The Next Best Book Club discussion

Any recommendations for characters who stand up for what they believe in/challenge the status quo? Fiction and non-fiction please!

Are you talking about politically, or just in general? Here are a few books I've read recently that have main characters that I would consider to "stand up for what they believe in".

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by Dave Wroblewski

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Is it bad to suggest my own book? Please just ignore this if you're annoyed by self-promoting. I only write this because my main character definitely challenges the status quo -- that's the whole point of the story. If you're interested at all, just click here to read a synopsis.

The Book

I would definitely recommend The Dispossessed. Not only does it for your description, but the writing style is gorgeous.
Another book my the same author that is definitely worth your time would be Four Ways to Forgiveness, which has very strong characters fighting for freedom from slavery and racial/gender discrimination. It's a set of four intertwined novellas, and I remember just loving it when I read it about a year ago.

These are YA fiction about kids standing up against censorship:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Dagny Taggart and her railroad.

M. wrote: "Is it bad to suggest my own book? Please just ignore this if you're annoyed by self-promoting. I only write this because my main character definitely challenges the status quo -- that's the whole..."

Yes it is bad, M. Please confine self-promotion to that part of the group.

No problem -- don't want to offend. I apologize if I did. The topic just fit so perfectly with mine it seemed a shame not to mention it. I would never post something in a random thread that had nothing to do with it. I make it a point to only mention one of my books if the topic really pertains.

Miss Skeeter in The Help.

Then why did you ask if you had no intention of following through with the answer?