Monday, April 27, 2015

All the Light We Cannot See


When I photographed the above group of books, I planned on writing a bit about my eclectic taste in literature, and briefly sharing thoughts on each title.  As usual, I am little behind.  The book I had planned on ending with, and profess to be the best book I read in 2014, has won the Pulitzer.  Wow...need I go further?

Congratulations to Anthony Doerr on winning the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

There are so many summaries and reviews of All the Light We Cannot See,  I am seriously out of my league.  But, you know I'm going to jump off that cliff anyway.

Doerr transports us into the horrors and devastation of World War II with vivid detailed motion, alternating the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner Pfennig.  The young blind Marie-Laure, and her father leave Paris just as the Nazis enter the city.   Seeking refuge with a great uncle in the seaside town of Saint-Malo,  they carry with them a possession the Nazis are desperately seeking.

 Werner, an orphan, is recruited to join the Hitler Youth academy.   When it is discovered he is an expert at building and repairing radios, he is sent on special assignment to track the opposition.  In the field, Werner witnesses the heinous acts man will commit during war.  Following radio transmissions, he is brought to Saint-Malo where the two stories cross.

All the Light We Cannot See is definitely the best book I've read in awhile. 
What I liked:  The intense escalating narrative and well developed characters.
What I wanted:  More.

  If you haven't read it...pick it up at your local bookstore/library, set aside a day or two,  grab your favorite snack and beverage, and get comfortable.  Once drawn in you will lose all sense of time and space.  Have I convinced you?

Have you read All the Light We Cannot See?  I would love to hear your thoughts.


I'm reading Sandford Friedman's Conversations With Beethoven, and getting ready to pick-up  My Sunshine Away, M.O Walsh this week.

What are you reading?

Have a lovely week!


5 comments:

  1. Hello Bonnie,
    Thanks for your book review. I have not read All The Light We Cannot See yet. It sounds gripping.
    I am slowly reading Middlemarch and,with getting ready for our cupcoming art show in June, I have little time but as you know we must always have a book
    Helen xx

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  2. Yes! You convinced me so just added All the Light We Cannot See to my must read list! Sounds really good.

    I'm currently reading The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen after just finishing a memoir set in Haines, Alaska.

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  3. Bonnie, yes I read this also and enjoyed it very much!

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  4. you have a beautiful way with words!!! you do!!!!

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  5. Dear Bonnie - I am certainly going to put that book on my must read list. Currently I have discovered Karen White's novels. They take place in the south and I am loving them. Have a wonderful week. Thanks for sharing.

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