What Fiction are you reading this week, Nov. 15, 2020?

[Staph]

35. Last week I read The Grapes Of Wrath for the first time.

So very appropriate for our time! The Joad family of Oklahoma lose their farm to the bank, and it's bought by a corporation that sets up what we'd call a factory farm. The family head to California in hope of good jobs picking crops. The Okies of this novel are the illegal immigrants of today, hated by the locals, not even paid a living wage, chased from town to town by the local sheriffs when they are out of work.

It is a disturbing book. It is an amazing book. It is a sad, sad story.

This week I'm reading The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. What would have happened if the Black Death had killed 99% of Europe instead of one-third? The book starts in the time of Tamerlane (about 1400) and continues forward in jumps. The main characters are the same throughout the years, because they have been reincarnated over and over. That part is a little confusing, figuring who is who in the next time jump. But it's history of China and India and the Middle East and north Africa, history I don't know well at all. It's a good story and I'm learning a lot at the same time.