The Grapes of Wrath

“In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

It's a bad time for the Joads and it's a bad time for Oklahoma and it's a bad time for America. Finally, the Joads pack up or sell everything they have and take off for California. There are ominous warnings along the way that California may not be all it has been made to be, and all of the warnings come true, but the Joads have nowhere else to go and so they stay and try and do the best they can, as they slowly wither away.

I read this first in high school and loved it then, though I didn't understand a lot of it. Now, forty years later, it's as good as it was then, or maybe better. What a story. Life, death, work, hunger, pain, cruelty, kindness...it's all in this book.

If you want to pick one good book to read this year, I'd say for you to read this one. It will stick with you. So much so that you may want to read it again in forty years and see what you take away then.