Great post! I totally agree. I love the authors you mentioned. I would like to nominate Ayn Raind (probably spelt it wrong). Now I don’t agree with her politics or beliefs, but I think her writing is good. She does well at setting the stage and developing characters.

I personally HATED To Kill A Mocking Bird. It’s not a bad book, but at the time I read books like The Color Purple (Alice Walker), I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing, Black Boy (Richard Wright), Roots (Alex Haley). I was used to books about racism in the Deep South told from the POV of black Americans themselves. Mocking Bird is about white people realizing they shouldn’t kill innocent black people, who are harmless mocking birds. I do realize that this was probably a revolutionary idea in the 60’s, don’t murder innocent black people, just because they’re black doesn’t mean they’re dangerous or a threat to anyone. But the entire book was about white people. The few black characters there aren’t very well developed, as it’s a book white people and their perceptions of black people more than actual black people.

I prefer books about racism and the Deep South that portray African Americans as actual multidimensional people, instead of mocking birds; though I see the point of the antimonsterism of African Americans portrayed in the book.
I don’t think it’s aged well.