Faith, Folklore, and Friends

                         Wikipedia Image Today is the birthday of the John Steinbeck (02/27/1902-12/20/1966), the author of 27 books.  His works include Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, The Pearl , and The Red Pony . He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1962.  I have read several of his books, but my favorite is  The Grapes of Wrath , Steinbeck's story of dust-bowl Oklahoma tenant farmers migrating to California.   The Grapes of Wrath  won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, and sold millions of copies during Steinbeck's lifetime.  Of course, I have seen the movie starring a very young Henry Fonda. My first-born son is a voracious reader, just like his mama.  This year, we are planning to read as many Pulitzer Prize winning novels that we can.  I've read three already: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and The Optimist's Daughter by Eud...

It has been big news--the announcement that a new Harper Lee book, Go Set A Watchman , will be released this summer.  There has been quite a stir from people who think Ms. Lee is being taken advantage of.  I wasn't there, so I won't comment on that, but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to the book. I have read To Kill A Mockingbird several times, including the last time just a few weeks ago.  It never gets old, and I find new treasures every time I read it.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book: It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.   Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.  Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s...