The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

In a word: awesome.

I never read this in high school (I mean, it was never assigned to read – not that I was supposed to read it and chose to go the Cliff’s Notes route instead), and I think I missed out. The writing is superb. Steinbeck definitely deserved the Nobel for this one. And, the story is moving. Very odd at the end, of course, but I actually found myself caring about what happened to the Joads.

Especially interesting in light of our current attitudes toward migrant workers.