I recently picked up John Steinbeck's classic Cannery Row and was pleasantly surprised by how fresh and finely wrought it is. This book is a gem, examining the lives of the downtrodden people living on Cannery Row in Monterey, California in the 1930s. Steinbeck paints his characters with humor and love, not sparing the bleakness of their lives yet including the small moments of beauty and joy that keep them going. Cannery Row is lighter than The Grapes of Wrath but also more precise, despite the apparently loose structure; while it's easy to get lost in the book, you can also put it down for a day or two in between chapters and come back to without losing a step. - Joe, owner and Cannery Row visitor