All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 530 Pages
15) A Pulitzer-Prize winning book
I've now had quite a while to mull over my thoughts for this book and my love has not lessened.
When I was nearing the climax I was literally unable to turn the pages fast enough. I'm pretty sure it's a miracle I didn't completely tear out some of the pages I was trying to flip faster. The Pulitzer-Prize was very well deserved and this is one of the best books I've ever read.
The book tells the story about two young people who grow up during the second World War. One is a Marie-Laure, a blind french girl with a loving father who makes a miniature of their neighborhood so that she can navigate Paris. The other is Werner, a german orphan who is incredibly bright but because of his social status will seemingly die in the mines like his father. Anthony Doerr intertwines their stories perfectly and shows us just what it may have been like to grow up in such a time. All The Light We Cannot See is not completely a reference to Marie-Laure being blind, it's also about the literal light our brain cannot see. But it's also about all the stories and lives we cannot possibly know. It's about how others touch our lives is such significant ways but we will never know. It's about all the goodness that seems a miracle but has some meaning we cannot understand.
My love for WWII Historical Fiction was enough to make me want to read this book and the writing style was more than enough to hook me for the whole 530 pages. The chapters are short so it felt like I flew through this book in four days.
I don't know guys, sometimes a book is just so beautiful that I'm left speachless. That's why I put off writing this review, in hopes that some coherent thoughts and meditations would manifest themselves. All The Light We Cannot See is that book.
At risk of sounding juvenile I want to point out something. There are a lot of young adult books now a days that center on a group of people being oppressed because they are slightly different. I've read a lot this year already. I think we have a tendency to say, "That could never happen in our world. We would never make slaves out of people with red blood if we had silver or gold (Red Queen and Golden Son) THIS IS NOT A FANTASY. This happened, this STILL happens.
"Entropy is the degree of randomness or disorder in a system, Doctor."
His eyes fix on Werner's for a heartbeat, a glance both warm and chilling. "Disorder. You hear the commandant say it. You hear your bunk masters say it. There must be order. Life is chaos, gentleman. And what we represent is an ordering to that chaos. Even sown to the genes. We are ordering the evolution of the species. Winnowing out the inferior, the unruly, the chaff. This is the great project of the Reich, the greatest project human beings have ever embarked on."
Hauptmann writes on the blackboard. The cadets inscribe the words into their composition books. The entropy of a closed system never decreases.
(Page 240)
The Book Thief has been my favorite book for years and years now, but I think All The Light We Cannot See may be my new favorite book. Well done Mr. Doerr, well done.
"Do you think, Madame, that in heaven we will really get to see God face-to-face?"
"We might."
"What if you're blind?"
"I'd expect that if God wants us to see something, we'll see it."
(Page 292)
Read on,
Jamie
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Red Queen & The Fault in our Stars
Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard - 383 pages
19) A book you choose based entirely on it's cover
I mean, come on, just look at it.
I choose this book with one look at the cover. Between the picture and the tag line they had me hook line and sinker. I won't lie though, I thought it was going to be historical fiction. Like, one of the powerful and scary queens of history. Buuuuut it was fantasy. That's okay though, just not at all what I was expecting. I didn't even read the flap or any kind of synopsis until I was almost finished, which was good because it pretty much gives half the book away.
This is going to be hard for me personally to review this book without giving out spoilers. So, I'll settle for some comparisons.
But first, I've found a very profound similarity in some of the books I've read this year. It basically comes down to slavery and oppression. One group is thought to be superior because they have magic or different colored blood and the other (which is usually just like us now-a-days) are their slaves. The Winner's Curse, Red Rising, and Mistborn are all like this. (AND a historical fiction book I just finished but is getting it's own post because it was that good)
When it comes down to it, Red Queen is like a Young Adult version of Red Rising/Golden Son with the powers of the X-men. The upper class is basically made out of mutants with silver blood instead of red. Besides that, they look the exact same.
I struggle with how much to give away since I knew NOTHING. But I do have to get something off my chest. The "plot twist" in this book was more obvious than Voldemort's missing nose. I mean, come on, that was supposed to shock me? (Tilt your screen to see the spoiler (((We've all seen Thor. We've all seen this play out before. You could've replaced "Cal" and "Maven" with "Thor" and "Loki" and you'd have a slight retelling of the comics. No duh the younger always overlooked brother with the evil mother betrayed you. And yet, since I love Loki, I tried to like Maven...didn't quite work out.)))) End spoiler.
This book has gotten a lot of flack for being too much like Red Rising. You know, I don't think they're THAT much alike. I get it. The blood color, the oppression of Reds, the infiltration of the upper class by an impostor, heck, even Darrow and Barrow sound the same. But ya know what? I was able to look past that and see them as different things.
My real problem was looking past some of the improbable escapes and whiney characters. There were a couple times I had to roll my eyes or shrug off things that just didn't make sense.
I think this book was a good start. The middle tended to drag, but the end picked up nicely and was a nice set up for another the sequel (my favorites). If nothing else, I hope the cover is as attractive as this one.
The Fault in our Stars - John Green - 313 pages
36) A book everybody has read but me
Okay, I'm kind of scared to review tFioS. As is mentioned above, just about everyone I know who reads has read this book and loves it fiercely. It shocked my friends when I finally told them I haven't read it (or seen the movie). This story is protected by fanatics of all sorts so I'm scared to share my opinion. Honestly though, it just felt like being stabbed. It was so painful. My uncle died from brain cancer a couple of years ago and his loss is still very real. So it didn't help when it felt like certain lines were written to force you to cry. I mean, it's enough to say "The new CD of so-and-so's favorite band was leaked early", you don't have to continue with "So-and-so will never get to hear this now because they're dead", we're smart enough to put that together...When this book was witty and clever, it was amazing. I finally connected to the characters a couple of chapters before the end. At it's heart, this book is a love story. It's about two characters who fall in love even though they know it won't last. The title is a reference to Romeo and Juliet. Green contends that Shakespeare was wrong when he wrote that the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves. According to the characters of this book the fault is indeed, in our stars. Sorry, but I've got to stand with the bard on this one.
I've read John Green a couple of times before, but every time I get a slight feeling that I just don't get it. His writing is clever and I love that and his blog is very entertaining, but his stories leave me wanting. In the end, I thought it was a good book, better than Paper Towns, but I still don't understand the need to wear the quotes on your clothes.
Don't kill me.
Read on,
Jamie
19) A book you choose based entirely on it's cover
I mean, come on, just look at it.
I choose this book with one look at the cover. Between the picture and the tag line they had me hook line and sinker. I won't lie though, I thought it was going to be historical fiction. Like, one of the powerful and scary queens of history. Buuuuut it was fantasy. That's okay though, just not at all what I was expecting. I didn't even read the flap or any kind of synopsis until I was almost finished, which was good because it pretty much gives half the book away.
This is going to be hard for me personally to review this book without giving out spoilers. So, I'll settle for some comparisons.
But first, I've found a very profound similarity in some of the books I've read this year. It basically comes down to slavery and oppression. One group is thought to be superior because they have magic or different colored blood and the other (which is usually just like us now-a-days) are their slaves. The Winner's Curse, Red Rising, and Mistborn are all like this. (AND a historical fiction book I just finished but is getting it's own post because it was that good)
When it comes down to it, Red Queen is like a Young Adult version of Red Rising/Golden Son with the powers of the X-men. The upper class is basically made out of mutants with silver blood instead of red. Besides that, they look the exact same.
I struggle with how much to give away since I knew NOTHING. But I do have to get something off my chest. The "plot twist" in this book was more obvious than Voldemort's missing nose. I mean, come on, that was supposed to shock me? (Tilt your screen to see the spoiler (((We've all seen Thor. We've all seen this play out before. You could've replaced "Cal" and "Maven" with "Thor" and "Loki" and you'd have a slight retelling of the comics. No duh the younger always overlooked brother with the evil mother betrayed you. And yet, since I love Loki, I tried to like Maven...didn't quite work out.)))) End spoiler.
This book has gotten a lot of flack for being too much like Red Rising. You know, I don't think they're THAT much alike. I get it. The blood color, the oppression of Reds, the infiltration of the upper class by an impostor, heck, even Darrow and Barrow sound the same. But ya know what? I was able to look past that and see them as different things.
My real problem was looking past some of the improbable escapes and whiney characters. There were a couple times I had to roll my eyes or shrug off things that just didn't make sense.
I think this book was a good start. The middle tended to drag, but the end picked up nicely and was a nice set up for another the sequel (my favorites). If nothing else, I hope the cover is as attractive as this one.
The Fault in our Stars - John Green - 313 pages
36) A book everybody has read but me
Okay, I'm kind of scared to review tFioS. As is mentioned above, just about everyone I know who reads has read this book and loves it fiercely. It shocked my friends when I finally told them I haven't read it (or seen the movie). This story is protected by fanatics of all sorts so I'm scared to share my opinion. Honestly though, it just felt like being stabbed. It was so painful. My uncle died from brain cancer a couple of years ago and his loss is still very real. So it didn't help when it felt like certain lines were written to force you to cry. I mean, it's enough to say "The new CD of so-and-so's favorite band was leaked early", you don't have to continue with "So-and-so will never get to hear this now because they're dead", we're smart enough to put that together...When this book was witty and clever, it was amazing. I finally connected to the characters a couple of chapters before the end. At it's heart, this book is a love story. It's about two characters who fall in love even though they know it won't last. The title is a reference to Romeo and Juliet. Green contends that Shakespeare was wrong when he wrote that the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves. According to the characters of this book the fault is indeed, in our stars. Sorry, but I've got to stand with the bard on this one.
I've read John Green a couple of times before, but every time I get a slight feeling that I just don't get it. His writing is clever and I love that and his blog is very entertaining, but his stories leave me wanting. In the end, I thought it was a good book, better than Paper Towns, but I still don't understand the need to wear the quotes on your clothes.
Don't kill me.
Read on,
Jamie
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