John Steinbeck

Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands of other "Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future....

A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression
 
They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.
Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For...

Vividly depicts the colorful, sometimes disreputable, inhabitants of a run-down area in Monterey, California.

A retelling, in modern language, of Malory's tales ofKing Arthur and his knights.

Set in a remote village, this story documents traditional life among the native population and the conflict brought by outsiders who want to introduce modernization.