The Light Between Oceans By M.L. Stedman - Starting September 1st 2016

[Abi]

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.

The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel

[Abby]

Getting this tomorrow at the library. Would love to join!

[Abby]

The library showed the book as being in yesterday, but when I went today to get it, someone had already gotten it. :(

[Mona]

@Abby feel free to join anytime you want

[Mona]

started this yesterday but I find it a little bit hard to read. trying again tonight.

[Tati]

I'll join you!

[Mona]

@Tati welcome :D

[Mona]

finished chapter 1 I struggled a bit in the beginning. hope it will be smoother.

[Mona]

chapter 4

(view spoiler)[ Isabel she is so brave. a girl in 1920 who try to reach the guy she likes and the first to send him a letter is absolutely a brave one. I like her :D (hide spoiler)]

[Tati]

I've read the prologue, and I really hope the writing improves

[Mona]

@Tati Same here I struggled a bit then I started from the beginning and read the map at the first page

[Mona]

chapter 6
(view spoiler)[
I can't decide of Tom character. he seems a good guy first he saved the girl on the ship. then he didn't take advantage of Isabel when she asked him to marry her. he wouldn't want her to regret anything. but still I can't trust him why a 28 young man choose to a isolate himself on an island for a whole year. he is absolutely effected somehow by the horriblness of the war. (hide spoiler)]

[Tati]

26% (view spoiler)[ I'm not really in knowing how they ended up together or how they ended up at the Light. I want to move on, to know about the baby and the consequences mentioned on the blurb. (hide spoiler)]

[Tati]

32% - this is verging on the insane! (view spoiler)[ am I the only one that is not liking Isabel?? Has she even stopped to think that, somewhere, a mother might be desperately missing her baby?? (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

chapter 8
(view spoiler)[
poor Tom. he waited for 13 years to be free and search for his mother. And when he finally finds her it was too late she was dead. (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

chapter 9
(view spoiler)[ Tom he is sweet... the piano gesture was so nice of him. and she thought he brought a doctor. (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

chapter 15
(view spoiler)[ what are they going to do now after knowing the baby's real family. this is so messed up. it in not fair to the mother or to the Sherbournes either. (hide spoiler)]

[Tati]

Up to chapter 28 - this book should be discussed in an Ethics class. I don't even know where to begin...

[Tati]

87% (view spoiler)[ she is going to do something crazy, isn't she? And Tom taking the fall for her is grating on my nerves. (hide spoiler)]

[Tati]

91% (view spoiler)[ It's official. I despise Isabel. (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

Tati wrote: "Up to chapter 28 - this book should be discussed in an Ethics class. I don't even know where to begin..."

Is it a good thing or a bad thing. I myself think that is one of the greatest book I have read and I'm still only halfway through it.

[Tati]

The Ethics part is interesting. As for the book, I really didn't like it.

[Mona]

Victoria wrote: "Chapters 1 - 9

The first few chapters were so incredibly slow that I found it hard to stay engaged in it. I didn't understand the point of many of those chapters. I feel as if his single life cou..."
I'm so sorry for your loss. No words or emotions can express the loss of a child. I know Isabel not good person but also I can't fault her.

[Mona]

Victoria wrote: "Chapters 10 - 18

I can understand why she feels so compelled to keep the baby after having suffered so many miscarriages and a stillbirth, but how can the sense of guilt not be gnawing away at Is..."
(view spoiler)[ maybe her super selfishness comes from that Lucy is her only chance. I just hate her when she trying to soften Tom by making him feel guilty because the isolation in the island or because he survived the war. (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

Tati wrote: "32% - this is verging on the insane! [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ I understand you. And Isabel she think of the baby as a consolation prize or a gift. There is no any guilt or regret her. (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

chapter 26
(view spoiler)[
Tom deserved to suffer for what he had done. And he himself had handed her the weapons.
she is absolutely out of her mind. now I really can't stand her. poor Tom. (hide spoiler)]

[Mona]

chapter 34
(view spoiler)[ This so so messed up. she can't choose. how is this even possible. Tom or Lucy I just can't imagine. (hide spoiler)]