Intro to 'The Light We Cannot See'

[Danyell]

To kick the year off right, we are starting with the Pulitzer Prize winner and 2014 Goodreads Choice Award winner All the Light We Cannot See. Very briefly, it is about "a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II."

Tune in NEXT TUESDAY, January 12th, 2016, for our first discussion! While we do not require that you read at a specific pace, keep in mind that anything covered on this date will be within the first third of this book (approx. pages 1-176).

[Brittni]

I'm excited! I just picked up one of 4 copies from the Winamac library...thinking I'll have to convince some of the girls back home to join!!

[Andrea]

Just downloaded to my kindle app!!!

[Danyell]

Andrea wrote: "Just downloaded to my kindle app!!!"
Yay!!!! Its a totally different book than what I would normally read (but that's the point of book clubs, right? haha). Are you enjoying the book??

Brittni wrote: "I'm excited! I just picked up one of 4 copies from the Winamac library...thinking I'll have to convince some of the girls back home to join!!"
Please do!! Invite everyone :)

[Andrea]

Danyell - I'm still getting into the book and learning the characters. I think it's going to be good though!

[Jillian]

30ish pages in, and I'd be fully prepared to chuck the book out the window...if that wouldn't result in paying the public library $30. Here's to hoping the story picks up in the near future!

[Danyell]

Jillian wrote: "30ish pages in, and I'd be fully prepared to chuck the book out the window...if that wouldn't result in paying the public library $30. Here's to hoping the story picks up in the near future!"
Jillian, are you further in now? Are you enjoying it any better?

[Charlotte]

The writing is beautiful. The style is fluid, like candy for the eyes, but it's still a bit too contemplative for me. It's not that I would need it to be action-packed but I am still waiting for the two characters to be linked in some ways even after 200 pages. I hope things will form some sort of a coherent whole soon. (FYI, I'm at p. 220 now)

I grew very attached to Marie-Laurence especially through her relationship with her father and Etienne. It sucks that she's stuck for so long in the St-Malo house though, it makes her storyline a bit boring in my opinion. I'm less attached to Werner but as a history buff, I love the descriptions of his experience as part of the Hitlerian Youths. I prefer his relationship with Fred than with Jutta, who appears pretty blank and cold so far.

What do you guys think will happen? What's with the 1944 cameo? What do we have to make of it? (No spoilers please lol)

[Danyell]

Charlotte wrote: "The writing is beautiful. The style is fluid, like candy for the eyes, but it's still a bit too contemplative for me. It's not that I would need it to be action-packed but I am still waiting for th..."
I am about 400 pages in, almost done, and it is just now getting interesting.

All of the character building, world building, everything so far should hopefully lead to a big conclusion. But that's all I can hope for.

I want to love this book so much because of the wonderful reviews and the raving people who say I should stick with it, but I'm not sure I will in the end.

Is anyone done yet? I will hopefully finish up this weekend. For those who have completed it (or even those who have given up) what are your thoughts??

[Charlotte]

I'm now 300 pages in. Marie-Laure's father makes me recall the beautiful film "Life is beautiful" on a father and his son forced into a concentration camp. Pretty heart wrenching, that and Frederick's disappearance. I'm starting to feel a bit more for the characters. I hope that the end will be satisfying too. If not; then at least the writing in itself is great, despite the tedious plot line.