By Ayn Rand
720 pages; Penguin Group
Available at: Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

"When I was struggling with a sense of identity, this book helped me feel empowered about being a little different," says Christina Ricci. A teenager when she read the popular 1943 novel, she knew nothing about the book's polarizing ideology, nor was she drawn to its iconoclastic protagonist, Howard Roark. "I didn't like that guy," says Ricci.

— As told to Karen Holt