Has anyone read any good books lately?

The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
 
I read this for first time about a year ago but just started it all over again. It's a GREAT book, I absolutely LOVE it!

I love almost anything by Dean Koontz (it helps he has a GR named Trixie that he adores!).  This is one of my favorites [linkhttp://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553582758]http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553582758[/link]
 
Also his Odd Thomas series (there's 2).  The first one made both my uncle and me cry (my uncle is over 50 Vietnam vet and does not cry easily!)
 
I love the good vs evil themes and how his characters are ordinary people forced to face extraordinary challenges. 
 
If you prefer something without supernatural aspects then I like Lisa Scottoline's
The Vendetta Defense  [linkhttp://scottoline.com/Site/Books/vendetta.aspx]http://scottoline.com/Site/Books/vendetta.aspx[/link].
Lawyer murder mystery type work but her characterizations are also pretty good. 
 
If you do read any of these let me know what you think! 

I read a LOT.....so....let's see.....
 
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver....this was really thought-provoking
Empress Orchid - Anchee Min.....not totally fiction, a fictional account of true events
Chocolat - Joanne Harris....not new, but one of those lovely books that withstands re-reading.
Theft: A Love Story - Peter Carey.....a really engrossing story
 
If I think of any more I'll post again, but this is just what has been on my night table recently.
 
Kate

Rakkety Tam by Brian Jacques - I just finished it and wish I still had half the book to go [].
 
It's kind of a young adult fantasy (although I think a bit violent for a kid's book) but I've always liked the Redwall books.

I second the Time Traveler's Wife.  It was a very poignant story, and i really liked it.  it's a little hard to follow at first, but then it just sucks you in.

o've read all of the artemis fowl books. also all of the alex rider books by anthony horowitz, but then againg, i'm 14[]

I've been reading a lot lately. In the last 2 months I've read -
 
Middlemarch by George Eliot. A classic novel about the ordinary follies of people in the decisions they make about marriage, career, and the courses of their lives. What makes Eliot great is that she writes about her characters' personal failures in a compassionate way - not the kind of smug condescension you sometimes find in other 19th c writers.
 
Dry by Augusten Burroughs. A memoir about his alcoholism and recovery from it. He is one of my favorite writers - funny, endearing, honest, sarcastic, so human you begin to feel like he's a close friend. This book was absolutely amazing, I've read all of his memoirs but this is the most heavy-hitting of them. I immediately followed it with his new collection of memoir essays, Possible Side Effects. Loved it too of course - the pieces range from light and hilarious to sad and touching. There's also a good one about when he got his second Frenchie puppy, named The Cow. []
 
Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong. She writes about religion, and I am still in the middle of one of her religion books. But this one's a memoir about her years as a nun in England in the 60s. It is completely riveting and hard to put down. She struggles horribly under the rule of an extremely ascetic Order, and it takes such a toll on her mind and body that she eventually has a breakdown and has to leave. Immediately that after I read the sequel, The Spiral Staircase, written much later in 2004. This memoir chronicles her entry into secular life, her failure to really fit in or succeed in life for the next thirty years, and finally her big breakthrough to happiness when she discovers her passion for studying comparative religion. The subject is rather near and dear to my heart so I don't imagine everyone would have the same reaction, but for me it was intensely sympathetic, and ultimately breathtaking in its clarity and wisdom.
 
Right now I'm reading Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich. Again, non-fiction, but it's very funny and entertaining. Ehrenreich is a writer who poses as an unemployed PR person and exposes the very bizarre industry of career coaches and career services that cater to unemployed white collar workers.
 
 

I like James Patterson novels, especially the ones that are part of the Alex Cross series (theres a ton of these) and Lindsay Boxer series(1st to die, 2nd chance, 3rd something, 4th of July and I think 5th something is out now too).  Both are detectives and have the same characters in each book, with some added new ones being criminals etc.

I like to rummage through books at our local Goodwill...
I can read a lot of books for a little money....and I donate them back when I'm finished...I've gotten new releases just two weeks after they came out....

The Harry Potter series (seriously, they are terrific)!  Rowling has a way with her words that is just wonderful.  I am 24 and I just started reading them about 3 years ago, they aren't just for kids.  In fact, they get more and more intense as the series goes on.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Chronicles of Narnia

Anything by James Herriot (A vet who recounts stories of his experiences in the field)

Actually I am reading 2 books.  One is JEFF GORDON....RACING BACK TO THE FRONT.  My youngest son and daughter-in-law gave it to me for Mother's Day.  I have been hooked on NASCAR for about 10 years and Jeff Gordon is "my driver" (followed by Mark martin).  My DIL and son thought I was nuts for sitting home every Sunday afternoon watching cars go round and round.  Then one Sunday my son was out of town with the mobile aquarium and my DIL decided if she could see what I saw in racing.  AND she has been hooked ever since.  Only she is a Dale Earnhardt, jr. fan and we have a lot of fun when we get together to watch a race. 
 
And then another book is one  they gave me for my  birthday a couple of weeks ago--The Christmas Carol Trivia Book.  I LOVE that story, any version from cartoon Mr. MaGoo to Henry Wrinklers An American Christmas Carol, to the moives with George C Scott, Alister Sim, etc etc.

I love James Herriot books too! I re-read the series at least once a year. They are funny, and relaxing! []
 
Some of the books I liked as a child, I still enjoy. I used to re-read the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings every year, but this year will be the 20th time, and I'm a little burnt out on them. I still like my Anne of Green Gables books, and all the Narnia books. They are my light, in-between new books, summer reading.
 
I'm tired of John Grisham. I need a new mystery/ drama author. Suggestions???
 
For funny/ romance/ mystery  Jennifer Crusie books are okay. I am currently hooked on the Maryjanice Davidson "Undead" series. I picked one up by accident, and loved it. Really funny, yet I don't get too wrapped up in them. Good for summer reading.
 
 

With the caveat offered that I like my fiction to be a little challenging, I'll submit Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (in translation) as my very favorite read so far this year.  I'm not sure how a professional critic would classify his writing, but I think of it as magical realism and I loved it.  Could hardly stand putting it down and still feel like I'm immersed it the world it depicted even though I finished it 2 months ago.
 
I also give a big thumbs up to Middlemarch - love it every time I read it.
 
I also just finished Julia Alvarez' Saving the World and I liked it quite well, though my favorite of hers is In the Time of the Butterflies.
 
I read Gilead and it was a nice read and a poignant story (it's an epistolary novel - letters written from an older, dying minister to his very young son who will grow up without him).

Wow, thanks for all the responses.  I'll print this up and off we go to Border's tomorrow!!