EAST OF EDEN

East of Eden written by John Steinbeck

     In 1917 in California, US. Adam ran a farm had sons; Aron and Cal. They were really different.  Cal believed their mother was dead but it was actually not. Kate who ran a bar near the city must be his mother, he thought. He tried to find and check the woman was his actual mother. at first, the plan was not succeed. At that time, the US joined the WWI. Cal started to sell peas with Will to raise money. But Aron was against the war and his fiancee, Abra worked as a nurse. During the war, she fell in love with Cal accidentally.  He gave money and Aron told he got married with Abra at his father's birthday, but he didn't accept the present. He got angry and brought Aron to their mother's bar. He was in shock and out of his mind. He decided to join the army. Adam got sick in bed... Adam forgave Cal? Cal noticed his father's love? 

     The story is about love, forgiveness, jealousy, and revenge. It's a little bit difficult, so I want to try it one more.  Their characteristic were totally different. But one thing they had is they really need their mother, the family. For them, of course for us, the role of family is really important. One lie, that was just a lie before something happen, but after something happen the lie gives us lots of "options".  And the war, it always separate us. There are no profit before and during and after the war. 

YURIKA

He Knows Too Much

He Knows Too Much
Alan Maley


This book was written by Alan Maley, and first publised in 1999. A main character, Dick Sterling is unjustly dismissed from the company. He tries to discover the truth behind his dismissal. During his research, he discovers his boss, Keith Lennox keeps secrets. What are they? and how does the ending turn out?


The theme of this story is love and karma. I have the unfogettable words, We should leave punishment to God. I realized revenge is not the best way to resolve problems. It was difficult for me to understand completely. However this story is really interesting and surprising. I didn't find out what happens till the last. I recommend classmates to read this book. If you like a mystery story, please read it!!!

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was published in 1994 and chosen as ‘Best 100 novels in 20 century’. The author of this book, Louis de Bernieres, was born in 1954, London. He had had many different jobs, including being a mechanic, gardener and teacher before he became a full-time writer. He plays several musical instruments including mandolin.

It is 1941. It is the time of the Second World War. The protagonist is a Greek girl Pelagia. She engaged Madras. He was really nice and handsome. But after coming back from war, his appearance and personality changed. Almost a year later, Italian army invaded Greek. Pelagia met the head of the Italian army, Corelli. They fell in love. It was hard to blossom their love. After a few month, Corelli had to go back to fight away from Greek. And then…?

Theme is, of course war. This book tells us how terrible war is and how easily war can change people. Generally speaking, the victim of war is considered soldiers (men). But it tells me that women are also the victim. All they can do at that time is just to wait for their husband, father, or boyfriend. If their husband, father or boyfriend is killed, how can women live after the war? No words can describe their tears.

I do recommend you to read this book. We can learn a lot of things from this book. Or, if you don’t want to read a book, there is a movie based on the same novel. Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz star in it. Although I haven’t seen it, I am already interested in the movie! If you have ever seen it before, please tell me!

Nanako

Snow Falling On Cedars

Snow Falling On Cedars

     This story was written by an American writer, David Guterson, and a film was made in 1999. The genre is fiction drama, and the theme is predujice. the main characters are Carl Heine is a fisherman and was found died, Kabuo Miyamoto is Japanese American and also fisherman, his wife Hatsuyo, and Ishmael Chambers who is a reporter. These characters are on the island called San Piedro, and Carl found died after the end of the world war II. The plot is that Carl was found died near his boat, and Kabuo was arrested as a suspect of the accident because of these four reasons such as he was Japanese American, he was fishing at the same time as Carl, on carl's head there was injury and seemed as if it was made by hitting by someone who was good at Kendo, and there was Kabuo's family's money problem which was renting the land from Carl's family. But actually, Kabuo was not the suspect, then how to proof that? It is the most interesting part of this book. Kabuo's wife, Hatsuyo and Ishmeal are friends since they were students, and because of the predujice made by Hatsuyo's mother they could not be together, so Hatsuyo married Kabuo. Ishmeal loves Hatsuyo and he found the biggest key to proof Kabuo's innocent. At the court, do you think Ishmeal will tell the truth, even though Kabuo is Carl's lover's husband? you should find the answer.

     Prejudice can happen everywhere in our life, ans it makes us feel bad, but if there is no prejudice, there would be no war. From this book, I learned how it is difficult to fight against the prejudice in my heart. Predujice gives nothing good or nice to us. If you read this book, you will get the feeling I got.