I drove some of you a little nuts yesterday by talking or I guess, not talking about a book and not telling you what the book I was not talking about was.
That was kind of the point.
Yesterdays post was not about the book, as I titled the post. Discussing the book – would have taken away from my point. The book discussion is what originally brings us together… but through the years so much more has come out of these monthly literary gatherings.
Today.
Today I will talk about the book.
Our book club just read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I did not personally get a chance to read it however the discussion that came from this book definitely held my interest.
A quick synopsis:
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. ~ as described on Amazon
The Bookies book club had a deep discussion on what life was like for Marie-Laure and what an amazing father she had. I had heard this book made for excellent book club discussion, and observing this without having read the book myself confirmed this. The questions flowed freely and everyone had thoughts on the book, even sharing person stories of relatives that they had connected to the war.
Suzanne in our groups said, “Choosing not to read this book is a crime against humanity.”
That is a pretty powerful statement.
Over all the Bookies rated this a 3.9 out of 5. For the most part they thought it was a slow start to the book and hard to get into until you get beyond page 50. Some felt it took longer than that. Once into it however, it seemed that almost everyone found the book very good.
I plan to still read this.
Book Journey 
i’ve heard the audiobook of it is really good – its on my to-listen 2016 pile i think
It’s a beautiful book. I hope you get to read it.
This book is on my TBR. Looking forward to reading it.
I just finished reading this book and concluded it was my best book of the year. It is definitely a ‘must read’.
This is a popular one, one I want to read. I’m still so up in the air about my first book of the year. The past two years I really knew but for 2016, I feel clueless. I do kind if want to read a never before tried author. Hmmm…
I love that your book club takes notes!
I was one of the commenters who asked what book it was. So glad you decided to share it with us. Sorry I’m so nosy! 🙂
I have been noticing this one around…I am not sure I would enjoy it, but it does sound like a powerful story.
I agree that it was a little hard to get into. But my problem was more with the staccato cadence than with the story. I still ended up giving it a 3.5/4.
I think I should have stuck with it. I started it but put it down.
Thanks for solving the mystery, Sheila..That exact book has been sitting on my shelf for some month, given to me by my daughter after she finished it. I will now definitely move it from the TBR pile to the Now Reading Pile. Your book club reminds me of Literate Ladies, a club which I have been part of since the mid-80’s. We are now all in our mid 70’s to early 80’s! Our November read was Lolita!!! with mixed reviews…
I read this amazing novel in July 2014 and gave it a perfect rating of 5/5 stars. From my blog entry, I wrote:
This gorgeous novel is destined to become a classic! Doerr’s luminescent prose brings to mind Pat Conroy’s lyrical descriptions in Beach Music, another all-time favorite of mine. I loved Doerr’s finely crafted and unpredictable story and look forward to reading some of his other works, as well as listening to the audio edition of All the Light We Cannot See. Yes, another World War II novel, but I strongly encourage everyone to read this dazzling novel. Quite simply, it’s a masterpiece.
I hope you find the time to read it, Sheila. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!
My spouse just wrote a mega paper on this book and I think it was one of the best books of 2015. My review’s at Goodreads. Could it be shorter? perhaps. Is it easy? No. Would it be better audio? Maybe. Is it worth reading? O yes!
I’m one of the few (there are a few of us, lest I think I was the odd man out) who did not care for this book. I could appreciate the writing, but I was bored with the story. I persevered because it had such high acclaim, but then was annoyed with the ending. A book that takes place during the same time frame that I loved was The Nightingale.
It’s good learn about the book (most of) your book club read! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, Sheila.
We can’t all love the same kind of book, but I am one of the many who listened to the audio and loved it. Yes it is long, but so beautiful. Parts of it were very hard to read as are all books about the Nazi occupation and how it affected all who had to live through it. It is one of my “best of the year.”