Reading amazing stuff

As you all know, I read a lot.  So it takes a lot to totally wow me.  To blow me away.  So when I find a book that does that to me, I hang onto it.  I need to own it, to keep it close at hand so I can re-read it later and remember what it was that made me fall in love.

Sometimes it's the writing.  Sometimes it's the characters.  Other times it's the story that takes me to new, unexpected and wonderful places.  I love books that do things I don't expect, that take me down a path I would never have followed on my own.  I love characters who do unexpected things (but only when it makes sense for them to do it - nothing loses me faster than a character who does something odd just to advance the plot).  I love writers who manage to string words together in new ways, who create unexpected images or descriptions that are so evocative they're lake paintings in words.

I'm reading a book that has all three of these elements right now, and it's very unusual to find the holy trinity in one book.   It's a memoir, and the writing is so vivid, the character voices so real and the events so fascinating, I'm finding it hard to put down.

But at the same time, I don't want the book to end.  I'm so engaged with it, so involved, I don't want to read the last page and know I don't have it to go back to next time I jump into the bath or crawl back into bed with a second cup of coffee.

Do you ever find books like that?  What makes you fall in love with a book?