The Four Winds

I haven't read very many female authors but Hannah might be the best one I've read with the exception of Rowlings. Every character she writes you have some type of understanding for how they feel, regardless if you like them or not. She writes a story following the lives of a Texan panhandle farming family that survives through the Great Crash of ‘29 and then has to deal with the Dust Bowl of the 30's. Years of tilling the soil has ruined the land and a long drought and high winds takes away their top soil and constantly pelts them with sand storms making it virtually impossible to survive. Even to eat livestock their full of dirt. They then must go to California to look for work but it's nothing like they expected. The family struggles and later fights to survive and for the hope that they might one day find happiness and peace. The story didn't have the ending I desired but it sure was an interesting. 100% suggest reading this to, at the very least, learn about more of the dark side of American history you probably don't know.