It is a twist on the whole 'Wizard of Oz' story, which is told from Dorothy's perspective. I am told this is the story of how the Wicked Witch became wicked. Sounds intriguing. I'll let you know!

What books have you guys read? I'm always looking for a new good one to add to my library.