Yann Martel's Life of Pi: First 29 Chapters

Author's Note: Martel opens his introduction with a simple, yet meaningful line: "This book was born as I was hungry." He details how poorly his most recent novel of the time fared, so the opening line could certainly relate to Martel's financial situation, but I think that it also relates to his desire to create art-- a sort of emotional hunger that Life of Pi satiated.
Chapter 4: Life of Pi is said to largely be a defense of zoos, and I think that Chapter 4 epitomizes that defense. Martell comes off as more than just knowledgeable-- he seems to truly be an expert on zoology, and, as the book progresses, religion. Writers often speak of getting into the character's mind, but Martel really seems to become Piscine Patel, and that alone is reason enough for Martel to be considered a contemporary master.
Chapter 7: At the end of this chapter, Life of Pi's religious themes really begin to take form as agnostics are adressed: "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. 
Chapter 23: I enjoyed the tale of the confrontation among Pi's spiritual mentors, and I found Pi's response-- an insistence that he needs all three religions, not just one-- inspiring.

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: Chapter 5 and Beyond

V: I liked the way Gatsby decides to get Jay's grass cut. It's a good portrayal of his awkwardness.
VI: When Gatsby and Tom meet for the second time, you really get the feeling that two massive forces are about to collide.
VII: Fitzgerald makes sure the reader never gets too comfortable with this chapter, smoothly moving from the tense garage scene to the heated argument between Jay and Tom to finding out that Myrtle's been killed-- and how.
VIII: This chapter's closing paragraph is true poetry: "It was after we startrd with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete."
IX: Nick states something here that summons sympathy for Gatsby. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."