Mine are Esperanza Rizing by Pam Munoz Ryan and Measle and the Wrathmonk by Ian Ogilvy. They're superb. 

Esperanza Rising is about a girl called Esperanza who lives in a ranch with her mum. On the eve of her 13th birthday, bandits kill her father and she and her mum have to flee from Mexico to the States. Poignant yet beautiful.

Measle and the Wrathmonk revolves around a boy named Measle and his uncle Basil, who is an evil wrathmonk. One day, Basil shrinks Measle and he lives in a toy train set. It's a superb book with an unmistakable luminous green plastic cover. A perfect read if you're feeling bored.

I'm also reading Topsy and Tim and Usborne's 101 Things to do with Your Computer. I've tried the interactive story and the animated PowerPoint sequence of a boyon a skateboard. My interactive story was created in WordPad and it is set in a park. next, I'm going to invent a music quiz and even do a comic strip.

Since the end of the semester I've read several books, Y by Steven Jones, about maleness, which was a bore, Paradise for Sale by Carl McDanial and John Gowdy, which uses a little South Pacific island (Nauru) as an analogy for global environmental destruction, Al Franken's Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Shlain, which was very interesting and well written, AND A NOVEL called Voyage by Sterling Hayden, which was interesting, but in the end a disappointment.  Right now I'm in the middle of Thieves in High Places by Jim Hightower.  Depressing, but interesting.

I am quite lucky to have the time to read - mostly while Cat is here monopolizing the computer  ;).  As my Ukranian emigre Western Civ teacher use to say to we freshman, You Must Read!!! 

But to identify a favorite is hard, they are all so different.

I'm reading/have read latley:

1. Who's looking out for you?
2. The connection
3. Treason
4. Lies, and the lying liars who tell them
5. Al Franken is a buck-tooth moron

Plus on Oct. 15 (or close to that) Ann Coulter has a new book coming out called:  How to talk to a liberal (if you have to.)

Just finished rereading  it again, Unto this hour by Tom Wicker
Now rereading The Zaddick (pronounced tzah-deek) by David Rosenbaum.

I love the Left Behind series.  They are great books.  I am also into the Stephanie Plum series. 

I don't have much time to read, though.  I do listen to a lot of books on tape at work, though.

Lately,
David Brock: The Republican Noise Machine
Simon Winchester: Krakatoa
Al Franken: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
David K. Shipler: The Working Poor
Richard Sennett: Respect in a World of Inequality
Kevin Phillips: American Dynasty--Aristocracy, fortune, and the politics of Deceit in the House of Bush
Noam Chomsky: Understanding Power--The Indespensable Noam Chomsky

I tend to like looking at reference books rather than fiction. Especially with snippets of information in it. I often flick through the Guiness book of hit singles and I have been reading a book called 'Cynics Dictionary' (adapted from Ambrose Bierce) which is a book of quotes, laid out in dictionary format about various topics:

Cynic - Someone who, when he smells flowers, looks for a coffin.

Narcissist - Someone better looking than you are.

Bore - A man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.