Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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In Dubious Battle

In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck

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I think it’s in On Writing by Stephen King, where he says sometimes you read a book and think “I can do that.” And then there are the books and the authors that make you say, “I could never do that.” For me, John Steinbeck is one of the latter. There is something about the way he puts words together, that I know are in the same language I speak, but somehow form simple, spare sentences conveying more meaning than the individual words would suggest […]

…Nearly every American hungers to move

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

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John Steinbeck is 58 and he feels like he’s lost touch with America. He used to know his country, even write books about it, but now he’s unsure. The only sensible thing to do, of course, it to buy a customized truck and set out on a ginormous road trip across America ‘where the people are’ and get to know them all again. I, an American writer, writing about America, was working from memory, and the memory is at best a faulty, warpy reservoir. I […]

Some Early Steinbeck

The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck

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If you have noticed a lot of Steinbeck reviews the last few months, that’s on me.  I currently live in the Monterey Bay Area and decided that while I live here, I should read the works of the man who was so inspired by this place.  Steinbeck is from Salinas, CA, the largest city in the area but many of his books take place in and around the county.  The famous Cannery Row of Monterey is actually named for his book, which popularized the nickname […]

A Road Trip with a Dog

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

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I read this due to my Steinbeck kick.  I was a little worried about reading it immediately after The Grapes of Wrath but it was the perfect antidote to my melancholy mood.  This is a travel journey by one of America’s preeminent authors who decided that that he no longer felt in touch with America and her people and wanted to find her again.  Discontented seems to best describe the way he felt with his life when he set off on his journey in 1960 […]

Mine eyes have seen the glory

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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Buckle up, this one is pretty long.  I finished this book a few days ago and the impression it made on me was so visceral, I had to wait to write about it.   When I consider what it takes to be a classic, regardless of the medium, my first thought is timelessness.  Will this item stand the test of time and all that entails?  I believe that the term classic is bandied about too often and too frivolously. We call anything that we like […]

Living in Steinbeck’s World

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Save your drafts as you go! I lost a really long double review for these books due to my own negligence.  Ugh….   I moved to Monterey a year and a half ago, the home of Steinbeck and the setting for both of these novels.  Both take place at real locations in the greater Monterey area, though Tortilla Flat is a fictional neighborhood, which added to my interest.  Both novels follow a few main characters who live together and experience the effects of their shenanigans. […]



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