by Carl Conrad

Created on: January 25, 2009

Here is a list of six novels that you may not have read - but should! They are my favorites, of the many that I have read, and I offer the following insights into the reasons that you should read them.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This book, published in 1960, opens a door to the racial bigotries and stereotypes of a southern town in 1930's America as well as to the joys, wonders, and curiosity of youth as two children, the main characters of the book, discover both the contradictions and disillusionment of adulthood. Intricately woven throughout the lives of the people in the town is the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman, whom many believe is lying, upon which racial allegiances are buttressed while the consequences of injustice are as weakly imposed as the sin of killing a mockingbird. Its depth of characters, incredibly realistic dialogue, and bounty of intriguing experiences make this a treasure.

2. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. This book of over 1100 pages, published in 1957, has more philosophical discussion surrounded by practical examples which put those ideas into use than probably any book ever written. In page after page of discourse, Ms. Rand expounds her ideas of Objectivism about issues of wealth, ownership, virtue, success, love, social activism, the mind, government, marriage, and capitalism through the interaction of characters and plot twists that continuously entangle the reader in choices between those who have ability and those who threaten to take the profits of that ability away from them. Only a man of unmatched character can resurrect and implement the values that save the world from its demise as everyone asks, cryptically: Who is John Galt?

3. A Man In Full, by Tom Wolfe. This book, published in 1998, mixes such rich, often fiendishly-clever characters in an incomparable bouillabaisse of circumstances that the reader can be mesmerized by Mr. Wolfe's depth of detail while being enchanted by the eloquence of his erudition. Centered in Atlanta, Ga. in the 1990's, Mr. Wolfe's story involves the preposterous as well as the pathetic, the elite as well as the exasperating, and the useless as well as the well-used as he fashions a jail break out of an earthquake, a race riot out of a parade, a foxhunt into a picture of exhausting extravagance and self-adulation, the indulgently graphic impregnation of a horse by a stallion of magnificent endowment, as well as the monetary entrapment of a corporate titan that brings

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