From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Start date: January 1, 2020

Finish date: January 31, 2020

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What Members Thought

Nov 14, 2014 Annet rated it really liked it

Shelves: literature-pure, dark, coming-of-age, age-ing

A heartbreaking, exceptional, beautiful book, this haunting World War II story of a blind girl and an orphaned boy. I am not a reader of war books, but I saw so many exceptional reviews by my goodreads friends, that I decided I needed to try it. It was terrible to read through the progress of war and the suffering of the characters in the book. I didn't really like it at the start. Especially the last 100 or so pages, at the last stages of the war and after the war, really got to me. I loved the ...more

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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

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Nov 12, 2014 Booksdigger S rated it it was amazing

Shelves: loved-them, i-own-it

Omg! I think this is the most beautiful book I have read this year. It's a historical fiction , a story about two orphan children. One a blind girl the other a boy who becomes a Nazi soldier. A very well written book with captivating chapters. The words are so beautifully written that at times it makes you teary eyed and at times you find yourself laughing. I give this book a 5 star. ...more

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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

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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

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