Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, and even Sweet Thursday are wonderful reads. Yes, they are light reads but there is great depth in the books. Even today when you visit the area of California where East of Eden and the 3 forementioned books took place you can envision what it was like many years ago. The Cannery today has many great restaurants to choose from. I visited the area 10+ years ago when we raced at Laguna Seca (btw, we finished 13th in a field of 43 drivers from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
Back on subject, I strongly recommend Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday (in that order). Of course though, I recommend all of Steinbeck's work as he is by far my favorite author.