Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Snow Falling on Cedars is a novel I recently finished. It was a book I chose to read because Ms. Bandman strongly recommended it and because I needed to read a Historical Fiction novel. Ms. Bandman said that the tenth graders used to read it as one of their class books and that it is a very good story. I was actually surprised at how interesting it ended up becoming. It was intricately weaved with several different characters' points of view. The author effortlessly shifted from character to character making the book very interesting. The plot was also very interesting and educating. It really gave me insight on how the Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II and how their life was so dramatically affected. Within this novel, the Japanese living on this Island off the coast of Washington were given a little more than a week to completely pack up the essentials and leave. They didn't know exactly where they'd be going, what they're life would be like after they got "there", and if they'd be able to return to their homes. If someone came into my house and gave me 10 days to completely pack up, I couldn't do it. It's unthinkable. How can the government just lock everyone up into camps because of their race? Another thing that really bothered me was that the whole book was centered around this grand trial for a murder. And the reason that Japanese people took such a big role in the book is that the man accused of the murder of a well-known German fisher man, Carl Heine, is a fellow fisherman Kabuo Miyamoto who happens to be Japanese. Not only that, Carl's father and Kabuo's father were landlord and tenant respectively. Carl's father leased 7 acres of his land to Kabu's father many many years ago with a set payment plan. Kabuo's father missed the last payments when he was forced to go relocate to the camp and Carl's father died shortly after so Carl's mother sold the farm from under the Miyamotos. Kabuo returned to the island after fighting in World War II and he tried to get his family's land back but was denied. So, the belief of the island was that his bitter hatred towards the Heine family prompted him to kill Carl. This of course, was not true, but his race and the bitterness of the town towards Japanese people made Kabuo's life so much more difficult and I felt bad for him--I really did. Another part of the book I really liked was that there was this other character who took a very big role in the text--his name is Ishmael Chambers. He is the editor/owner/main writer for the Island's paper and he has an interesting past that really gives him an edge that I really liked. He fought in the war, lost an arm, and had a love affair with one of the other characters when he was younger that really made the novel have an interesting twist to it.

Overall...it is a great read. The length is a little scary, but honestly...I loved it.

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat

I finished my literatures circle book, The Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat a long time ago but completely forgot to blog! It was an amazing read. It was actually a memoir because Marina was a political prisoner when she was a teen, not much older than I am now. It was heart wrenching and amazing and hard to put down. So many great adjectives can be used to describe this book. I loved it. My mom actually read it last year when my brother read it for his english class' literature circles. She cried after finishing it in two hours and really loved it. The fact that the book is nonfiction and all the events Marina had to go through really connected me to the memoir. I think that in any circumstance when a book is relateable and real it makes the whole reading experience so much more riveting and interesting. Every chapter made reading it so much better. From flashbacks to tragedies to disasters, the book kept me interested. Also, I really loved how I read it as a literature circles book because I was able to communicate with other people in my group and really discuss the text and evaluate certain things. Though our group meetings weren't very long it was really good getting feedback from people who were really going through the same experience as yourself. I recommend this book to anyone! It's so incredibly good. A parent could like it, a teenager could like it, male or female: this book is incredible for any reader.