Sleeping on Potatoes

Rating:
Summary: much more than a memoir
Review: Carl Nomura has a delightfully wry sense of humor, which bubbles to the surface at surprising moments, to bring a chuckle or a giggle to the dust & dirt of the American experience of being the wrong kind of people.

SLEEPING ON POTATOES: A Lumpy Adventure from Manzanar to the Corporate Tower, is a memoir which needed to be told. It is written with brief, luminous strokes, alarming & wry, telling of one man's path through the unique American white water of prejudice, as well as the best revenge -- of living the good life & thriving!

Rebeccasreads highly recommends SLEEPING ON POTATOES as much more than a memoir, it is the sum of one feisty & interesting Spirit's sojourn on earth & how he'd like to be remembered.

Rating:
Summary: much more than a memoir
Review: Carl Nomura has a delightfully wry sense of humor, which bubbles to the surface at surprising moments, to bring a chuckle or a giggle to the dust & dirt of the American experience of being the wrong kind of people.

SLEEPING ON POTATOES: A Lumpy Adventure from Manzanar to the Corporate Tower, is a memoir which needed to be told. It is written with brief, luminous strokes, alarming & wry, telling of one man's path through the unique American white water of prejudice, as well as the best revenge -- of living the good life & thriving!

Rebeccasreads highly recommends SLEEPING ON POTATOES as much more than a memoir, it is the sum of one feisty & interesting Spirit's sojourn on earth & how he'd like to be remembered.

Rating:
Summary: Sleeping On Potatoes...that were not mashed!
Review: I will always be thankful I met Carl Nomura in the sixties. He was professional inspiration to me and encouraged me to leave industry and get my doctorate. Now I know what he went through as a young man after reading his wonderful book. So you may think my review is biased. It is not.

The book is simply fantastic! I could not put it down. I have passed it all around my family and recommended it to many friends. How could one man go through all that and wind-up a super engineer, manager, farmer, and now author?? He is blessed and we are blessed to share his memories.

Rating:
Summary: Sleeping on Potatoes
Review: I've known Carl Nomura for 20 years, seen various versions of this book and watched him grow as a writer. With this book, he's really done it. Sleeping on Potatoes is humorous, touching, poignant and readable. I particularly love Carl's description of his childhood as son of Japanese immigrants. Equally facinating are the years of internment during World War II. Never bitter, often whimsical, Carl gives us a touching picture of people unfairly interned. Ultimately Carl went on to earn a PhD and a postion as executive in a large corporation -- an amazing leap from his early lumpier bed.

Rating:
Summary: Life is about relationship...
Review: Nomura's sparse style of writing is not unlike the character of a differential equation expressing the essential. He cuts to his distilled memory and leaves the residue of honed understanding through the filter of life experience. His life is an engaging tale; to me it seems a Horatio Alger story of the Japanese American community. He was born in a boxcar in Montana, was dislocated to Japanese internment camps and made the journey to Corporate Senior Vice President for Honeywell Corporation. Now he contributes to his community in Port Townsend, Washington in very beneficial ways, besides enjoying his own interests, family and travel.

His story brings greater understanding and deep appreciation of the diversity of our American culture by his unflinching exposure of his own family history. Nomura recounts with accuracy the emotional pain, isolation and dislocation from traditional Japanese culture in the struggle for the promise of a better life in America. He voices his life experience with insight and humor, which is the great expression of the commonality of the human experience seen through the filter of a kind mathematician.

He tells his story, even including poetry, which supports understanding and intimacy through his selected descriptions of challenging moments about his cultural heritage, marriage, family and career. In the end the real meaning and importance of life is about relationship.

But most of all I think this book, Sleeping on Potatoes is worthy of recognition for his dedicated and talented effort to build links of understanding between cultures, family, relationships and the poetic spirit of a curious mind.

Rating:
Summary: Nomura's Odyssey
Review: This book is a winner. Sleeping on Potatoes is more than a winsome collection of captivating stories. This anecdotal history of Carl Nomura depicts a personal odyssey. Nomura's unusual journey, from a railroad boxcar through internment camp, to physics labs and corporate boardrooms, seems to have honed his gifts as observer and storyteller. The ability of the human spirit to take on life's challenges is revealed with candor, wit and mystery. Nomura believes that life is a journey filled with adventure and opportunities for making courageous decisions that can make a difference in one's life. A great read - it was difficult to put down.