Eternal life? Clea's photographer father is obsessed with the concept of the Elixir of Life... until he goes missing. His daughter, along with her friend Ben, go on an adventure to try to find him, and the mythical beverage. Along the way, they meet Sage, who might have the answer to it all, The Dark Lady, who shows them the past, and several other colorful and dark characters.
I could probably say that in the last 10 years my favorite read was The Distant Land of my Father by Bo Caldwell. Told from the perspective of a daughter, the book does a very good job of portraying the adoration that most girls feel for their fathers, despite their possible faults/flaws. The Distant Land mentioned in the title? China in the 1930's, full of glamour, intrigue and danger. I could not put it down.
-Rachelle Silver, R.N.
One of my favorite books is A Prayer for Owen Meany, by Jonathan Irving. Not only are there multiple hilarious scenes, but the whole book builds toward a climactic finale in a way that very few books do. Even though there's a lot of foreshadowing throughout the book, I completely failed to pick up on it. I also love how irreverent the main character is, and how he challenges authority at his school. Great book!
Fans of Twilight beware; Bram stoker teaches Stephanie Meyer a lesson about vampires. This fast-paced, action-packed novel is a definite page turner, partially due to the style - the plot is cleverly organized into journals entries, newspaper articles, and letters. The narrative switches from character to character. Dracula, though gruesome at times, is a classic and is perfect to read around Halloween. 
Tired of stories of gods and humans? The Percy Jackson series tells you stories of demigods. The first part of the series, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, shows you how Percy, who gets expelled from different schools every year, figures out his true identity - son of Poseidon - and steps into a completely different world from ours. However, life as a demigod is not that easy. Percy soon finds out that Zeus's lightning bolt is stolen, and he is claimed as the thief. Will Percy find out the truth? Can he manage to return the lightning bolt? Jump into this book and you will not want to get out until the ending.
Lock and Key is a story about the life of a 17 year old girl, Ruby, abandoned by her mother and sent to live with her now rich sister whom she hasn't spoken to in 10 years. Ruby must make a transition from slums and drugs to riches and responsibility. She finds true friends and has to decide if they're worth letting go of the past. She thinks that this new lifestyle is relaxed and cavalier, but when she discovers an ugly truth, how much will she risk? 
My most recent favorite book is Cane River, by Lalita Tademy. It is an epic novel of four generations of African-American women, a work based on one family's actual meticulously researched past. They were women whose lives began in slavery, who weathered the Civil War, and who grappled with the contradictions of emancipation through the turbulent early years of the twentieth century. It was a very moving story and one that has stayed with me long after I read it. I loved it!
-Norma Carlson
While I have so many favorite books, all for very different reasons, in the realm of historical fiction, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress recently transported me (again) to a China of another era, while my favorite of all time for that purpose is probably Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. Any of Hemingway's short stories have the same effect, as do John McPhee's collections of writings, both of which are better suited to my attention span and lifestyle!