Books.

I have recently realized (now that summer is upon us) that I have never created a list of my favourite books. Books are my passion, I live to read. I'm constantly on the look out for books I haven't read, and ones which are too good not to read again. And I feel that the summer is the BEST time to read a book. I always found it so relaxing to lay outside in a hammock with a ice cold beer (or in my pregger case, iced tea) with a nice breeze blowing the hair from my face, while reading a novel. Depending on the day, my mood dictates what kind of book that will be. I'm such a consumer of books that I have no true allegiance to any one genre. I range from horror to romantic smut! As long as the story is interesting you'll find it difficult to pull me away from it's pages.

Of course being a full time mother of two really cuts into my reading time, but on that rare occasion I can get an hour to myself, you can usually find me with a book in my hand.

So for those who love to read, and are always looking for their next novel to digest here is a list of my favourites, and if anyone has a book to recommend don't hesitate to comment!

Horror Fiction

1. Fear Nothing and Seize the Night - Dean Koontz. (a man with Xeroderma Pigmentosum, stuck living in a dark world, discovers it may be darker than he originally perceived. - mixed with loads of comic relief).

2. Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours - Dean Koontz (a series about a man who sees ghosts and dark shadows that warn him to deadly precipitous events! He goes on missions to prevent tragedies...often with Elvis in tow - also full of comic relief).

3. IT -Stephen King (a deadly creature living in the sewers love the taste of children and lures them to his domain by appearing as a creepy clown).

4. The Shining- Stephen King (a haunted mansion that drives it's caretakers insane!)

Murder Mysteries

1. Women's Murder Club Series - James Patterson( a group of friends who get together to solve homicides- characters consist of a cop, coroner, reporter, and prosecutor) There are nine books in the series so far.

2. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie (ten people are lured to an island and killed off one by one while they desperately try to figure out who the killer is)

3. A Time To Kill - John Grisham (a 10 year old black girl is raped by two red neck pricks and the father gets his revenge. Can his lawyer save him, or is the South to racially divided to grant this father a reprieve?)

Romance

1.Sign of Seven Trilogy - Blood Brothers, The Hollow, and the Pagan Stone - Nora Roberts (about three blood brothers who unleashed an ancient evil and who must, along with the women they love, kill the thing that has haunted their dreams from childhood.)

2. Eve Duncan Saga - Iris Johansen (about a woman whose daughter was kidnapped and never found and whose desperate search has lead her to become a forensic sculptor to help other victims of tragedy.) Could also fall under Murder Mystery!

Contemporary Fiction

1. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult (a family whose struggle to save a dying daughter/sister, comes to a head when her genetically matched, test tube, sister refuses to donate anymore organs, blood, etc, to save her sister's life) Completely different from the movie, read the book!!

Classic Fiction

1. East of Eden- John Steinbeck (set in twentieth century America, it mirrors the story of Cain and Abel, in a wonderfully created character piece which centers on humanity and all it means to be human.) A book I read in grade 10 which has stuck with me throughout the years as one of the best I have ever read!

2. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (about a doctor who creates a monster and discovers that his monster, may in fact, be more human than the good doctor himself).

Science Fiction

1. The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton (a doomsday virus from outer space spells disaster for the world if a group of scientists can't discover how to cure it) One of the best modern sci-fi books of all time!

2. The Time Machine - HG Wells (a scientist figures out how to travel through time in a desperate attempt to save the woman he loves)

3. War of the Worlds - HG Wells (invaders from Mars stake a claim to the earth as mankind does his best to defeat and survive the enemy)

Non-Fiction

1. The Holographic Universe - Micheal Talbot (A book that describes our world as being more of a hologram than of solid "matter". It insinuates that this explains paranormal phenomenon) A very fascinating read for anyone searching for answers about our world and all that's in it.

These are the books I can recall off the top of my head as being some of my favourites! Feel free to tell me what I've missed!