Top 69 Novels!
Original List by ZankRank

the brothers karamazov
brilliant classical work
atlas shrugged
who is john galt?
happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
5. don quixote buy from Amazon.com 17
in novels
somewhere in la mancha, in a place whose name i do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.
it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
1984
George Orwell - Challenged in the Jackson County, FL (1981) because Orwell's novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter."
gods of ruin
phenomenal modern political adventure godsofruin.com
chaos and kingdom
JSB Morse - Imagine the charter city of Ur in which there are no taxes, no forced regulation, and no laws except one—harm no one. It would be a libertarian paradise—a productive, free-market utopia with no equal on Earth. But would it work? Would people behave or fall into a chaotic dog-eat-dog arena in which the strong would simply crush the weak? Jacob Tanner is about to find out. He will take his life-saving pharmaceutical company to Ur in order to escape an overbearing government bureaucracy. But just when Jacob’s drug company becomes profitable, he is confronted with financial dilemmas and a shocking truth about his industry and his business partners. He can prevent the deadly epidemic his drug treats, but in order to do so, he must overcome a corporate conspiracy that stands to prof amzn.to/rsF6hv
les miserables
epic story of liberty, love, and justice
indivisible
Troy Grice - This is by far the best independent fiction I have read. Not only was I interested enough from the sample to buy the book, I finished it within three days. "Indidvisible" is a fast-paced, entertaining, and at times, infuriating dystopian libertarian novel that I whole-heartedly recommend. There is a disclaimer, however. This book is in serious need of a thorough edit. It seems odd to have such a high-quality story out there with such poor editing, but that is the case. If you are one to let a few typos a chapter get in the way of your reading enjoyment, this is not the book for you. Also, though the book is written in third person narrative, it would be more fitting as a first person omniscient. However, I believe that the 1-star reviews for this book are disingenu
Written as a novel, the book makes the complex concepts, issues and terminology of international trade understandable for students. Professors complain that their students cannot grasp the nature of how some economic tools are used or how they work in life. This novel bridges the gap of concepts with applications by use of a fictional story. David Ricardo comes to life to discuss international trade theory and policy with Ed Johnson, a fictional American television manufacturer seeking trade protection from television manufacturers. Their dialogue is a sophisticated, rigorous discussion of virtually every major issue in trade theory and policy. To illustrate the positive and normative effects of international trade and trade policy, Ricardo takes the reader and Ed Johnson into the futur
J. Neil Schulman: "A cautionary tale with a disturbing resemblance to past history and future possibilities" (Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate), "Alongside Night" portrays the last two weeks of the world's greatest superpower and ends on a triumphant note of hope.
to kill a mockingbird
Harper Lee - Challenged in Eden Valley, MN (1977) and temporarily banned due to words "damn" and "whore lady" used in the novel. Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980) as a "filthy, trashy novel." Challenged at the Warren, IN Township schools (1981) because the book does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and "represents institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature." After unsuccessfully trying to ban Lee's novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council. Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the word "nigger." Challenged in the Kansas City, MO junior high schools (1985).
farenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any house that contains them.
pretty good plot and message. kinda cheesy at times
18. monaco buy from Amazon.com 11
in novels
monaco
ours is not a race between men, it is a race between mankind and nature. monaconovel.com
the alchemist
nice little tale about a journey
a man for all seasons
The story of Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage.
guard of honor
james gould cozzens - cozzens became immensely popular in the 1950s and was nominated for a second pulitzer for by love possessed. however his popularity waned in 1957 when he was branded as an elitist after being interviewed by time magazine. statements like “i can't read 10 pages of steinbeck without throwing up,” didn’t win him any friends. guard of honor takes place over three days in 1943 at a florida airbase featuring a new hapless commander.
now and at the hour of our death
JSB Morse. A novel novel that plunges into the facinating yet often taboo subjects of science and faith and makes a case for modern miracles. www.amazon.com/dp/1600200540/?tag=thestateofart-20
the wallcreeper
I’ve already argued that this is the debut of the year, a claim later challenged (but not overturned) by Atticus Lish’s Preparations for the Next Life. Like Lish’s book, The Wallcreeper is raw. But there is an acerbic exuberance, barely contained, in Zink’s writing that countless writers aim for but fail to harness. And after watching Zink read in person, I’m convinced she’s endowed with the psychodramatic volatility of someone who cares more than most everyone else.
allen drury - drury won the pulitzer with his first novel, advise and consent, and followed it with a number of sequels. saturday review said of advise and consent in august 1959 that “it may be a long time before a better (novel) comes along.” one year later, harper lee’s to kill a mockingbird was published. advise and consent is a political novel which explores the reaction to a former communist party member being appointed secretary of state.
chronicles of narnia
celestine prophecy
the power and the glory
The last priest in Mexico is on the run. The Church has gone underground, outlawed by the incumbent Powers-that-Be. Owning a rosary or a prayer book will land you in jail. Faithful Catholics thirst for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for God, but must content themselves with sporadic celebrations. There is only one priest left, the Whiskey Priest.
pursuit
Jim Murdoch
compelling story and fascinating philosophy
martin flavin - through the 1920s and ‘30s, flavin was a broadway playwright with much influence. the most successful of his novels was journey in the dark, his fifth and last work of fiction. the book is a story of a boy who grew up in a poor family and his adventures in love and business.
Judi Picoult: Change Of Heart looks at the nature of organized religion and belief, and takes the reader behind the closely drawn curtains of America’s death penalty. Featuring the return of Ian Fletcher from Keeping Faith, it also asks whether religion and politics truly are separate in this country, or inextricably tangled. Does religion make us more tolerant, or less? Do we believe what we do because it’s right? Or because it’s too frightening to admit that we may not have the answers?
This is the most under-covered, undervalued release of 2014. Weiss is one of the four or five greatest post-war European authors, and this autofictional masterpiece more or less superannuates all of the autofiction that follows. A brutally honest account of bourgeois decay, artistic development — Weiss was a polymath who painted, filmed, and wrote in virtually every form — and sexual maturation, Leavetaking forms one have of a larger novel called Exiles. I hope Melville House publishes the second half soon.
Nanni Balestrini, trans. Mike Harakis There are 109,027,350,432,000 variations of this novel, which uses an algorithm to reposition its paragraphs. The effect of the feat is magnified by the fact that, while reading it, it’s difficult to tell that it’s generated. This also means that unless it sells 200 trillion copies, no one will ever buy the same version as you. It’s also just a good book.
Elizabeth Scott
josephine winslow johnson - johnson won the pulitzer with her first novel at the age of 24. she continued to win awards for some of her short stories but, after marrying in 1942, her literary output slowed considerably. now in november is written as a social protest in the voice of the second of three daughters growing up in an impoverished depression era farming family.
scarlett o'hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the tarleton twins were.
John Macgregor
the divine comedy
Matthew Bruce Alexander: Centuries hence, Man, seemingly alone in the universe, slowly spreads his civilizations across his corner of the galaxy. Tyrants vie for power, and in their fierce grip the colonies of the Milky Way are suffocating. In this society of many billions, a young marine, a highly trained war hero, returns home from his tour of duty. Physically powerful yet shy, awkward and unable to sway the masses with pretty speeches, Alistair Ashley 3nn makes a decision to strike at the hierarchy the only way he can. His decision starts him on a grand adventure, and as he is carried along by forces beyond his control, he comes to confront an ancient secret, one which may reveal Humanity's future.
there was a boy called eustace clarence scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
margaret wilson - margaret wilson moved to england with her husband g.d. turner almost immediately after publishing the able mclaughlins. she continued to write until 1937 as an expat. this neglected novel tells the story of wully mclaughlin coming home from the civil war to find his sweetheart pregnant with another man’s child.
Irving Wallace
wittgenstein jr.
One of the funniest books of the year, this philosophical bildung shows that intellectuality can be poignant, especially when its couched within a campus novel.
count of monte cristo
Not overtly religious but a great tale with underlying Catholic themes.
how can you beat the characters in that one?
alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought alice, "without pictures or conversations?"
i am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person i ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason i believe in god; i am a christian because of owen meany.
all this happened, more or less.
it was a pleasure to burn.
it was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of north america, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet.
call me ishmael.
leo, you're the man!
 the shack: where tragedy confronts eternity
Kreeft
whether i shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
68. peter pan buy from Amazon.com 1 A down vote will remove this item!
in first lines of novels
all children, except one, grow up.
69. the hobbit buy from Amazon.com 1 A down vote will remove this item!
in catholic novels
the hobbit
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