I feel alone in this thread, come back Julia!

Swiss Family Robinson. I can't remember which author, just that I enjoyed losing my imagination in it.

Same with Little women, and, of course, Lord of the Rings.

I think that's part of why I didn't like the movies very much. My mind had a clear picture of what the characters/setting looked like, and they didn't match the movie makers vision.

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Moof, the other white meat.

I'm with you on the Jane Austin, she was very ahead of her time.

Adding to the list
Maus and Maus II.

I home-schooled my son for a year and he was very interested in the Holocaust and how something so awful could have happened. There are a lot of books out there about it, but what would interest a 10 year old boy enough, make it real, but not be over the edge? I recalled these two books from one of my college classes. Thankfully I save all my books, just dug them out and handed them over. The cartoon format made it interesting for him; none of the pictures are real gory, but they don't fluff over what really happened. I found myself reading them all over again, and enjoying them just as much.

On the same lines, I read "Night" by Elis Wiesel with a 7th grader. (He was convinced he couldn't read so I found us a quiet corner every day and we curled up to read to each other. Amazing to watch his confidence grow!)
It's a thin book, but it will take you a while to read. Some books you can only read in small doses and this is one. Again, nothing really graphic/gory, but knowing it's written from a kids view as he lived it, well, Wow. Very worth the read.

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Moof, the other white meat.