The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri: I was so resistant about this book for so long and now I have to scratch my head and wonder why. I loved her short stories. I think this book was simply overhyped for me, but once I could put all that out of my head, I really enjoyed the story, although the main character, Gogol, never came to life for me like the secondary characters did. But it still swept me away and her writing is so vivid and all-encompassing.