His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass
By Philip Pullman

The three novels in this series have everything: amazing plot, theology, metaphysics and heartrending romance. I started the first, The Golden Compass, and read the whole lot in about three days, and when I finished I was absolutely bereft. I'm so jealous of people who haven't started them. The last novel, The Amber Spyglass, has the most beautiful speeches about love. My now husband, Len, and I hadn't even set a wedding date when I was sobbing all over the book, thinking I must turn this page down, because when we do marry we'll somehow use that particular passage. I showed it to him and he burst into tears, too, and it became the first reading at our wedding.