John Steinbeck
1) East of Eden
Author
Series
Appears on list
Formats
Description
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks' and the Hamilton's--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The story of two brothers, Aron is a clean-cut model student, engaged to be married, the pride of his hardworking father. Cal is a rebellious loner, sternly rejected...
Author
Appears on list
Formats
Description
An intimate portrait of two men who cherish the slim bond between them and the dream they share in a world marred by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded friend Lenny dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their own - a couple of acres and a few pigs, chickens, and rabbits back in Hill Country where land is cheap. But after they come...
Author
Formats
Description
Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of the novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With the decline in their status, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards.
Author
Description
"In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that is just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of "Cannery Row", the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears - from Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter....
Author
Description
In the California apple country, 900 migratory workers rise up "in dubious battle" against the landowners. The group takes on a life of its own, stronger than its individual members and more frightening. Led by the doomed Jim Nolan, the strike springs from his tragic idealism, from the "courage never to submit or yield."
Author
Publisher
Penguin Books
Pub. Date
1995
Physical Desc
xxvii, 288 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
Description
This day-by-day account of Steinbeck's trip to the Gulf of California with biologist Ed Ricketts, drawn from the longer Sea of Cortez, is a wonderful combination of science, philosophy, and high-spirited adventure. Annotation. In 1940, Steinbeck and his friend, biologist Ed Ricketts, ventured into the Gulf of California to search for marine invertebrates along the beaches.
8) Cannery Row
Author
Formats
Description
Unburdened by the material necessities of the more fortunate, the denizens of Cannery Row discover rewards unknown in more traditional society. Henry the painter sorts through junk lots for pieces of wood to incorporate into the boat he is building, while the girls from Dora Floodrsquo's bordello venture out now and then to enjoy a bit of sunshine. Lee Chong stocks his grocery with almost anything a man could want, and Doc, a young marine biologist...
10) Tortilla flat
Author
Formats
Description
Story of a group of Paisanos, descendants of early Mexican settlers in Northern California. They live in the tiny town of Tortilla Flat and spend their days eating, drinking and relaxing in the sun. When one of them inherits 2 houses the rest are soon living in the houses without paying rent! The situation is further complicated when the house owner falls for a beautiful woman.
Author
Series
Library of America volume 72
Publisher
Library of America
Pub. Date
1994
Physical Desc
909 p. ; 21 cm.
Author
Series
Library of America volume 86
Publisher
Literary Classics of the United States
Pub. Date
c1996.
Physical Desc
1067 p. ; 21 cm.
19) The wayward bus
Author
Publisher
Viking Press
Pub. Date
1947
Physical Desc
312 p. ; 21 cm.
Description
The ambitions, dreams, failings, and innermost thoughts of a diverse group of passengers are revealed as they travel aboard a bus along the backroads of California.
20) La perla
Author
Publisher
Penguin Books
Pub. Date
2019.
Physical Desc
88 pages ; 19 cm
Description
"One of Steinbeck's most taught works, The Pearl is the story of the Mexican diver Kino, whose discovery of a magnificent pearl from the Gulf beds means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife Juana cannot temper his obsession or stem the events leading to tragedy. This classic novella from Nobel Prize-winner John...