Required Reading

Wanna see our reading list?

Don't worry. It's not like those reading lists you had in school, where any possible enjoyment you might have experienced by reading a book was crushed by the knowledge that tests and book reports and interminable class discussions would inevitably follow.

Nope, the reading list we have for you is completely different, even if it might include a few of those books you had to read back then, but -- trust us on this one -- surely would enjoy more now.

Here's the deal: We asked some notable Southern Nevadans to name books they'd recommend that we all read before we die.

Nothing morbid, though. Merely an effort to compile a sort of lifetime reading list, a collection of writings that can inspire, educate or just entertain us in significant ways as we amble through the rest of our lives.

From their recommendations -- numbering about 100 titles -- we sat down and chose 10 of them for one, final list.

We think we've assembled a nicely diverse range of literary fodder, but we know you won't necessarily agree. And that's OK, because every exasperated "I can't believe they left this one out ..." alerts us to one more book we might just decide to seek out ourselves.

So, brew a nice cup of tea, fire up the reading light and let's begin.

"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger: The classic tale of adolescent isolation, confusion and nascent cynicism was suggested by several of our consultants.

The book was "very important to my development" while growing up, said Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

What struck, and still strikes, Goodman about the first-person tale of Holden Caulfield is the character's "simplicity and forthrightness and honesty," he said, and how the young narrator "could be true to himself and be able to survive any kind of societal situation."

And, although published in the '50s, the novel is a classic "without any kind of time frame," Goodman said, and still speaks to us about "humanity and being and purpose, or lack of purpose, about what makes us tick."

Jenny Harms, a seventh-grade English teacher at Canarelli Middle School, also likes the simple, straightforward language Salinger uses to tell the tale.

"It's almost like listening to someone just tell a story," she said. "And only 48 hours are covered in the whole book. That's just an interesting perspective you don't usually get."

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen: The classic romantic comedy was another work recommended by several of our experts (all of them, for whatever it's worth, women).

"I guess it's a book that really speaks to human relationships and how people interact with each other," said Padmini Jambulapati, a seventh-grade reading teacher at Smith Middle School.

"It's just a classic. And people reference it all the time."

The novel also offers insight into how people think, said Wendy Starkweather, director of user services for University Libraries at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

While Austen is "probably getting overdone at this point," she said, the novel examines the "whole male-female relationship in the 19th century. And it's an examination by a very thoughtful woman author that is a valuable sort of lesson in life."

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston: The 1937 novel is not only an exploration of race relations in the first half of the 20th century, but of the life of a memorable black female character.

Patrice Hollrah, director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Writing Center, calls Hurston's most well-known work "a wonderful story about a woman who celebrates her racial identity and people in her community."

"It's a story of survival, of finding herself," Hollrah said. "I think that's a great book."

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee: Another multiple nominee for our list, Lee's celebrated, and only published, novel is a coming of age story set against a backdrop of injustice and ultimate honor and dignity.

The novel is "a great lesson on injustice," Harms said. "It just gives you a lot to think about, and it's very, very deep."

And, we'd add: In Atticus Finch, Lee gives us one of the most memorably noble, yet real, characters in American literature.

"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville: Anybody seeking to understand the nature of American democracy -- and that should be every American, we think -- would do well to check out de Tocqueville's outsider's-eye-view exploration of democracy American-style.

"If you read it, it's kind of amazing how much he gets right about democracy in the United States," said David Damore, an associate professor of political science at UNLV.

In fact, Damore added, de Tocqueville, writing in the early 1830s, even gained from his travels here "a sense of how the country is going to develop."

All in all, not a bad addition to anyone's election-year reading list.

"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller: It's tough to select one single novel as a representative sample of 1960s-'70s counterculture fiction. But we finally opted for "Catch-22" not only because it's so darkly funny, but because its title has become such a common -- although often misused -- part of America's lexicon.

Jambulapati noted that Heller succeeds in taking a horrible subject (war) and finding, somehow, the hilarity buried within it.

Besides, she added, everybody's lifetime reading list should include at least one funny book, and Heller's military farce is "hilarious."

"Maus: A Survivor's Tale" by Art Spiegelman: Spiegelman's story of the Holocaust is -- pioneers such as Will Eisner notwithstanding -- the graphic novel that made the graphic novel in the United States.

The two-volume series is the true-life story of Spiegelman and his father, a Holocaust survivor, expressed in an initially startling but powerfully effective fashion: Jews are depicted as mice, and Nazis are drawn as cats.

"Wow," said attorney/writer Dayvid Figler. "Basically, it's the book that allowed graphic novels to be taken seriously."

"Maus" is "a groundbreaking work, and it's just so gut-wrenching and meticulous," Figler added. "There are so many people who've taken (graphic novels) so far since then, but you've got to remember that, when that first came out, you really scratched your head and didn't know what to make of it."

"Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry: Our contributors pitched several West-themed works, most of them nonfiction. But the more we thought about it, the more convinced we became that it's a novel that most eloquently captures the vibe of the American West.

"Lonesome Dove" is a simple story about buddies on a cattle drive, but that's like saying "Casablanca" is a movie about a bar.

Expansive in its sweep and bittersweet in its tone, "Lonesome Dove" is, one of our contributors noted, a Western for people who aren't particularly into Westerns.

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell: Literature and popular culture are packed with dystopian tales. And some of them -- Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," for instance -- are very good.

But when push came to shove, we chose the emotional granddaddy of dystopian fiction for our must-read list.

How influential is Orwell's tale of the then far-away future? The actual 1984 came and went pretty uneventfully more than two decades ago, yet say "1984" -- particularly with a subtle head shake and a mild look of apprehension -- and everybody will know exactly what you're hinting at. ("Orwellian" works just as well, by the way.)

"Nineteen Eight-Four" was relevant when it was published in 1949. It's relevant now. And it'll be a relevant read for as long as political power and individual freedom continue their uneasy dance.

"The Awakening" by Kate Chopin: It's hard to imagine now, but Chopin's proto-feminist novel was controversial when it was published in 1899.

In it, Chopin challenges the stereotypes that society forces on women through the character of Edna Pontellier, who feels trapped in her roles of wife and mother.

There's rebellion. There's an affair. And there's a serious bummer of an ending. Still, any woman today would find resonance in Chopin's story, even if only to make her appreciate how far we've come.

Chopin, noted novelist Robyn Carr, "was a young feminist at a time when feminism didn't exist."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.