[OakShannon]

Saya - Yes! Yes! I love P&P. One of my all time favorites. I read it first in high school and thought it was the most boring book ever written - a bunch of women sitting around worrying about catching themselves a husband. Yawn . . . It took rereading as an adult to get Austen's delightfully dry wit. Elizabeth Bennett is probably my favorite fictional character. I had very mixed feelings about The Memory Keeper's Daughter. It was well written, but by the end, I absolutely loathed the main character - which made it hard to really like the book.

I will second the recommendation for Glass Castles. It was a wonderful memoir. And if you like memoirs, What is the What was really good as well. It's about a Sudanese refugee and takes the reader all the way from his escape from his village through his years in a refugee camp to his experiences trying to adjust to American culture. Three Weeks With My Brother is another good memoir I read recently. Oh, and another one Saya mentioned - My Year of Magical Thinking - a very powerful book. Very sad.

The Kite Runner, The Secret Life of Bees, The Poisonwood Bible . . . All great books. This is making me want to pull some oldies off of my bookshelf. This is great. I'm getting some good recommendations and it's reminding me of some of my favorite books that I've already read too.