I haven't read any other Rand, but the Fountainhead offers a spectacular insight into resolve vs compromise. Strength vs weakness. Choice vs consequences. Strength from within vs from outside. That said, I thought it was arrogant in a few ways - it was pro-artist, and anti-capitalist in so far that making what people want is wrong, you should instead suffer for your art and 'build it and they will come', which has long since been shown to be a failing business proposition. I agree that she says 'be independent, do your own thing', but I think if anything she thins you should be fair to others on your own terms. I bet she would deliver a hell of a lecture on negotiation skills.
I know she's a crazy tart - I once read that she left Russia during the revolution, and moved to the US. When she once was protesting against the US gov't immigration laws at the time, someone told her that if she didn't like America, she should go back to where she came from. She answered "I chose to come to this country - what did you ever do to earn your citizenship besides being born here?"
I will try Nemesis next. As for Heinlein, I should have also mentioned Stranger in a Strange Land - that was a weirdass book but I got a huge kick out of the frequent tangents. I especially loved his critique of Rodin's sculpture of the old woman, where he said something like 'it takes a great artist can make a sculpture of an old woman, with wrinkly skin and worn expression, but only a master could make you see the little girl inside her.'