From the Bookshelf of 2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge…

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Start date: January 1, 2020

Finish date: January 31, 2020

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Jan 12, 2015 Eileen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, favorites, 2015, historical-fiction, world-war-ii-world-war-i

I listened to the audio book version of this book and was very confused because the car started randomizing the files after the first 10 or so files. It had already been jumping around in time and in character, so I had a hard time getting into it because I couldn't always remember who anyone was. I eventually discovered the error when I picked up the paper book in the store, so I stopped about 2/3 of the way through and started all over, this time listening to them in correct order. This time I ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 02, 2018 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pulitzer-winners

Although I felt a profound sadness reading this story, by the end, I was left with this feeling of hope, and I think that’s Doerr’s everlasting message.

All the Light We Cannot See is beautifully written and I am certain that some scenes will remain forever in my mind. This is a story that takes the reader into a world of war and the struggles of the characters evokes such a compassion that it’s timeless.

Doerr’s prose takes a gruesome war and uses it as a backdrop for lessons of hope and love, ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 17, 2014 Erin Rae L'Hommedieu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: have

This is literally the most superbly written book I've ever read. Well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize it won. It took me twice as long to read this cuz I found myself re-reading entire paragraphs because... OMG - that metaphor! That turn of phrase! That one-liner dropped at the end of a chapter that leaves you stunned, or thoughtful, or hell - this whole book was one giant word-gasm! The plot wasn't half bad either. I want to cut out all of the pages and frame them on my walls. I want to give th ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 23, 2015 Colette rated it it was amazing

"Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever."

Simply a beautiful read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 31, 2015 Tanya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015, challenge-2015-popsugar

Quotes I liked:

“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.” (84)

"I don't want to make trouble, Madame."
"Isn't doing nothing a kind of troublemaking?"
"Doing nothing is doing nothing."
"Doing nothing is as good as collaborating."
The wind gust ...more

Like · see review