A Librarian's Book list: Recommended Novels

Nobody knows books quite like a librarian. This article shares a few titles that arguably the world’s most avid bibliophiles consider must-read selections.

As readers, we know what we like.

We don’t always know what might enrich us and broaden our horizons unexpectedly.

On the other hand, our friendly neighborhood librarian might have a good guess at that. Literature is the life-long passion these keepers of knowledge have chosen. It’s their very profession to be able to guide library patrons through worlds of literary opportunities at the public’s fingertips and sometimes suggest what might be a stimulating, enlightening, even educational page-turner.

Modern Library keeps an evolving list of their panel’s 100 Best Novels, many of which appear across the board on numerous librarians’ reading lists and best recommendations, including those of resident NPR librarian and contributor Nancy Pearl. Allow us to pass a few recommendations along…

·         ULYSSES – James Joyce, 1922

The acclaimed Irish novelist’s landmark work has been regarded by many as the 20^th century’s finest novel for the way Joyce adapts the adventures in Homer’s Odyssey in the style of more contemporary literary styles and devices, including stream-of-consciousness. Despite its legacy of controversy in several historic obscenity trials, Joyce’s work is considered a masterpiece of modernist literature.

·         ATLAS SHRUGGED – Ayn Rand, 1957

In today’s often-partisan political climate, this could easily be deemed a controversial, polarizing librarian recommended novel. That said, Rand’s literary vision of a dystopian United States in which the most productive and brilliant minds have gone “on strike” against rampant socialization, taxation and stifling of competitive free markets is her definitive vision of her philosophy, “Objectivism.” Her philosophy thrives today, and she’s often regarded as a quintessential conservative icon, even somewhat of a patron saint. Her prose is rife with romance, science fiction, mystery, and passionate advocacy of individualism and capitalism. It’s worth reading, if only to understand modern conservatism’s most basic tenets.

·         THE GREAT GATSBY – F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

Critics have widely hailed Fitzgerald’s definitive work as the quintessential “Great American Novel.” Appropriately, it’s frequently a librarian romance novel. It’s seen as capturing the superficial opulence and underlying realities of an American era of unprecedented prosperity and wealth that succeeded World War I but preceded The Great Depression and World War II’s permanent alteration of the American landscape.

·         THE GRAPES OF WRATH – John Steinbeck, 1939

If Gatsby is a definitive portrait of 1920s privilege and decadence of the American upper class, then this librarian recommended novel is a master class in symbolism painting the realities of the decade that ensued. The poor Joad family of tenant farmers is followed through their forced exile from the drought-decimated Oklahoma Dust Bowl, seeking survival in California. Though initially attacked as “propagandist” and “socialist” for his sympathies to the poor, Steinbeck was eventually awarded a Pulitzer Prize for novels.

·         INVISIBLE MAN – Ralph Ellison, 1952

Rounding out this small sampling of librarian recommended novels; Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man paints a portrait of early 20^th-century racial politics. His unnamed, first-person protagonist and narrator becomes the conduit for discussing the links between black identity and Marxism, as well as the issues of individualism and racial identity facing blacks amid Booker T. Washington’s reformist racial policies.

Sponsor Ads

• Ad Space Available - Rent it Now!

Report this Page

Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

Share on APSense

Comments