"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured my mature people that maturity would cure this itch."
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
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"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured my mature people that maturity would cure this itch."
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
pick5 Stars • The Pastures of Heaven is a short story collection, published in 1932, that weaves together the lives of various residents in a California valley. The book consists of twelve interconnected tales, each focusing on different characters whose dreams, flaws, and struggles subtly intersect. The valley, described as a paradise-like setting, serves as a backdrop that contrasts with the often troubled or unfulfilled lives of its inhabitants.
#12Booksof2024 @Andrew65
Jan: Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Feb: War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad - Christopher Logue
Mar: Hollywood Behind the Lens - Marc Wannamaker & Stephen Bingen - ARC read
Apr: Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
May: Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath - Heather Clark
Jun: We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
Jul: Vincent: a Graphic Biography - Simon Elliott - ARC read
Aug: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
pickI read this for book club, and while it doesn't rise to the level of Steinbeck's later more well-known works, it has a historical significance that makes it worth reading. Jim, a young man searching for meaning, joins Mac, an experienced activist, in an effort to organize a strike among apple pickers in 1930s California. The novel focuses on the mechanics of the strike rather than the interior lives of characters, but presents a vivid picture.
“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.” Loved this book 📖
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#Go4ARide
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
panIn general, I like Steinbeck's writing, despite the fact that it's super depressing. But this collection of four loosely-connected short stories just didn't work for me. They felt unnecessarily brutal without any real character growth. Jody is a little boy when we meet him, and still a little boy in the end, and I feel like he's basically the same little boy - and not a particularly likable one for me since he teases the dog when he's bored and ⬇
