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nbonz4's review against another edition
5.0
This book kept we waiting as it found its way to the west coast all the way from Germany. This is fitting to the novel, spanning three generations of Japanese-American woman. This family of wealthy, beautiful females turns a corner to find themselves defenseless when relocated to a camp during World War II. Suffering under men taking advantage of their power and position, someone had to die to make it stop.
The war, now just pictures hidden away and secrets kept, returns to the surface when one of the woman is spotted near the scene of a mysterious death. Through this crime of today answers to the past are discovered.
Littlefield wove this story brilliantly and just when you thought you knew all the answers, she turns one last corner. Intriguing to the last page, I created my Top Picks of 2013 shelf upon completion of Garden of Stones.
The war, now just pictures hidden away and secrets kept, returns to the surface when one of the woman is spotted near the scene of a mysterious death. Through this crime of today answers to the past are discovered.
Littlefield wove this story brilliantly and just when you thought you knew all the answers, she turns one last corner. Intriguing to the last page, I created my Top Picks of 2013 shelf upon completion of Garden of Stones.
blackwolf1489's review against another edition
5.0
I have to say that I certainly did not expect the twists at the end. Very quick. Very enjoyable, but still very sad.
beastreader's review against another edition
5.0
Lucy lives with her mother, Miyako and father. Lucy puts on her best school clothes. She knows today is the day that she will be chosen to be either a hall or lunch monitor. Only this does not happen. One of Lucy’s friends tell her it is because she is Japanese. Lucy does not realize just how different this really makes her until her father dies and the President orders all of the Japanese to be sent to concentration camps.
Sophie Littlefield has done it again. She won me over with her story of Lucy and Miyako. What a great pair. Both women such strong women. The love that each other had for one another was obvious. There is nothing stronger than a mother’s love.
The world that Sophie wrote during the war times and the concentration camp that Lucy and her mother were relocated to and had to endure was awful. It was like I was right there with them and I could smell the filth, see the soldiers in their uniforms smoking their cigarettes, seeing the neighbors bed sheets hanging up as their for of a door for privacy, and maneuvering my way through the camp. Garden of Stones is the type of book that will stick with you long after you have put it down!
Sophie Littlefield has done it again. She won me over with her story of Lucy and Miyako. What a great pair. Both women such strong women. The love that each other had for one another was obvious. There is nothing stronger than a mother’s love.
The world that Sophie wrote during the war times and the concentration camp that Lucy and her mother were relocated to and had to endure was awful. It was like I was right there with them and I could smell the filth, see the soldiers in their uniforms smoking their cigarettes, seeing the neighbors bed sheets hanging up as their for of a door for privacy, and maneuvering my way through the camp. Garden of Stones is the type of book that will stick with you long after you have put it down!
lisawreading's review against another edition
4.0
Garden of Stones is a moving story of love between mothers and daughters, of the search for meaning despite the cruelties inflicted during a hard life, and of the many different roads toward hope and survival. It provides an intense view into a shameful period in US history, during which thousands of Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps and made to suffer countless outrages and deprivations. The characters in the story are well-defined and sympathetic, and the tragedy of their lives is sharp and tangible.
Review copy courtesy of Harlequin via Netgalley
(See review on my blog)
Review copy courtesy of Harlequin via Netgalley
(See review on my blog)
blogginboutbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I've read a few novels about Japanese internment during WWII and they're as heartbreaking as they are fascinating. GARDEN OF STONES is no exception. It's an engrossing read, although a difficult one in which lots of horrible things happen. The three women at the center of the story (three generations from the same family) are each sympathetic, although Patty gets very little page time compared to her mother and grandmother, which makes her tougher to know. Although GARDEN OF STONES is engaging, it's also super depressing. I wanted a more hopeful, uplifting end, but that doesn't really happen. If you can handle a sad book, this is definitely an intriguing, thought-provoking read. If you're already feeling down-hearted (and who isn't these days?), you might want to save it for later.
smallness's review against another edition
3.0
The plot was just a little off to me by the end - but like all of her books, every few pages there were paragraphs or turns or phrase that just stuck in my head. So not my favorite Littlefield at all, but still worthwhile.
joyousreads132's review against another edition
3.0
When we visited the Arizona Memorial Park in Oahu a couple of years ago, there are two things that immediately stood out: one, how reverent and sombre the atmosphere was despite the hoarde of tourist in attendance and two, the significant ratio of Japanese nationals that made up of those attendees. The tour also featured a twenty-minute film depicting the events of what had happened that day. And as I looked around the auditorium while the harrowing movie played out, I couldn't help but wonder what was going through the minds and the consequent emotions as they watched the film. I didn't - couldn't - hazard a guess.
I've always wondered what had happened to the Japanese-Americans in the States after Pearl Harbor. World History in High School was a little bereft. I didn't know that they were taken in internment camps. While I was reading this book, a history buff at the office told me that it also happened in Canada and the Japanese- Canadians pretty much suffered the same fates as their American counterparts.
This book tells the story of a mother and daughter whose delicate beauty made them easy targets for unwanted attention. When I picked up this book, I was already feeling the heavy dread weighing in my gut. I'm not very good at reading anything that would depict torture, abuse, and most of all, rape. I think I read this book with my eyes half-covered. Thankfully, I soon found out that I was worrying for nothing. It wasn't that disturbing, to be honest. Sure the conditions at the camp was severe, the food atrocious, and the treatment of the prisoners were what can be considered now as violations against human rights. But Sophie Littlefield didn't really delve too much into the camp life; in fact, she sort of just glanced over it.
The story of Miyako and Lucy Takeda was equal parts heartbreaking, pitiful and poignant. The then recently widowed had to endure the grief of losing the gentlest, most caring husband to uprooting what was left of her family to a place where she'd had to live out the horror of what kind of evil men would do to covet her beauty. The core of the premise is really how far and how much would a mother endure to protect her child. And Miyako did everything she could even so far as to doing the unimaginable.
Lucy Takeda's story was just as difficult but not nearly as heartbreaking as her mother's. I guess in the end, and despite the trying life Lucy has had as an orphan, Miyako's sacrifice had been fruitful nonetheless. Lucy was at a tender age when they moved to Manzanar. There, in the camp, she found and lost her first love. When the terrible tragedy struck, a nun took care of her until she begged to leave and find a life for her own. Her story, and how she found and yet again, lost her second love began at a motel owned by a feuding siblings.
I think the most frustrating of all is Lucy's lack of voice. She was like her mother - self sacrificing. But where Miyako's capitulations stemmed out of desperation, Lucy's wasn't because she lacked hope and solution. I think she could've fought for Garvey; she could've fought for her happy ending. She folded onto herself and it was because of her love for Garvey that she accepted the things that were thrown her way.
The suspense that the murder mystery the book started with will keep you turning the pages. But the mother's and daughter's past lives will keep you entranced until you find yourself no longer caring for the outcome of the crime that had happened in the beginning of the novel. Sophie Littlefield's account for the lives of the prisoners wasn't really that detailed so I can't say whether or not it was done accurately. I also couldn't discount it just because I don't know much about it. My point is, I found that aspect of the book muted because I got too caught up with Lucy's and Miyako's stories. The author also spun some pretty fascinating and surprising twists into the story but what it lacked is the ability to conjure tears and emotions for a book that tackled delicate issues.
I've always wondered what had happened to the Japanese-Americans in the States after Pearl Harbor. World History in High School was a little bereft. I didn't know that they were taken in internment camps. While I was reading this book, a history buff at the office told me that it also happened in Canada and the Japanese- Canadians pretty much suffered the same fates as their American counterparts.
This book tells the story of a mother and daughter whose delicate beauty made them easy targets for unwanted attention. When I picked up this book, I was already feeling the heavy dread weighing in my gut. I'm not very good at reading anything that would depict torture, abuse, and most of all, rape. I think I read this book with my eyes half-covered. Thankfully, I soon found out that I was worrying for nothing. It wasn't that disturbing, to be honest. Sure the conditions at the camp was severe, the food atrocious, and the treatment of the prisoners were what can be considered now as violations against human rights. But Sophie Littlefield didn't really delve too much into the camp life; in fact, she sort of just glanced over it.
The story of Miyako and Lucy Takeda was equal parts heartbreaking, pitiful and poignant. The then recently widowed had to endure the grief of losing the gentlest, most caring husband to uprooting what was left of her family to a place where she'd had to live out the horror of what kind of evil men would do to covet her beauty. The core of the premise is really how far and how much would a mother endure to protect her child. And Miyako did everything she could even so far as to doing the unimaginable.
Lucy Takeda's story was just as difficult but not nearly as heartbreaking as her mother's. I guess in the end, and despite the trying life Lucy has had as an orphan, Miyako's sacrifice had been fruitful nonetheless. Lucy was at a tender age when they moved to Manzanar. There, in the camp, she found and lost her first love. When the terrible tragedy struck, a nun took care of her until she begged to leave and find a life for her own. Her story, and how she found and yet again, lost her second love began at a motel owned by a feuding siblings.
I think the most frustrating of all is Lucy's lack of voice. She was like her mother - self sacrificing. But where Miyako's capitulations stemmed out of desperation, Lucy's wasn't because she lacked hope and solution. I think she could've fought for Garvey; she could've fought for her happy ending. She folded onto herself and it was because of her love for Garvey that she accepted the things that were thrown her way.
The suspense that the murder mystery the book started with will keep you turning the pages. But the mother's and daughter's past lives will keep you entranced until you find yourself no longer caring for the outcome of the crime that had happened in the beginning of the novel. Sophie Littlefield's account for the lives of the prisoners wasn't really that detailed so I can't say whether or not it was done accurately. I also couldn't discount it just because I don't know much about it. My point is, I found that aspect of the book muted because I got too caught up with Lucy's and Miyako's stories. The author also spun some pretty fascinating and surprising twists into the story but what it lacked is the ability to conjure tears and emotions for a book that tackled delicate issues.
fawnponzar's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this story and the writing quite a bit. There was enough mystery between narrators, time periods, chapters that I didn’t want to stop. However, I am a bit disappointed in the ending. The last chapter or two contained big twists that made everything else in the story feel less important somehow. I’m not sure if that was the intent when the story first came together or if it was rushed and the author had some sick thrill in ending it how she did, but I guess I just wanted something more inspiring and it fell flat in its twisted perversion.
julimore's review against another edition
2.0
Absolutely loved the story, up until the abrupt and disappointing ending.
suzannem's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.25