pickReally really good. At one level it tells the story of his grandparents. On one side of the family they were Canadians of Japanese descent who were interned in Alberta in WWII. On the other side his grandfather was a soldier captured in Hong Kong who spent 4 years in a Japanese pow camp. At another level it‘s about forgiving ourselves.
“Forgiveness has nothing to do with the past”.
pickThe summaries of this book make it sound like it‘s all WWII, but it‘s not. I found the book to be an entire biography of his grandparents, then his own – with a focus on his relationship with his mom. I really liked this. A little “bonus” for me was that Mark‘s wife is from Assiniboia, Sask, a small town about 45 minutes from the town I grew up in.
pickAMAZING. BRILLIANT. HEARTBREAKING. What an incredible journey these people faced. Just reading it, left me angry at times, heartbroken and then happy. A must read! 🇨🇦 2018 Winner CANADA READS
The city I was born! What a heart renching book this is turning out to be!!!!😢
Started this book yesterday while doing a 12hr shift... hopefully have some quiet here in the ER department so I can read more today!!!! Day 7 of a 12 day stretch...😐
pick"Every story has two sides. My life depended on my sides coming together." - Mark Sakamoto
Forgiveness is a heart-rending and bittersweet family memoir that spans over three generations.
Rating: 4.5?
For my full review please visit https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2780846698
#cbccanadareads2018winner
Just waiting for The Wife Between Us to show up!! I love buying books!😍🤗 ( and a new umbrella, whenever spring decides to show up...Northern Alberta lIving...🤔)
pickSo amazing!!! Everyone should read this book! Side note: this is the 100th book I have read this year! I am very proud I reached my goal!
bailedI feel terrible about this, but I can't finish FORGIVENESS. Sakamoto covers important ground--his grandpa's years as a POW, his grandma's time in an internment camp, and his own experiences with an alcoholic mother--but...
I'm just gonna say it, okay? His prose reads like bad journalism. The first 75 pages are a stream of recollections and tangential facts with many of the connectors missing and some awkward dialogue mixed in. I've gotta bail.
They're renovating my usual library branch, so today I wandered on over to the one I used when I was a teenager. It's all fancy in there now, and I had a good time learning where everything is.
And I got books! FORGIVENESS off the Express Bestsellers cart, more Green Arrow from the comics shelf, and this year's Pride guide from the pamphlets.
Finally getting around to reading the #CanadaReads winner. It‘s going to have to be flawless to change my mind about the fact that it was NOT the right winner.
My TBR pile just got taller. #canadareads 🇨🇦📚
pickThe last book I read in March ended up being the winner of #CanadaReads!
The backbone of this memoir is the alternating stories of Sakamoto's grandparents. Frank, a soldier, survived years in prisoner camps in Japan. Mitsue was forced to moved to rural Alberta to work as a farm laborer. But the heart of this story is how instead of holding on to bitterness and anger, each chose hope and forgiveness, moving on instead of living in the past.
I haven‘t been following Canada Reads and this is the first I‘ve heard of the winner, but it sounds fascinating!
http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/jeanne-beker-championing-forgiveness-wins-ca...
#Canadareads2018
I wanted to wait a few hours, but congratulations to Mark Sakamoto for winning this year‘s Canada Reads. I read the other 4 books and kept putting this one aside. Just goes to show you. I said on day 2, I don‘t think the US will ever have a show where people cry defending a book. One celeb donated 50 copies each of two of the other books to his local school system. Time to read this one. I had American War or Marrow Thieves as my picks.
One more book to read before #CanadaReads starts on Monday!
My fourth #Canadareads book. I had to order this one from the San Francisco library.
And a Starbucks hot chocolate which I sooo needed today.
“I am here on behalf of 6 million Jews who were slaughtered for no reason other than being Jews. The ghost of Hitler still works in Canada.” Page 156. I am appaled to learn that in Canada -Japanese Canadians (even those born in Canada) were hated, driven out and persecuted in 1945.
pickWhat an amazing story! I never knew anything about this time in our history, I do now and I now know how strong these people were and how they suffered! I feel incredibly lucky that this was so eye opening and shocking to me! That is all because of the sacrifices people made for me to be able to live with the freedom I do! Read this beautiful, remarkable story!!
This book is so incredible! So much struggle, I love that there are pictures of the family throughout so you see these are actual people, this isn‘t just a story! These atrocities actually happened to these people! Hoping to finish this today!!
pickFinished book 4 #CanadaReads “Breaking down is the easy part. Anyone, at anytime, can break down. The act of coming together again is what makes a hero.” This one had me ugly crying.
I had to get up at 5am to drive the hubby to the bus station. He has a meeting in another city today and the bus is safer than driving in the winter. I treated myself to a large steeped tea and some reading before the kids woke up.
Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents | 
