Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1961)

Listened to this with a techie friend on a road trip. I read it a long time ago, but it seemed like it would be fun to reread it, since it gets listed in not only top science fiction book lists, but top book lists in general. I wonder when I read it, but I get a sense that Heinlein influenced some of my own attitudes about things. 

Valentine Michael Smith was raised by Martians and is brought to earth to be studied. Since he is unused to the earth's gravity, he is hospitalized, where nurse Gillian Boardman rescues him from basically imprisonment. He is a quick learner, but one of the hardest things for him to understand is the earth's religions. He has learned a lot of powerful mind and body skills from the Martian's which he starts teaching Gill and the group of friends that surround them. Jubal Hershaw has gathered beautiful and intelligent women around him, where they live in relative isolation, and Michael and Gill find a refuge. It is complicated, but I really enjoyed this story, that is still so relevant today, even if a few details are outdated. I could not get mad at Heinlein for having Jubal call the women his "girls", as that was the speech of the times and all his women are strong characters. I like the individualism and community, though no longer would want to live that closely with a group of people, as I once may have dreamed to do.