Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jan 13, 2012

Becky rated it:

"Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella." - Of Mice And Men

I really think I love John Steinbeck, which is surprising to me, because I never would have thought of myself as a Steinbeck reader. There's just something about the way he writes that cuts through all the bullshit and pretense and just tells it like it is, and I find that really refreshing. Som More...

8 comments like (15 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

Andy rated it:

It's the way Steinbeck describes things that gets me.

"Crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. On one side of the little room there was a square four-paned window, and on the other, a narrow plank door leading into the barn. Crooks' bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung. On the wall by the window there were pegs on which hung broken harness in process of being mended; st More...

0 comments like (38 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Nathan rated it:

"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. It don't make no difference who the guy is, long as he's with ya'. I tell ya', a guy gets too lonely, and he gets sick." I first read Of Mice and Men at an age when I was learning to read. Not phonetically, but critically. This novel taught me what good literature could be, and it is one of a handful of novels that I measure all other novels by. As a result, I have turned into someone who can read five to ten nonfiction books in a month but read More...

2 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2008

Embraced_evils rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (27 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2011

Shovelmonkey1 rated it:

So, a lot of Goodreads readers gave this five stars. And a lot of other Goodreads readers said aargh someone took a copy of the Grapes of Wrath/ East of Eden/ Tortilla Flat (delete as applicable) and then tried to jam it, raw and unseasoned, sideways down their throats while they were in high school. This is the unfortunate effect that formalised analysis of actually pretty quality literature can have on people. Luckily, I escaped a Steinbeck-flavoured literary force feeding as a youth, which le More...

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2009

Kirsty rated it:

**Re-read 24/09/09**

I enjoyed this book just as much when re-reading as I did the first time around. I flew through the book and wish it had gone on longer. Steinbecks description is so vivid I just wanted to become lost in the story and didn't want it to end. I really need to read more of his work.

**Original Review**

We read this book for GSCE English Lit, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it was helped due to the fact that my English Teacher was amazing an More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2011

Lou rated it:

Oustanding short heart warming story

Some facts about the book, author and the movies..
Of Mice and Men was adapted for the screen three times, the first in 1939, two years after the publication of the novel. This adaptation of Of Mice and Men stars Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie, Burgess Meredith as George, and was directed by Lewis Milestone.It was nominated for four Oscars.[16]

In 1981 it was made into a TV movie, starring Randy Quaid as Lennie, and Robert Blake as George More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2011

Mariel rated it:

[Reading other goodreads reviews of this brings home to me that I really was in the classes for kids they'd given up on. I never read Of Mice and Men as required reading assignment.]

Tell us how it's gonna be...

I've never wanted a book to spontaneously change endings so badly. I yearn for that little place as much as they do. I wanted them to have it desperately. Proof the incredibly sad ending isn't hopeless is that on a reread I could still hope it would end differently. More...

19 comments like (23 people liked it)

May 19, 2011

K.D. rated it:

This is my 2nd novel by John Steinbeck and I am not disappointed. I normally first read the said known masterpiece of an certain author before reading his or her other works. I got disappointed twice already: Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse which I enjoyed tremendously but when I read her Mrs. Dalloway, it was just not the same. Few years back, that also happened with Sebastian Faulks and his Birdsong. His other novels are just not at par with his masterpiece.

With Mr. Steinbeck, O More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

Lavinia rated it:

A piece of jewelery. Set in sunny California - Salinas, during the Great Depression, "Of Mice and Men" is a story of friendship, dreams and loneliness. I have a long history with it. First I saw the film (excellent, btw), more than 10 years ago, then, a few years later, while writing an essay on Burns, I discovered the connection between "To a Mouse" and "Of Mice...". I was determined to write my final paper based on this, but I eventually gave up.

I felt More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2007

Andrew rated it:

There are few books which reduce me to emotional breakdown, but this is one of them. Revealing the darker side of compassion, Steinbeck tells the story of two friends and what happens when one of them "does a bad thing."

Has this novel become over-taught in high schools? Definitely - and people's perception of the novel suffers because of it. People have to want to read this book because nobody wants such a harsh, violent story placed upon them as an obligation to read. More...

1 comment like (16 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2008

Douglas rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2007

Dot rated it:

This is one of my favorites. It's not my favorite, because I had completely forgotten about it until I saw someone else had put it in their list, but it's definitely in my top five. Wait. Top ten; I haven't read it in nearly ten years. But I assume I still like it as much as I did.

Everybody knows the story by now, so I won't recap it. But I will say that the best part of the book is when you find out that the glove Curley wears all the time is filled with vaseline to "keep [his] More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2010

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

I know...classic, movies, been around for years, greatly respected author, etc., etc., etc. But, nihilism leaves me cold...

Enjoy if it's you...but (and I've used this quote before) this book typifies "life is hard and then you die". Who cares how well the story is written that gets you there.

The very quality of the writing here made the experience worse for me. It has been brought to my attention of late that Steinbeck was a gifted writer. It's true he was, and More...

4 comments like (12 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

Michelle rated it:

This short novel is written by the 20th century author and is set during the Great Depression. It is about two men, George and Lennie who travel around looking for jobs because Lennie keeps getting them into trouble. Lennie has mental issues and behaves like a kid, while George has to be the adult and take care of the both of them.

This story gives you a feel for how women are taken for granted during that time and how men were always so lonely. It also gives you an insight on the vi More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Shannon rated it:

i hated this book.
steinbeck is crap.
children should not be forced to read it.

ok, i really just don't like steinbeck's aesthetic. i dislike the killing of innocent animals, the dehumanization of the mentally retarded--and don't try to tell me that lenny isn't marginalized here. the book is depressing and directionless, and not in the ironic waiting-for-godot sort of way. the descriptions are flat, emotionless, and dessicated.

however, curly's wife is awesome. More...

10 comments like (9 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Pragya rated it:

Find my full review here- http://reviewingshelf.wordpress.com/2012...

This is the first Classic that I have read that has such simple language that you don't have to read every line twice or read a non-classic to be able to come back to it. It is a book you finish in one go.

The characters are really well developed, as is seen in all Classics. I fell in love with Lenny, he is very cute, innocent and adorable. Except for the fact that he ends up killing mice and pups. More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2012

Daniel rated it:

Must be my favorite book next to "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian". This book left me with amazing and intense read. When i was introduced to this book in 7th grade i did not realize how big of a deal this was. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck made me feel like not any book i read has, since everything that i was expecting did not happen. At the end of the book something happens that you will never want to see or hear, but it leaves you with many thoughts a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 16, 2011

Jason rated it:

Steinbeck is quickly becoming one my favorite authors and a large part of that has to do with his very intimate, honest and simple, yet thematically rich stories filled with such memorable characters. There is a reason George and Lennie are iconic American literary figures. By "simple" I do not mean to say his writing is prosaic. Steinbeck does not strive for pretentious stylistic flourishes a la Faulkner but rather employs economic prose that is accessible in its brevity without sacri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2010

Raechel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

Krizia Anna rated it:

This is what literature is really about. "Of Mice and Men" was kept short but bitter sweet. It a novella that would haunt you and make you think. Steinbeck slowly unfurled the story and would suddenly pull the rug under your feet. I can feel my heart beating faster after reading it not because it was thrilling and full of suspense (it's not an action novel!) but because of the different emotions evoked in me by the last 2 pages. It would not be a phenomenal novella with a different end More...

10 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2011

Joe rated it:

This book could be disturbing, or brilliant, or trash.

The book is short at just 107 pages (Penguin edition). Steinbeck's writing style is very good but occasionally redundant: "He embraced his knees and laid his chin down on his knees." The dialogue was immensely frustrating whenever the same thing was said repeatedly with no point. You have pages of "We're gonna' buy us a farm, and tend the rabbits," and it isn't just between Lennie and George. That wouldn't be a More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Claire rated it:

A fascinating thing about this which I hadn't been aware of from my previous exposure to it is that is was one of Steinbecks's format/genre experiments. In this work, Steinbeck created a new genre: the play/novelette.
'"The work I am doing now," he wrote to his agents in April 1936, "is neither a novel nor a play but it is a kind of playable novel. Written in novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands. It wouldn't be like other plays since it does no More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Matt rated it:

I was cleaning my car a couple months ago, when I stumbled across a thin, yellowing copy of Of Mice and Men wedged between some jumper cables and roadside flares. It didn't belong to me, but I have to assume that a homeless person has been living in my car, reading the classics by light of my traffic flares.

Most everything I knew about Of Mice and Men came from my old friend Rob, who used to entertain us all with schoolyard impressions of Lennie and the rabbit: "I was just pet More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Kristen rated it:

I have hated Steinbeck since the tender age of 15 when I was forced to choke down Grapes of Wrath. I was then forced to sit through the movie version of Grapes of Wrath, and was re-assigned to book to read by a crazy teacher I had at the age of 17. I liked it no better on the second go round, however at least by then I was able to pick out the "Christ Figure" that my teachers had always babbled about.

Because of this terrible set of experiences I had sworn off of Steinbeck More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2008

Robert rated it:

As part of my *Steinbeck Special* (which in turn is part of my 50 Novels in One Year reading challenge) I’ve finished reading Of Mice and Men and despite its short length, I’ve got to say it’s a monumental piece of literature, with a story as powerful as anything I have, or am probably ever likely to read.

The story centres around George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant workers who are scouring the Californian countryside in search of work. Again, as was other Steinbeck novels, I More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 07, 2008

Shawanda rated it:

In the book Of Mice and Men was a great book to read, it thought me about people’s handicaps. Not the handicap that you can see out side but the inside handicap. It also talks about the power of brother hood.

The book Of Mice and Men was about different men and there different handicap. In the beginning of the story they start off with a man name Lennie and a man name George, who is going to another farm to work. When you first open the book you can tell what Lennie's handicap is, he More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 01, 2008

James rated it:

At 16, I was not able to appreciate the unmistakable harshness of what really is the average human's life. That is to say, I knew people starved to death half way across the world, I knew there were dictators, and so on. But these are the extremes.

I did not recognize small silent suffering. For I didn’t know the man who spends his whole life toiling to no tangible end – working to work. I did not recognize wretched solitude. For I did not know he who spends his existence hopelessly d More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 30, 2008

Michell'e rated it:

Mice of men. When I first picked up this book I really didn't want to read it. It seemed as if I was juging the book by it's cover. This book wasn't as interesting in the begining (as no book really is). It was kind of dull in the middle until the wife came in. The three reason why I thought the book was ok was because, one it symbolized the fact that dreams didn't always come true. Two, it gave an example of how lonliness can change the way you act and think. Three the endding was shocking and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Bonnie rated it:

Ok, first of all, you're probably wondering how I made it through 12 years of good ol' American public school and 4+ years of college without reading this book. Let me explain...no there is too much, let me sum up. I signed up for AP English my senior year of high school. After a few classes I realized that my current case of senioritis would really not allow for such extensive reading and reporting as the AP curriculum required. So, I did the responsible thing, and promptly transferred out of A More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)