I've been reading The Sword of Truth series on and off since I discovered it a couple of years ago. As much as I enjoy the fantasy quality to it, Goodkind's writing really starts lacking in the later novels and as his own formerly subliminal political motifs begin rising to the surface it becomes less and less enjoyable. I mean, the last one I read he dedicated to the United States Intelligence Agency or some BS government organization like that. Said it was defending against the "hounds of evil." Really, I don't mind authors sharing their viewpoints, but it's a little insipid (to say the least) to draw in readers under the guise of fantasy only to force-feed them this Neo-Con mantra through what have become barely-undertones. Anyway, the books themselves are still pretty good on their own merits.

I started reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It gets better as it goes along and it's interesting to read, but it seems too much like a hoity-toity book circle selection to really meet my tastes. I'll finish it, I'm sure, eventually.

Really, books I've enjoyed in the past have been fairly obscure. I love (!!!) A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and The Rule of the Bone by Russel Banks was alright to a point. I find that of late I tend to get bored of books the farther I get into them, if I get into them at all, despite the fact that I love reading in general. I really like Oscar Wilde's writings, though; pretty much anything by him will keep my attention.

And if you for some reason haven't tried it yet, the first Twilight book is alright if you can ignore the intensive hype of it (wasn't a problem when I read it just after it came out, so I had no predispositions, and I say it's a fair read, though I found the others had little to offer.)