The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

With the supernatural craze now in the ya market (twilight etc) seems that they have branched out into the zombie market.  The forest of Hands and Teeth is really first promoted as a romance with the zombie action as a side note. 
Mary lives in a village surrounded by a fence to keep out the Unconsecrated (zombies) but she wonders what lies beyond.  Her mother has told her stories of buildings that touch the sky and of the ocean and Mary longs to see these wonders for herself.  The Sisterhood is the typical leaders of these types of books and try to keep everyone in line with their brand of Scripture but as is often true, power corrupts and the Sisterhood hold many secrets one being the fenced in path that leads out of the village. 
Much of the time the people inside the village don't really pay much attention to the Unconsecrated outside the fences until something goes wrong.
There was no cursing in this book and not much bloody details.  There is alot of sexual tension between several of the characters.  I didn't really think that the writing was all that wonderful and found myself scimming over someove it to get to the next action part.    

Chronological Guide to the Bible

Chronological Guide to the Bible is just what the title suggests, a chronological guide.  If you are interested in reading the Bible chronologically this is a good place to start.  It is a good jumping off point and if you just want general information. 
This guide divides the Bible up into 9 epochs.  Within each epoch it gives a general overview that includes archeology, the peoples and groups and Biblical literature.  It also gives you a reading guide with those little boxes that you can check off if you so wish.  There is a brief overview of each of the books of the Bible and then a brief description of the major events that happen in that book. 
I think that this is the perfect book for you if you (like myself) have never read the Bible in chronological order and if you are also interested in a little bit of history and commentary along with it.  The sections are just enough to wet your appetite and if you would like to explore further it is a good place to know where to start. 
The guide is colorful and has pictures throughout that depicts that particular part of the Bible.
I reviewed this book as part of Booksneeze, the blogger reviewer program of Thomas Nelson.  I received no payment for this review.

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

A Praying Life by Paul Miller is a book about prayer that gives you a very practical way to go about having a praying life.  Paul relates how he has gone about finding ways to pray in this busy life that we all live.  He weaves everyday stories into each area that he discusses and shows us how we to can find a way to make prayer an important part of our lives. He is honest about how he finds it difficult at times to pray but lets us know that we can always start from scratch and its ok.  
If anyone knows that stresses of the world we live in it is Paul Miller.  He is involved in a very busy mission organization, is very busy with seminars, has a tax business, and has a wife and children one of which has autism.  Many of his stories deal with his prayers for his daughter and her unique needs.
The first part of the book is just different ways that we need to approach the whole process of prayer, the last part is two specific ways tools that he uses when he prays, prayer cards and a prayer journal.  I have heard about the prayer journal before but I was really interested in the prayer cards which seems to be perfect for individual people and their prayer requests.
I have always felt a need to pray more and I intend to use what I have learned from this book and apply it to my personal prayer time. 
I got this book from christianaudio.com as part of their blogger review program.  The narrator was Arthur Morey.  I thought he did a good job overall but maybe could have had a little more emotion when he read.  The one time he tried to use a different voice when he was reading it didn't translate well.       

66 Love Letters: A conversation with God that Invites you into His Story by Larry Crabb

This was an excellent book.  Larry Crabb takes each of the 66 books of the Bible and relates them to the reader as a true love letter from God.  I read the book straight through for this review but the book really needs the reader to take their time and savor each chapter along with the book of The Bible that it addresses.  I plan on going back and doing just that.  The chapters are written like a conversaion between the reader and God.  The reader asks God some questions about the book then God goes on to answer the questions and tells the reader what He intended for us to learn from that particular book. At first I was put off a bit by some of the questions that Larry Crabb was asking but when I thought about it they were the exact questions that I had at times.   Crabb tried to make this book accessable to everyone and thus making the Bible accessable to every one.  I read this book as part of Thomas Nelson's Blog reviewer progam found at http://booksneeze.com/blogger. 

Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl

Katie Converse disappears while taking her dog for a walk.  Enter the Triple Threat Club, Allison a Federal Prosecutor, Cassidy a tv reporter and Nicole a FBI special agent.  Allison is a Christian and relies on her faith to help her through the bad times, Nicole doesn't really believe in anything and Cassidy is into whatever is hot at the moment.
As they start to investigate the disappearance of Katie each one of them have other things going on in their lives, Allison is getting threats from someone but who could it be out of all the people who she has sent away to prison and their families, Nicole is on a special task force to catch online predators of pedophiles, and Cassidy has started a new relationship and is trying to work her way up the ladder in the competitve world of tv news.
This book was good in the fact that it did keep me guessing to the very end about who was responsible for the mystery surrounding Katie.  Several other subplots I thought where wrapped up a bit to tidyly and a bit to quickly like the author forgot that she had these other plots going and then at the end thought "oh Yeah we have to tie up these loose ends".  The book was compared to the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson.  I don't think this was as good as those but I was very entertained and will probably read the next in the series Hand of Fate when it come out in April. 
I would recommend this book if you like thrillers and mysteries.  I read this book as part of BookSneeze the program from Thomas Nelson for Bloggers.

The Secret by Beverly Lewis

If you like books that deal with Amish then you will enjoy most books by Beverly Lewis.  This book is no exception.  Grace is hoping that her beau will ask her to marry him soon.  She is older than most girls at this stage of the game.  Her mother has been acting mighty strange lately and her Grandmother and Grandfather have been kinda secretive.  Heather is a young woman who has just found out some devasting news both about her health and her fiance.  This is part of a series and is continued in The Missing.    

Witch and Wizard by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

This book is about what happens when we don't pay attention and vote in people that have an agenda that people don't realize isn't good for them.
It is a young teen book and it does make adults out to be the bad guys (except for the main kids' parents).It was okay and had alot of action.  It did seem to talk down to the kids abit. 

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordon

My daughter has read this whole series and in anticipation of the movie coming out I decided to read them as well.

I thought this was really a good book.  There were some things that I found unbelievable but it is a book about Greek Gods and Goddess after all.

 I did like the way he did make a distinction between the gods and God.

Percy is a half-blood, half human half god.  He doesn't know this until he is 11.  He moves from school to school and never seems to fit in with the other kids.  Something weird always seems to happen.  When his mother determines that she can't protect him anymore she takes him to Camp Half-blood but is banished along the way.  At Camp Hal-blood percy learns more about himself and embarges on a quest across the country with two of his friends. 

This book is filled with action and will keep you and your children on the edge of your seats.

A Love woven True by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

This is the ongoing story that was startedin the Daughters of Lowell Series.  In this one Jasmine finds out how to continue with her life after her husband dies.  A major theme throughout the book was that of slavery as Jasmine continues to try to help runaways and gives a home to a couple that she freed.  The cotton mills are a small bit in this story but it does play a part.    

Bones: Buried Deep by Max Collins and Kathy Reichs

This is the only Bones book that has the characters from the tv show. although it was enjoyable it really only featured Boned and Booth and didn't have to much of the other characters that make the tv show so good. while in Chicago on a mafia case Booth is called in when a skeleton is found on FBI property. Since it is a skeleton Booth calles in Brennan who determines that the skeleton is made up of several bodies. But who is doing it?