I had the idea that this book was going to be too sad to read, so I'd put it off until now. I think I'd read the blurb describing the book and got the sense that something sad was going to happen to the two sisters, so I was ready for it to be depressing. And it was sad, since Katie's sister Lynn dies of cancer as a teenager. But somehow, maybe since the book was being narrated from the perspective of the younger sister Katie, most of the book was hopeful and joyous and filled with her memories and stories of how their lives were when they were growing up together and how much they loved each other. I loved how kind the siblings all were in their family, and how they looked out for each other while their parents were working so much. I also loved how they did their best to be a happy family, even in the face of these terrible odds, with no money and awful jobs and a daughter sick with cancer. I really liked her parents and their determination to make ends meet and to be good people. I also really liked how the characters and setting were unique: a Japanese family in Georgia in the 1960s--not a combination I would have expected--and how the narrator had Katie speaking with a Southern drawl, even though they were Japanese. This was one that I enjoyed a lot more than I expected and that probably would have made me cry if I hadn't been listening to it.
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