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The misadventures of Huck Finn and the high seas adventure of a great whale hunt give way to the epic struggle and life's journey in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" as the chosen literature for the third annual Virginia Read.

The Virginia Yerxa Community Read was founded in the fall of 2009 by family and friends of Virginia Wilson Yerxa, a beloved and vital member of the Colusa community for more than 60 years.

This inaugural season featured Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," in 2010, followed by the 2011 selection of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick."

Now comes a book to which many families in Colusa County can relate.

It is the saga of a family, the Joads, who are forced out of Oklahoma during the Great Depression, and seek a new life in California.

Published in 1939, Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 for the classic novel.

Like the past selections, the Virginia Read organizers are planning a variety of events surrounding the book, such as panel discussions, the annual picnic that typically offers a variety of activities, music, art displays and the possible showing of the movie that stars Henry Fonda.

Planning for those activities are under way for the spring event.

But all anyone really has to do to be involved in the Virginia Read is to pick up the book and start reading.

The book will be available at all branches of the Colusa County libraries and at the Colusa school libraries. Abridged copies of the book and related titles for younger readers are also available.

New books may be purchased at Davison Drug and Stationery; used copies may be found at The Bookworm. More information about upcoming events and the 2012 Virginia Read is available at www.virginiaread.net.