I’ve had The Host: A Novel by Stephenie Meyer sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now and when my oldest daughter grabbed it and asked me what it was about, and then left it on my bedside table, I decided to pick it up. At over 600 pages, it would easily be considered a “chunkster” and figured it would take me awhile to get through it. But after starting The Host, I realized that it was going to fly by all too quickly. Stephenie Meyer’s The Host is one intense book! From the very first page to the emotional ending, Meyer’s adult science fiction book is first rate!

The story is told from the perspective of Wanderer, a small, silver centipede-like alien “soul” that has traveled from a far off planet to the newly inhabited Earth. The souls have body snatched most humans, implanted into the backs of the human’s skulls. They take on the human’s emotions and memories, but the actual mind and voice of the human is virtually lost. Souls are an extremely non-violent and kind alien species, convinced they are doing humankind a service, since all violence and bad things that humans are prone to end when the souls take over. With the exception of the souls who call themselves Seekers (who take the role of hunting down the remaining rebel humans for implantation) souls are a gentle species.

After the soul Wanderer is implanted into Melanie Stryder’s body, she realizes that Melanie is one strong human. Unlike most body take-overs, Wanderer can still hear Melanie, and the human is pretty irrate at being body snatched. Melanie uses her memories of her boyfriend Jared and little brother Jamie to emotionally engage Wanderer and soon Wanderer and Melanie are on the run from the Seekers, trying to find the family that Melanie left behind. But once they are reunited, how will Melanie prove that she is still awake inside her own body without getting both her and Wanderer killed in the process?

Part love story (talk about an unconventional love triangle), part adventure, part friendship story and part alien abduction, The Host is an excellent book to get lost in!

We all know Stephenie Meyer from her hugely successful young adult series Twilight, but I was interested to see how she would do with a book geared more towards adults. Even if you didn’t enjoy Twilight (I thought her YA books were a fun read, if not earth-shattering literature) I think that The Host would be worth your time. The author certainly has a great imagination and I think that her foray into science fiction was a great leap for her creatively. Both main characters, even though they embody the same human form, are so individual and well drawn that you could easily find yourself torn between them. They both (especially Wanderer) are well developed characters, working through their own internal struggles while sharing one body.

I’d already known that she was more to me than a resistant host who made life unnecessarily difficult. We’d become companions, even confidantes during our past weeks together – ever since the Seeker had united us against a common enemy. In the desert, with Kyle’s knife over my head, I’d been glad that if I had to die I would not be the one to kill Melanie; even then, she was more than a body to me. But now it seemed like something beyond that. I regretted causing her pain.

I even found myself becoming teary eyed as I finished the last few pages of the book. In the end, I found The Host to be a really imaginative, interesting and emotionally engaging read.  Of course, since I enjoyed The Host, I was anxious to find out more information. I remember hearing about a possible movie based on the book, but with the exception of a blurb from 2009 on the author’s website, it doesn’t look like much progress has taken place on the film front. I was though happy to read on the USA Today website that Stephenie Meyer is already a couple chapters into a sequel for The Host.

When I first saw the previews for the Charlie St. Cloud movie starting Zac Efron, I knew it was a movie that I would like to see. But like a lot of book lovers, I had to take a peek at the novel by Ben Sherwood first.

The story revolves around the strong bond between two brothers, Charlie and Sam. Every night for the last thirteen years, right after sunset, Charlie has met his younger brother Sam in a baseball field on the cemetery grounds to play catch. Charlie is the caretaker of the local cemetery, a job he took as a young adult to be closer to his brother. You see, Sam was killed in a car accident when he was a young kid (mostly due to Charlie’s negligence) and Charlie made a promise to him that they would always be together. Right after the funeral, Charlie realizes that his brother can communicate with him, so the night-time ritual begins. Other than being able to communicate with Sam and the other souls in the cemetery who are passing over to the next level, Charlie lives a solitary life, always afraid of missing the ballgame in fear that his brother will disappear forever.

Now Charlie has met the charismatic Tess, a 20-something girl getting ready to race around the world solo on her sailboat. Suddenly Charlie feels torn between this new-found, exciting love he feels for Tess and the promise he made to his brother long ago. Is Charlie ready to let his brother go after so many years and finally live the life he was meant to live?

I got the gist of the novel after seeing the preview of the movie and found the book exactly what I thought it would be - a sweet, insightful story about grief, loss, guilt and fate. Even though I think the book could have been a tad bit longer (to make the characters a little more fleshed out) the story itself stuck with me for awhile after finishing the last pages. Even though Charlie St. Cloud isn’t earth-shattering literature, it is a nice feel-good novel that was a pleasure to read.

Shortly after finishing the book, I went to see the movie at the theater. Even though the screenwriters took a few liberties with the storyline to make it more dramatic than the novel, I still found it to be enjoyable. I did feel though that the filmakers tried a bit too hard to tug on your heartstrings, where in the novel it was much more subtle and effortless. As far as the acting, I really liked watching Zac Efron on the big screen. Having an eight year old daughter at home, I’ve seen plenty of Zac in his High School Musical movies and it was nice to see him move onto a more dramatic role.

I would recommend both the book and the movie if you are in the mood for some light-hearted entertainment.

It’s the 1950’s and Teddy Daniels, a US Marshal and war veteran, has been sent to Shutter Island along with his partner Chuck Aule to find escaped patient Rachel Solando. Shutter Island is the home of Ashecliffe hospital, a mental institution for the criminally insane. Teddy has his own ghosts though, having lived through the war and the loss of his wife, who died in an apartment fire just a few short years ago.

But something is strange about Ashecliffe and as Teddy and Chuck delve deeper into the disappearance of Rachel, they realize that there are much more devious things going on on Shutter Island. With a hurricane bearing down on the island, things only get more confusing. It turns out that on Shutter Island all is not quite what it seems. How could have Rachel escaped a locked prison cell? When Rachel all of a sudden reappears you realize that the mystery of Shutter Island has only just begun. Has Teddy come to the the island with his own agenda? And will Teddy and Chuck make it off the island in one piece?

Like the wind from the hurricane that has hit the island, Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane will throw you around until you no longer know which way is up. Lehane’s writing grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the very end. Shutter Island is one of those books you just can’t put down and I read it in a few short days, always trying to stay one step ahead of the author to figure out what was really going on. But just when you think you know what is going to happen, Lehane throws in another plot twist that literally blows your mind. I was blindsided a few times while reading the book and really enjoyed the twists and turns of the story. Shutter Island is a great psycological thriller.

Once finishing the book, I got a copy of the movie which is directed by Martin Scorsese. You can see the trailer below.

I was impressed by how closely the movie followed the story in the book and also thought that it was well cast. I would recommend reading the book then watching the movie, as I think they both were well worth my time.