Publisher’s note: The Texas Lawbook is pleased to offer this column in partnership with Texas-based Half Price Books sharing our readers’ favorite reads. “My Five Favorite Books” will publish every other Wednesday. Please email brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net for more information.
My reading life is driven by a search for books that offer both intellectual substance and emotional resonance. I gravitate toward works that wrestle with big ideas of identity, morality, suffering, transcendence, and do so with literary precision. Whether it’s the psychological depth of Dostoyevsky or the lyrical observations of Annie Dillard, I’m drawn to stories that linger long after the final page. These books aren’t just entertaining; they are challenging but ultimately reward the time investment with illuminations on what it means to exist in our world.
I’ve been working my way through every Pulitzer Prize-winning work of fiction, but I like to break up that journey with plays, horror novels, and the occasional wild-card pick. Trying to keep things fresh while still exploring the full range of what literature can offer. The titles below stand out not just for their narrative power, but for the timelessness of their themes and the way they engage with enduring human questions. They’re the kind of books that make you think harder, feel deeper, and read slower.
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
An underappreciated classic, Maugham’s exquisite prose lays bare the complexities of the human condition. The protagonist’s harrowing journey from disabled orphan to emotionally entangled professional is tempered by a quiet, persistent hope that makes the novel deeply affecting. Click here to purchase.
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Though Cuckoo’s Nest gets the spotlight, this is Kesey’s true masterwork. With dark humor and vivid storytelling, he chronicles a defiant logging family resisting a town-wide strike. Beyond its entertainment value, the novel serves as a countercultural meditation on integrity and individualism. Click here to purchase.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The first entry in a note-perfect trilogy, Wolf Hall follows Thomas Cromwell as he navigates the pit of vipers that is King Henry VIII’s court. The characterization of Cromwell is acutely drawn, as Mantel depicts conflicting machinations and morality in a single mind. The book is one intellectually engaging morsel after another. Click here to purchase.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A sweeping tale of family, faith, and justice, this novel is both courtroom drama and philosophical epic. The character development is brilliant, the plot is comprehensive, the themes profound, and the dialogue, which is what the book is greatly composed of, is hilarious, deep, heart-wrenching. It’s not just a novel; it’s a transcendent experience. Click here to purchase.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
In this Pulitzer-winning dissertation, Dillard explores nature’s beauty and brutality with poetic precision. She presents a parade of horrors of nature that fail to dampen her enthusiasm as a human being surrounded by the world. The result is a joyful, thought-provoking celebration of life’s mysteries. Click here to purchase.
Conrad Hester is the managing partner of Fort Worth-based Vartabedian Hester & Haynes.
