On-the-print

Bradley's memoir of the waning games in the New York Knicks' 1973-74 season (the season after they won their second NBA championship) contains many observations about professional sports that, unfortunately, continue to ring true today: the shameless exploitation of undereducated athletes by agents and comparable parasites; the intrinsic harshness of an itinerant existence during a roadtrip on the West Coast; the grueling physical and mental demands of the NBA regular season; the evanescent nature of fan support. Given all of the above, why then would anyone want to play NBA basketball? Well, Bradley also does a fine job of describing the many thrills an athlete can derive from, among other things, being exhalted by home fans; winning a championship; and being part of a selflless team unit that manages to sublimate individualistic tendancies in its pursuit of greater goals. Bradley's book, from what I can gather, was revolutionary for its time in that it eschewed the type of hagiographic approach that many writers took toward the world of professional sports and ablely demonstrated the myriad difficulties associated with being a player in the nation's largest media spotlight. It should be a must- read for all aspiring NBA players -- especially those players who are considering foregoing several (or all) years of their collegiate eligibilities to make a fast buck. They should be forewarned: "All that glitters isn't gold."

Bill Bradley's account of three weeks in the life of an NBA team in the '70's is as much a stunningly insightful social commentary as it is a nice, easily-rambling, "On the Road"-style ride. Beautiful.

With all the hoopla surrounding Bradley's potential run at the presidency, this book offers unique insight from a non-politics perspective. It chronicles the last few weeks of a Knick's season, and all the emotion that comes with it. Also, Bradley provides commentary on a variety of topics which are still very relevant... i.e. the formation of the NBA Player's Association. The book reads very well, and there is interesting background coverage of Bradley's teammates, many of whom are well-known today. I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone - from sports buff to the just curious. It is awesome!

If you like Robert Fulghum's other books you'll really enjoy this book. If you haven't read Robert try his first best seller 'All I needed to know I learned in Kindergarden' It's his best work and will give you an idea of how enjoyable this guy's views and stories on life are to read.

This book was a joy to read. It was quick reading, humorous at times, thought provoking at others.

This is one of the best books I have read in the last months! Many daily situations that you have with yourself are present. May be or may be not you will love it, but I am sure you will ever remeber many funny situations in your real life. Try it. It is cheap, easy for reading, good for our spiritual side...

The first essay, "Grandmother's house", made me shut the book and just gaze for minutes at a time. In reading about her childhood, she forced me to revisit my own "places" before I could come back to hers. Rereading her prose is so pleasurable; it 's like glancing twice at an attractive stranger on a street. The first and last essays seemed the most personal, the best "placement" for them. Everyone should reflect upon her life's places after savoring this book.

If you've ever longed to return to a place from your past, Mary Gordon gently explores why. With memories that are sometimes sad, she connects how place figures into who we love and how we make decisions later on in life. Her chapters are houses that serve as an eclectic garden tour, and which, in the end, make her whole. This is reason enough to read the book, but I love what she says place does for her as a writer. While on vacation last year, I sat in a carribean resort bar before it opened and began to write. The place was red-walled, with black and white accents, and no one would expect that suddenly, this place would be where the words I'd been struggling to put down poured out. And so, as I writer, I shared Gordon's thoughts about falling in love with a place that was not hers to own, but one she would remain connected to forever because it was a place "in which you have written happily and well."

Seeing through places is enchanting. Full of the sharp insight and beautiful description I've come to expect from Mary Gordon. A pleasure to read.

Though the title implies that this is the story of a single bomber, "Bomber" goes farther - much farther, only starting with the crew of the heavy bomber "Joe for King". Deighton then covers other aircrews and their families and superiors before cutting across the channel to the enemy - night-fighter pilots, their controllers in German air defense, various suspicious characters from across the spectrum of Germany's military - from "respectable" Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht personnel to shadowy types from the "Abwehr" and the SS. We also meet the civilian residents of Altgarten, a Ruhr-area town nobody would think of bombing, but which manages to get plastered all the same. It's mid-summer 1943, when "Joe for King" is sent into the Ruhr as part of a massive night-time raid against the industrial centers of Krefeld. Lacking night-vision goggles, RAF pilots of 1943 drop their bombs on targets marked by flares left by directing aircraft - in this case, specially equipped Mosquitoe night-fighters. When the marker plane for the Krefeld raid is shot down prematurely, its flares are released over Altgarten. This error is compounded by inherent flaws in RAF tactics (like targeting bombs in the center of cities, where bombs are more likely to hit civilian homes than factories and military installations), and the town becomes the unintended target for the massive strike. "Bomber" is to RAF's wartime bomber command what "Traffic" is to the DEA - a story of massive scale borne by wide cast if characters that never stops growing. Deighton plays no favorites, certainly not with nationality. The Germans are on the receiving end of the bombs here, but there are plenty of overt references to the Nazis' crimes. On the British side, we see officers acting less like gentlemen than soldiers. Political correctness is the rule (this is the country that gave us "1984"; "Joe for King"'s commander is suspected of incipient Bolshevism - it's very name hints at Stalin). Those who won't fall in line risk being labeled as LMF - Lacking Moral Fiber - officially branded as cowards. Though books with such a command of detail tend towards charitability (if not nostalgically) to those they depict, Deighton is uniformly negative on the subject, a tone reinforced by his many subplots. Lambert, "Joe for King's" rebel pilot, plays the best cricket in Bomber Command - leading his odious superior to compel his participation in an upcoming tournament on pain of getting LMF'd. (Worse - the commander pressures Mrs. Lambert after her husband has departed for the big raid). Previous owners of the land that became the RAF base at Warley Fen, a once verdant field, now stare at the airfield, mourning for what they know they will never have again. In Germany, ADF is managed by August Bach, an aged warrior preparing to marry his young son's nanny, not knowing how her youthful looks have made her the target of vicious rumors through Altgarten. The pilots of a night-fighter squadron (nichtjagdeschwader), preparing for a feared RAF attack on the Ruhr, are thrown into turmoil when Abwehr and Gestapo appear in search of a stolen classifed memo. The memo, it turns out, details hypothermia experiments on concentration camp prisoners (this may be same memo mentioned early in Robert Harriss' superb "Fatherland"). The corrupt assistant to Altgarten's Burgomeister arranges for the downgrading of the town's remaining Jews (from 1/3rd to 2/3rd "Jewishness" - though these jews are even more likely to face deportation and certain death, they will have greater freedom to marry other jews). Altgarten itself is flooded with profiteers funneling goods looted from conquered parts of Russia and the Netherlands. Deighton hints at the underlying corruption of humanity actually tamed by war - it seems that war is the only thing keeping the world safe because it occupies all the amoral types who have to fight it. The only morally just adults are the TENO - the civil safety personnel who dig people out of bombed buildings. Because they are stationed in Altgarten, they get the biggest break: when the raid comes, they have the shortest commute. With so much going on, you just know you're bound to miss something. This is the sort of book that speed-readers hate. You'll probably lose count of all the characters that Deighton throws at you, though this doesn't hurt the plot as much as make the book one you'll want to re-read. Be warned - once you pick up bomber, you'll probably be spoiled for any other novel on the war in the skies over Europe.

Len Deighton has written a fascinating novel of a tragically bungled (fictional) night bombing raid by the RAF in 1943. The book is full of information about the men and machines which took part on both sides. Readers knowledgeable about the air war will appreciate the technical details which Deighton lavishly provides but the casual reader will also be caught up by his talented storytelling. Folly piles upon folly in revealing the tragic and often unintended ramifications of making war.

The ironic tone which suffuses the novel is reflected in the subtitle. As the author points out in the disclaimer, there was no June 31st in 1943 or any other year. A book to read and reread.

In Bedford, Rhode Island, one year ago today, Annie Hunter's beloved husband Richard suddenly dies of a massive heart attack at forty-two years old. Though still grieving, Annie's interior decorator business remains a success though her personal life is a zilch.

Annie comes home from work only to see a young adolescent sleeping on her porch with her dog resting next to him. She calls the police who take Cullen Gallagher down to station, but not before he claims Annie is his mother and Richard his father. At the police station, Annie learns that Cullen lives at Noah House for Troubled Boys, managed by Linc McCoy. As Annie and Linc overcome their initial distrust of one another they work together to learn the truth behind Cullen's continual claim that Richard is his father. They fall in love with one another, but both believe that the other is wrong for them even if they work so well together.

Dee Holmes furbishes her fans with an exciting contemporary romance that will grab the heartstrings of the audience because of Cullen's need to belong to a family. Linc and Annie are a fine couple, but the tension between them changes rather quickly from suspicion of motive to that of love. Readers will receive plenty of pleasure from BOY ON THE PORCH, a wonderful character study that supports a tough love approach to the problems of youth.

Harriet Klausner

A year after her husband, Richard, died, Annie Hunter finds a surprise on her doorstep, a teen aged boy claiming he is Richard's illegitimate son, Cullen Gallagher. He also thinks Annie is is mother, but that is impossible. Investigating his story brings Annie into contact with enigmatic Linc McCoy, the man who runs a center for troubled boys, Cullen's former home. Despite mistrust on both sides, Annie and Linc find themselves drawn together on a more personal level as they work together to find Cullen's birth parents. Annie also finds herself drawn to the boy who so rudely barged into her life, and is willing to fight to keep him, and may have to.

** With tenderness and love, Ms. Holmes paints a picture of how with effort, love can heal broken hearts and fill the holes left by betrayal. As this unusual family knits together, readers cheer the growth of imperfect people as they go beyond duty to fulfill the obligations of love. **

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.

Assuming that the editors chose what they thought to be "best" examples of each show for inclusion in this anthology, the quality of the shows is as uneven as the various formats. The shows that seek to capture gritty realism include "Tales of Texas Rangers," "This is Your FBI," "Dragnet," and "Gangbusters." More traditional detective/mystery shows are "The Saint," "Philip Marlowe," "Richard Diamond," and "Ellery Queen." Two shows could be classified as radio comic books: "The Green Hornet," and "Boston Blackie." "Sherlock Holmes," of course, stands in a class by itself for radio mystery.

As a kid I watched the T.V. versions of both "Dragnet" and "Tales of Texas Rangers," and I still try to watch "Dragnet" on cable. Consequently, I was surprised by how bad "Dragnet" was and how good "Texas Rangers" was. "Texas Rangers" rates as the best of the reality shows in the collection and "Gangbusters" ties with "Dragnet" for last.

Among the traditional mysteries, the quality was much more even, with Vincent Price as "The Saint" edging out the other competitors for best in this category.

"The Green Hornet" and "Boston Blackie" were just plain dumb.

Whatever the quality of these pieces, they all entertain. They also give us a window into what entertained our parents and grandparents when the nation was younger and, if we were not a bit more innocent, at least our sensibilities were not quite as jaded as they are in these postmodern times.

Drop the lights, and light a candle as you go back to the time of mystery and mayhem. These tapes offer a great spectrum of the detective genre.

Mild-mannered DCI George Felse, who prefers to solve English country crime without the aid of the Yard, finds himself near the Welsh/English border--first on vacation, then on business. He is abruptly shaken out of his appreciation of Midshire's
natural beauty when confronted by a manorial/monastic mystery--complete with curse. Could monks gone amuck at the time of the
Dissolution actually influence lives (i.e., cause death) in this century? What is the fatal attraction of a curiously-wrought knocker on an oaken door, which was hung first in a church, then in a private wine cellar, but has since been donated back to an ecclesiastical setting?

Ellis Peters, known to aficionados as the creator of the Brother Cadfael series, weaves a delightful web of suspicious characters, cryptic legend and mundane motives into a contemporary thriller, with medieval over--or rather, undertones. Her fans will recognize her penchant for incidental romance: in this case an unexpected but platonic love affair at the end. Socially-conscious in her own time, she raises poignant commentary on the role of impoverished aristocracy, dying out gracefully (?) for lack of cash and new blood...apologies for the ill-chosen expression. Will the Manor be saved by the Trust or is this the end of the line for the Macsen-Martel family? Will the sins of the philandering patriarch be visited upon future generations? Anything by Peters is sure to please; savor this novel as her literary premonition of a medieval Welsh monk dabbling in mystery. My advice: beware of the cowl in the mist and don't knock first!

Being a fan of Ellis Peters's brother Cadfael series, I decided to try her earlier mystery series, featuring detective inspector George Felse. The Knocker on Death's Door is a good, light read, with interesting historical details, although the solution to the mystery will be obvious to most experienced mystery-novel readers. The plot centers around the restoration of a medieval door to its original place in the village church, and the secrets the door holds, which reveal a long-hidden murder. There's a sweet, innocent romantic sub-plot woven through the detective story, and George Felse is a delightful investigator. Overall, a good read for fans of the traditional English-cosy mystery.

This was the first Inspector Felse mystery I ever read. After I'd finished all of Peters' Brother Cadfael mysteries, I finally gave in, despite having groused to myself for years that she'd spent time on these when she could have been spreading mayhem through medieval Shropshire for our fun and her profit.

It's a shame I took so long to give Felse a fair chance. Peters was already an excellent writer in the days when this story was written; the Felse stories are good novels, not just clever puzzles. They carry the bonus that they aren't bound to a formula as tightly as are the chronicles of Brother Cadfael.

Felse's turf is on the Welsh border, but in the last half of the twentieth century, and in Midshire, not Shropshire. As in the Cadfael stories, time doesn't stand still for the characters. This, as one of George's later appearances, doesn't feature his son Dominic in an active role in the investigation - Dominic is on holiday abroad, having just graduated from university. This particular story is set in Mottisham, one of the villages near Felse's home base of Comerbourne; the area is also the scene of _Rainbow's End_, for anyone who'd like to see how the supporting characters fared in later years.

The Macsen-Martels, as their double-barreled name suggests, are an old family, but their fires are burning out. The valley, as local Sgt. Moon says, is tribal, not feudal - 'squire' is a dirty word around here. The best they ever did was in acquiring Mottisham Abbey out of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. "Count for nothing now. Never will again. Never *did*, for all that much."

Robert senior was a notorious womanizer who sank the family deep in debt before finally breaking his neck in the hunting field. His widow, a cousin whom he married for her money, would never hear a word against him. Robert junior, the elder son, takes after his mother in looks and values, but what in her is aristocratic arrogance has in him been eroded like a medieval carving. He grew up helping her cope with his father's endless debts and paternity suits, and it seems to have taken its toll on more than the family fortunes - he's worn to the bone. Far from being a lord of the manor, he works in a realtor's office. His younger brother Hugh, on the other hand, has his father's energy, but he turns it to a more profitable end as the junior partner of Cressett and Martel, local garage. (The senior partner, Dave Cressett, is only a year younger than Robert, and where Hugh provides flash and dazzle, Dave provides sturdy dependability. Dinah, Dave's younger sister, chips in - a pocket edition, but made of the right stuff; Hugh's got sense enough to be moving toward marriage with her.)

The family can't maintain the Abbey anymore, and they've finally convinced the National Trust to step in. The building must be restored to original condition as much as possible, so they've started by reinstalling the old wine cellar door in the church porch - there's a family story that it belongs there. George Felse, just returning from a holiday after promotion to deputy head of the county CID, passes the time of day with Sgt. Moon while stuck in traffic, caused by the bishop's stately progress of reconsecrating the door. It's a *DOOR* - 7 x 5 medieval oak, flanked by carved angels that were outdated when it was carved and have come all the way around to being modern, and weighing a quarter of a ton. It and its knocker come complete with a Macsen-Martel family legend, which we hear when the younger son, Hugh, takes his Dinah to officially meet his family.

Only a local sensation, not even a nine-days'-wonder; Bunty's comfortable statement that there's nothing to fetch them back for a second look, though, goes into the category of Famous Last Words. At first, it only begins with the regulars of the Sitting Duck taking the mickey out of the small gang of pressmen who turned out for the ceremony. (The pub conserves its home-brewed beer for the regulars, and anyhow such strangers are nature's way of providing entertainment.) Nobody expected Gerry Bracewell, the quickest-witted of the pack, to return a few weeks later in pursuit of a potential story - and still less for Dave Cressett to find him dead in the church porch, head beaten in before the door.

Felse opts to hang onto the case rather than passing it to the Yard; something was significant about the door itself, not the man. All that was unusual about him was that he'd seen the door once before, years ago, when photographing the house for a series of articles on obscure country houses. But what could be so deadly about a door that was already on public display?

The only touches of amateur hour in Felse's thoroughly professional investigation are Dave Cressett's inquiries when he returns Bracewell's car to the widow, and a few scenes from Dinah's point of view. They're adequately explained by the closed-shop attitude of Mottisham's people - when there's trouble, they pull together, but right must be done. Although those psychic researchers are fair game when they show up at the pub...

I'm reading my third Jonathan Aycliffe (who also writes as Daniel Easterman) and will be looking for more of his work. In "A Shadow on the Wall", mysterious scripture appears on a tombstone ('He shall return out of the dark'). An Anglican priest attempts to renovate a church deep in the East Anglican fens. A late-Victorian, Cambridge don is drawn into the mystery of the priest's death. This is M.R. James country, with its spectres seen through a shroud, darkly, and its hero, an unworldly scholar. If you prefer a shock-a-minute, buckets o'blood approach to horror, Aycliffe is probably not for you. If your imagination is your own worst enemy and all you require is a misplaced shadow or a scratching in the attic to keep you awake through the dark hours, read "A Shadow on the Wall" or Aycliffe's "The Talisman". This is the English, Jamesian school of horror at its best.

Aycliffe's first venture into the supernatural since 1996's "The Lost" is shorter and simpler than his earlier titles but no less enjoyable. The East Anglian setting, turn-of-the-century university background and scholarly hero make it clear that he is paying tribute to M R James and that great storyteller conjured up few more terrifying images than the dessicated abbot in this novel, unknowingly released from his tomb in a remote Fenland church.

The setting, amidst the bleak, wintry Fens, is what you may remember most about this book, that and the frissons of fear as the shadow of the spectral abbot creeps closer and closer to the hero's loved ones. In Aycliffe's paranoid world, even the church can seem powerless against evil and the eventual resolution is a decidedly ambiguous one.

Recommended.

When Matthew Atherton, another fellow at the University, calls on Richard Asquith for help in unraveling a series of strange events at the church of Thornham St. Stephen, Richard himself plunged into a dark mystery of ancient evil. Matthew's brother Edward, while restoring the church, has opened the 14th Century tomb of William de Lindesey and has released a shadowy evil that haunts the village and is sucking the life from Edward.

The men arrive at Thornham to discover the church locked and Edward horrifyingly dead. Further events only darken the mystery, and Richard finds himself in pursuit of a shadowy affliction that haunts and destroys all the lives it touches. First attacking the villagers and the Atherton's, the evil at last turn's its eyes to those who Asquith loves and his investigation turns into a race with death and what lays beyond it. To accomplish this Asquith must unravel a horror inextricably tied up with events that occurred five hundred years earlier during the black plague.

Aycliffe, on the strength of this and several earlier novels (he also writes as Daniel Easterman) is often compared to Montague James, one of England's finest writers of ghost stories. James is one of a school of early 20th Century horror writers that included Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen. The similarity is undeniable, especially in the choice and use of plot devices. However, his choice of writing style, which is that of a novel of the 1890's, is more like that of Machen, who is my particular favorite of the group.

Arthur Machen was brilliant at descriptive narrative, setting eerie atmospheres with swift brushstrokes. Aycliffe, like Machen uses language carefully and has a fine sense of when it is more horrifying to leave something unsaid. Of course, all of Machen and James school were fine writers, and it is a deep compliment to Aycliffe's writing that he can be tarred with the same brush. With the exception of one perfectly horrible pun (an innkeeper reports that Edward dies of an 'apostolic' fit) he stays perfectly in character. I am looking forward to future novels in this vein.

I read the first chapter. Then I decided not to read the whole book through. I skipped to the third chapter. I read a few words here and there, then i read the last page. I don't care what anyone says, I have read A Walk in the Woods.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson is a marvelous description of the Appalachian Trail and it's history. The outrageously funny nature of it and the bond of friendship between two men makes the journey of reading the book worth taking. I personally love the book and I think that anyone would too. Bryson incorporates his entire journey along the Appalachian Trail with facts of the trail's history and the present day situation with the National Parks Service. His book gives you an appreciation for the 300 people who hike the entire 2,200 miles through the wind, snow, rain, and heat. In the book, Bill Bryson reunites with his childhood friend, Stephen Katz, for A Walk in the Woods. The Appalachian Trail offers an astonishing landscape of undisturbed forests and deep-blue lakes. Bryson also tells the story of Katz and himself with all the problems they face along the way. Both of the men are extremely unfit and encounter many problems in the beginning because of each other's different personalities. Not only do they encounter hilarious characters along the way, but even strange towns. Bryson not only tells us about his travels along the fragile Appalachian Trail, but he informs us of its fascinating history and makes a plea for the conservation of the most widely known trail in North America. Everything along the trail has to do with Biology and Ecology and the entire book is insightful about the wildlife and the landscape. Throughout the whole story, there are only about two main characters: Katz and Bryson. Both characters are hilariously funny and each is completely the opposite from the other. A Walk in the Woods takes place sometime in 1990's and from spring to late summer. In conclusion, A Walk in the Woods is an extremely well written book and is definitely a must read. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure and comedy. You'll even learn something about the history, wildlife, and landscape. It is by far the best travel book on the market today.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the writing style of it's author, Bill Bryson. He is witty, intelligent, knowlegdeable, and easily read, all at the same time.

The book (non-fiction and usually found in a travel section of a book store) centers around the existence of the appalachian trail in the eastern U.S.. After spending years away from America, in the boorish land of the Brits, Bill discovers the trail and decides to hike it from end to end. Initially he has trouble finding someone willing to go on this extended hike with him, but then an old school chum, Steven Katz, calls up and decides to join him. The two are a rumbling, bumbling, out of shape and disjointed pair that have you chuckling many times as you read on. Hiking the trail isn't an easy thing to do with your life on your back, or so they soon discover. But they plod along and along the way the reader gets some interesting history behind the trails establishment, the people they meet along it's course, the states that they amble through, and the general decay of their minds as they begin to see nothing but mile upon mile upon mile upon mile of trail ahead of them.

Did they hike the appalachian trail though? That is a question that each reader will have to answer for themselves. I think they did. I've hiked many miles in Alaska and I know what it's like to be on trails like that. They hiked it! Trust me!

Pretty interesting concept of a story, even if it is re-hashed a bit from "To kill a mockingbird" or "romeo and juliet." What i found most unappealing at first was the very abrupt ending, but after reflecting, i liked wondering just what became of the characters. I'm certain that racial tension and mistrust remained, and that there were still difficult feelings for many of the characters -- especially Susan Marie Heine, whose husband remained dead regardless of the trial's outcome. But couldn't help wondering what happened to the Miyamotos, or to Ishmael, or the land that was in question. The book made me care about those things.

Guterson is a very descriptive author and paints well, whether it's the shape and appearance of the land,the physical attributes of his characters, or the details of a character's activities. The war scenes are especially vivid and colorful. Sometimes this attention to details is very welcome, and sometimes it just makes the story drag.

Compared to the movie, the book was much better and less B-O-R-I-N-G. Really, the movie is a big dud...but the text was okay. Finished it in around eight days despite its size.

This novel is set on San Pedro Island off the coast of Washington in the 1950's. Kabuo Miyhamoto, a member of the island's Japanese-American community, is on trial for the murder of Carl Heine, a fellow fisherman. Heine's boat was found drifting on morning, with his body caught up in a net. While the death at first seemed accidental, bits of incriminating evidence accumulate that seem to implicate Miyamoto. On one level, this suspenseful and beautifully written novel can be read as a well written mystery. On another level, it presents an evocation of character and prejudice in a small island community in the 1950's. In her testimony, Etta Heine, the dead man's mother, clearly expresses her hatred and distrust of all Japanese; including Kabuo, who had been her son's childhood friend. The author also recreates the wartime hysteria that led to Japanese-Americans being sent to concentration camps. In fact, in pre-war Washington state, Japanese people who were not American citizens were not even permitted to own property. As the trial proceeds, the story of Carl, Kabuo, and what happened that night little by little, takes shape, as does the tale of Ishmail Chambers, the local newspaper reporter, who had a "love affair" with Kabuo's wife when they were both teenagers, just before the Japanese families were sent away in 1942. it is clear, however, that this is more than a story of one man's guilt or innocence; it is a story of a community's fear and prejudice against the Japanese-Americans in its midst.

In a time when racism was part of everyday life, David Guterson tells a beautiful story about a love that defies the restrictions of prejudice. Set in San Piedro, a controversial love develops between a young white boy and a Japanese girl. Beginning when they were ten years old, the two met in the hollowed out trunk of a cedar tree. As they grew up, their love grew for each other, but met conflicts of society. This book is great for the hopeless romantic who reads in anxious hope that the two lovers will run away together.

The book also appeals to the CSI-watching thrill seekers. A local fisherman was found caught in his fishing net, dead. The town investigates what they think might be a homicide. A Japanese man is convicted of the murder and in the courtroom, prejudices towards the Japanese are especially apparent. As the characters in the book try to put the pieces together to discover the truth, so does the reader.

Snow Falling on Cedars is a timeless story of suspense and romance. Guterson uses vivid imagery and many descriptions of the landscape to allow the reader to better relate to the book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a great story, no matter your age.