February's Reading

The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the Man Booker Prize in the same year. The novel provides a dark comical view of modern day life in India through the narration of Balram Halwai, the main character. The overall main theme of the novel is the contrast between India's rise as a modern global economy and the working class people who live in crushing rural poverty.

Supplemental readings for Atlas Shrugged

Can't finish the book? Didn't understand part of it? Want a peek at the discussion questions? Check out the SparkNotes.

Atlas Shrugged elicited strong reactions from across the political spectrum, most of it predictable. One of the more unique and enduring critiques was written by Whittaker Chambers who attacked Rand and her novel from the right, deploring its lack of humanity. Chambers was a former communist best know for his role in exposing Alger Hiss as a Soviet agent. Driven from communism by what he regarded as its utter disregard for human life, Chambers sensed a similar element in Rand's writing. His essay, "Big Sister is Watching You," published in the conservative magazine National Review was considered the defining moment in excluding Rand and her followers from the then nascent conservative political movement. To this day, conservatives and Objectivists (followers of Rand's philosophy) maintain and uneasy, oftentimes hostile relationship.