Finding the value of old books

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rare Book Buyer: Free Evaluations for OLD & RARE Books. If you are Selling Rare Books, Email us Second Ave Gallery 93, New York, NY The Rare Book Department is one of the largest public library special collections in the United States. Since , our mission has been to collect and preserve.
 
 

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Soble Rare Book Collection, Soble The group may have exempted local widows and orphans’ funds earlier, but the earliest available constitution only. Here are the free book appraisal resources you’ve been searching for. Find out how to value your old books and see if you have something special. We also stock antique maps and prints, mostly English county maps, and local views. ABA, ILAB, and PBFA member. Search their books.

 

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Just enter your email and we’ll take care of the rest: Please enter a valid email address Please select a newsletter Subscribe. Firaxis delays Marvel’s Midnight Suns, maybe until The game was previously scheduled to launch this October. Fingas , Dent , Steam is finally adding support for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers You can use the gamepads individually or as a matched pair. Microsoft helps game devs pull more performance from the Xbox Series S More access to memory could overcome limitations for some games.

Blizzard may have canceled a ‘World of Warcraft’ mobile spinoff updated The project had been in the works for three years. By Engadget , Buckley , The best PlayStation 5 games for Load up your new console with these excellent titles.

This one was an interesting story but not an engaging one. I couldn’t connect to the characters and the plot seemed to stretch on forever without making much progress.

We spend so much time building to the ending for that moment to occur I feel like I wasted my time. Also, it really bothers me when such tragedies are capitalized and twisted to fit some glorifying narrative.

It feels just a bit odd to turn truly horrifying events into something beautiful and poetical. I feel like there’s a real danger to viewing events through rose tinted glasses. Audiobook Comments Read by Zach Appelman – it was alright. The voice was so monotone that listening became rather difficult at times. Dec 02, Emily May rated it really liked it Shelves: historical , modern-lit , In fact, my first attempt to read it last year ended with me putting it aside and going to find something easier, lighter and less descriptive to read.

I know – meh, what a quitter. But this book is built on beautiful imagery. It’s woven with scientific and philosophical references to light, to seeing and not seeing, and the differences between the two. It’s a beautiful work of genius, but it does get a little dense at times; the prose bloated by details.

However, when we get into the meat of this WWII novel, it’s also the harrowing story of a childhood torn apart by war. It’s about Parisian Marie-Laure who has been blind since she was six years old, and a German orphan called Werner who finds himself at the centre of the Hitler Youth. Both of their stories are told with sensitivity and sympathy, each one forced down a path by their personal circumstances and by that destructive monster – war.

I think this is the kind of book you will never appreciate if you stop too soon – I learned that lesson. From the first to last page, there is a running theme of interconnectedness, of invisible lines running parallel to one another and sometimes, just sometimes, crossing in the strangest of ways.

These two lives we are introduced to seem to be worlds apart, and yet they come together and influence one another. It was this, more than the predictably awful tale of war, that made me feel quite emotional. All the Light We Cannot See is haunting. That’s how I would describe it. From the chillingly beautiful prose, to the realization of what the title actually means: that underneath the surface of history, there is light – and stories – that have not been seen; that have gone untold.

Scientifically, we only see a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum; historically, we only see a small portion of the story. Oct 17, Melanie rated it it was amazing. I always thought, or imagined, that there were these invisible lines trembling in our wake, outlining our trajectories through life, throbbing with electric energy. Lines that sometimes cross one other, or follow in parallel ellipses without ever touching, or meet up for one brief moment and then part.

A universe of lines crisscrossing in the void. Anthony Doerr’s astonishing new novel “All The Light We Cannot See” follows the complex arcs of two such invisible lines through the lives of Werner P I always thought, or imagined, that there were these invisible lines trembling in our wake, outlining our trajectories through life, throbbing with electric energy.

Through riveting flash forwards and flash backs, the novel charters the course of their lives as they struggle to find out wether it is possible to really own your life when it is swallowed by the black holes of history. One is driven by a deep love of science while the other is inhabited by the power of books. In the midst of the rise of German fascism and the birth of the French Resistance, how does youth manage to stay true to its essence?

A war story, a coming-of-age story, a philosophical fable, this is a novel that constantly oscillates between the moral uncertainties of life and the chiselled precision of the natural world that surrounds us.

Between the political morass of war and the stupendous beauty of organisms, the ocean, the human brain. The language is so fantastically precise – Anthony Doerr does things with verbs that make entire paragraphs sing – that the visual component of this book is quite astounding. In the end, what this novel illuminates is the miraculous impact that seminal events have on the rest of our lives, whether it be the magic of radio broadcasts on the mysteries of science or the extraordinary adventures of Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”.

Oct 18, Michael Finocchiaro rated it did not like it Shelves: pulitzer-fiction , novels , americanst-c , carnegie-medal-winner , fiction , pulitzer-winning-fiction. Honestly, wtf? I mean, we all know the blind person trope Daredevil, etc and the lovable Nazi trope Hiroshima Mon Amour and the mystical object searched for by evil Nazis trope Indiana Jones , so why throw all of these together? The book was readable but no more so than a pulp fiction thriller.

Honestly, I don’t see this as being Pulitzer quality. The characters were ok, the narration interesting, but a masterpiece? The best US fiction in ? Perhaps not. And please don’t accuse me of bei Honestly, wtf? Might as well give Bob Dylan a Nobel for Literature while you are at it Still not happy with this one.

Sorry, but I just cannot appreciate it. In retrospect, Doerr’s bestseller Cloud Cuckoo Land was far, far better than this one, but still suffered from being predictable and having paperthin character development. Jul 24, Rick Riordan rated it it was amazing. Adult fiction This book is getting a lot of well-deserved attention for its unique story and its beautiful writing. Our two main characters are Marie Laure, a blind French girl who fled here with her uncle from Paris, and Werner, a radio expert in the German army who is stuck in the city when the attack begins.

We jump back and forth in time, and between the two char Adult fiction This book is getting a lot of well-deserved attention for its unique story and its beautiful writing. If you like straight-ahead, linear, plot-driven war novels, this is not the book for you. It does have a central plot that brings the two characters together — a mystery about a possibly magic gem hunted by an evil, terminally ill Nazi officer — but that is almost beside the point. He treats Marie Laure and Werner with equal empathy, and their interaction — when they finally meet — is not your stereotypical wartime love story.

It is much better, much more bittersweet and haunting. View all 36 comments. May 06, Becky rated it it was ok. I’m sure this is going to mark me as a literary dud, but for all the brilliant reviews of this book? I couldn’t really get into it.

The book revolves around Marie-Laure, a blind girl who lives with her father. Her father is the locksmith at the Paris Museum of Natural History, and Marie is raised wholly in the museum and at home. Marie has a semi-idyllic childhood until the Nazi’s invade Paris and she and her father have to flee to another city, where a reclusive uncle lives. Unknown to Marie, he I’m sure this is going to mark me as a literary dud, but for all the brilliant reviews of this book? Unknown to Marie, her father is smuggling the world’s most priceless jewel out of the city on behalf of the museum.

Unfortunately for them, a German soldier is hot on the trail of the jewel, and will go to extreme lengths to find it. Werner is a German orphan who teaches himself everything to do with radios; after repairing a senior-ranking German officer’s radio, he is given entry into a youth academy that trains young soldiers for Hitler’s Army.

He is then drafted to utilize his skills to find resistance armies who are using the radio – but Werner is no soldier and soon realizes the cost of his talent. I found the book somewhat plodding; like you were waiting for something important to happen Eventually Marie and Werner’s stories collide – but only briefly and completely unsatisfactorily.

I’m sure that’s the point – that life is hardly satisfactory, but still. Parts of the book were very interesting – the last third probably kept my attention best. This wasn’t a book that you can’t put down though; very little tension at least for me. Suresh Nair Its tooooooo long and boring.

Highly overwritten. Too many small chapters means lot of white space and paper wastage. Keep it concise and tight. Disap Its tooooooo long and boring. Mar 18, Jenna rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , to-review , arc , netgalley , 5-stars-baby , historical-fiction. It has been awhile since I have found a book that I wanted to read slowly so that I could soak in every detail in hopes that the last page seems to never come.

When reading the synopsis of this novel, I never imagined that I would feel so connected to a book where one of the main characters is blind and the other a brilliant young German orphan who was chosen to attend a brutal military academy under Hitler’s power using his innate engineering skills. This novel was so much more than the above st It has been awhile since I have found a book that I wanted to read slowly so that I could soak in every detail in hopes that the last page seems to never come.

This novel was so much more than the above states. The idiosyncrasies of each individual character are so well defined and expressed in such ways that come across the page almost lyrically. I was invited into the pages and could not only imagine the atmosphere, but all of my senses were collectively enticed from the very first page until the last. I was so amazed with the way that the author was able to heighten all my senses in a way that I felt like I knew what it was like to be blind.

In most well-written books you get of a sense of what the characters look like and follow them throughout the book almost as if you are on a voyage, but with this novel, I could imagine what it was like to be in Marie-Laure’s shoes. The descriptives were so beautifully intricate that I could imagine the atmosphere through touch and sound. It was amazing, really. There were so many different aspects of the book that are lived out in separate moments and in different countries that find a way to unite in the end.

What impressed me most was that I could have never predicted the outcome. It was as though all cliches were off the table and real life was set in motion. Life outside of books can be very messy and the author stayed true to life but in a magical and symbolic way. I have said in other reviews that just when I think that I have read my last book centered around the Second World War, another seems to pop up. I should emphasize that this book created an image of war in a way that I have never imagined before.

I truly got a sense of what it must have been like for children who lived a happy life and then suddenly were on curfew and barely had food to eat. It also showed the side of young children who are basically brainwashed by Nazi leaders and made into animals who seem to make choices that they normally wouldn’t in order to survive.

And by survive, I mean dodging severe abuse by their own colleagues. This book may haunt me for some time. I can’t express enough how beautifully written the pages are. I highly recommend this read as it is my favorite so far for I received this book through NetGalley View all 53 comments. Aug 27, Yun rated it it was ok. Knowing this is a much-loved modern classic, let me tread carefully here. How enchanting the story is, how the writing will sweep me off my feet, how I will come away changed as a person.

And I admit, it does have beautiful prose everywhere. But that isn’t enough to save it from being a complete dud. Essentially, a book with more than pages can’t just be made up of nothing but beautiful, flowery, descriptiv Knowing this is a much-loved modern classic, let me tread carefully here.

Essentially, a book with more than pages can’t just be made up of nothing but beautiful, flowery, descriptive prose. Things need to happen, plots need to advance, characters need to grow. But so little of that actually happens in this long book. And when something exciting does happen, there is flowery descriptions and random musings embedded right in the middle of it, slowing down what little forward progress there is.

It reminds me of school assignments back in the day, when I’m told to expand on what I’ve written. But I had no more content, nothing more to say, so I just found different ways to write the same thing over and over, hoping the teacher wouldn’t notice. In this way, I would achieve writing alchemy, turning one sentence into four sentences. And that’s what happened here. The book has a dual timeline, alternating between and the years leading up to it.

But that didn’t really work for me. The story would have been the same told in chronological order, so the switcharoo back and forth, instead of adding tension or suspense, only led to confusion. The odd thing is that is supposed to be the climax of the novel, but those sections are so slow and boring, filled with almost no progression of the storyline, merely descriptions of streets, walking, digging, sitting, hiding So many people love this book, but it just isn’t for me.

I fell asleep multiple times while reading it and almost gave up. It’s the sort of book where you can pick out any page and be impressed by its descriptive beauty, but when you read the whole book it ultimately is tedious and uninteresting.

Jun 11, Caz littlebookowl rated it really liked it. This book was so beautiful and haunting. I fell in love with so many of the characters, and loved how their lives were weaved together.

Knowing the time period this was set in, I knew the ending would hurt. And it did, though I didn’t shed as many tears as I expected. The writing was incredible, the descriptions so vivid. It did a superb job of showing the reader how the characters felt through their actions, rather than telling. Whilst the short chapters on average 1. I really enjoyed being able to savour it and get to know the characters, however there were some points where it felt a little too dense and slow.

View all 8 comments. Dec 23, Cindy rated it it was amazing. Bumped this up to 5 stars because the last pages made me cry like a little bitch. Both the main characters are likable, inquisitive, and sympathetic; the side characters are also endearing and wonderful companions. The writing style and imagery is poetic without veering towards purple prose; I was impressed by Doerr’s ability to weave words together in such a lovely and rich way, especially from the perspective of a blind character.

The themes throughout the story — how war can rob the norma Bumped this up to 5 stars because the last pages made me cry like a little bitch. The themes throughout the story — how war can rob the normalcy of childhoods, how the main characters remain inquisitive about the wonders of the world despite it all — is so touching that I cried at both the sad parts and the simple pleasures that these characters got to enjoy.

My only caveat is that the book can be quite slow, with only significant events happening every hundred pages or so. Nonetheless, the story is still tragically beautiful. View all 6 comments. I think that my opinion of this book does not match the general opinion. I was pretty bored throughout and my mind kept wandering.

I kept waiting for a big payoff, plot twist, that would bring my attention crashing back. I thought there might be some grand resolution beyond the symbolism and poetry of the writing, and there really didn’t seem to be. Maybe I missed it while my mind was wandering. Two other things – I have been encountering these a lot lately: – WWII is now definitely entrenched as a I think that my opinion of this book does not match the general opinion.

Over the past year I have accidentally stumbled onto books that are being read by a wide audience, I know nothing about them, and when I start reading them they start with a teenage girl dealing with the perils of WWII. I have also read several knowing this was the case going in.

This is not a bad thing, just an observation that there are a lot out there now! I never really felt like they added a whole lot to this particular book. Maybe a couple of “Oh, that’s how we got here” moments, but that was it. I have seen a lot of 5 star review for this book, so maybe I am in the minority. I would not be the one to recommend this one, but you probably shouldn’t listen to me as you might miss out on a 5 star book for you!

Side note: I listened to this book and I thought the narrator was great, but, as mentioned above, it did not keep my attention and that has not happened to me in a very long time with audio. I loved the characters and the writing but felt like I was waiting for something the entire time. Matthew Leah wrote: “Currently reading the book for my book club.. You now make Leah wrote: “Currently reading the book for my book club.. You now make me think I may have the same experience as you with the book.

Sorry to see that! Jan 11, Dem rated it liked it Recommends it for: book club read. Shelves: ww2. I enjoyed this novel by Anthony Doerr and yet when I was nearing the end I couldn’t help feel a a sense of relief to have finished the book. I enjoy historical fiction and really looked forward to this novel by Anthony Doerr as it was set in a time frame that that really interests me.

Because I read quite a lot of novels set around World War Two I love the fact that the author took a a slightly different path with his storytelling and that is what drew me to this novel. I loved the characters of M I enjoyed this novel by Anthony Doerr and yet when I was nearing the end I couldn’t help feel a a sense of relief to have finished the book.

There is a slight magical element to the stroy which I am not a major fan of at the best of times but it works well in this book.

I did however struggle with the structure and pace of the novel and this is the reason for me liking this novel and not loving it. I found the toing and froing between time frames a bit tedious and the chapters too short. Normally this isn’t a problem for me but however in this book it took from my overall enjoyment of the story. It wasn’t that I couldn’t follow the plot but more that it became a chore for me and just when I was gelling with one time frame and character I was dragged kicking and screaming to another time frame and character and wished at times the author would just allow the story to flow and not chop and change.

To sum up an interesting and worthwhile read and a book that will be enjoyed by historical fiction lovers and book clubs over the summer. View all 54 comments. May 01, Lisa of Troy rated it it was amazing. This historical fiction novel is set in World War II and alternates between two main characters, a teenage boy named Werner Pfennig and a blind teenage girl named Marie-Laure.

Hugh Laurie is set to play the role of Marie-Laure’s great uncle! The other novel that I read was Cloud Cuckoo Land. All the Light We Cannot See is much more straightforward in my opinion and is much easier to follow. Although All the Light We Cannot see is a rather lengthy novel, the short paragraphs and chapters keep the action flowing. When reading this book, I practiced immersion reading with a free copy of the text through Libby, a free service provided by my local library and a copy of the audiobook procured through Scribd.

I love immersion reading!!!!! We meet Werner Pfennig. He is an orphan, living in Germany, who awaits the passage of time where he dreads the day he will start to work in the very same mine that killed his father. However, Werner makes a name for himself working on radios.

What will Werner do with these skills? And how will his path intersect with Marie-Laure? Although Marie-Laure is originally born with sight, she eventually loses her ability to see. Her father helps her to regain her independence by crafting a replica of the city. However, Paris is at risk for attack, and Marie-Laure and her father flee to Saint-Malo where her great-uncle lives.

Her great-uncle is 63, suffering from PTSD, and never leaves the house. This book has some really great character development. The characters are not all good nor all bad. Some of the characters struggle with decisions that they have made, questioning what they should have done differently.

Additionally, there are two disabled people in this book. They are important characters not side characters , and they are doing important work. Not all heroes carry swords or have ninja moves.

Need more bookish thoughts? Check out Lisa of Troy’s homepage! Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook View all 40 comments. Anna Ortega One of my favorite books of all time! Sue I loved the book and just hope Netflix don’t deviate too much from the story. I loved the book and just hope Netflix don’t deviate too much from the story. Did I just The audiobook was definitely the way to go with this one! Very popular historical fiction. Out of my comfort zone. I get the hype, the writing was beautiful but not a favorite!

Dec 11, Angela M rated it it was amazing. What I loved most about this book was all the light that I did see. There is so much here that captivated me – from the beautiful writing to the strong, caring characters to the loving relationships and the way people touched each other’s lives during the trying times of WW II. Parallel stories are told in alternating chapters of Marie Laure, a teenage French girl who has been blind since the age of six and Werner, an intelligent, perceptive and sensitive German orphan who learns to fix radios an What I loved most about this book was all the light that I did see.

Parallel stories are told in alternating chapters of Marie Laure, a teenage French girl who has been blind since the age of six and Werner, an intelligent, perceptive and sensitive German orphan who learns to fix radios and becomes noticed by the German army. Each of their stories will move you in their own right, but especially when their paths cross. Through the lovely descriptive language we know that Marie Laure sees what she cannot see because he father lovingly carves a model of the neighborhood so she can tell where buildings and streets are and she knows by the number of steps and which way to turn.

This loving, nurturing and often times touching relationship between Marie Laure and her fathers will melt your heart. He teaches her Braille, buys her books in Braille and gives her lovely little surprise boxes opened by solving a puzzle or trick opening to discover the hidden gift. Werner and his orphan sister Jutta have a special relationship , as well, and the letters they exchange are at once heartbreaking an heartwarming, even though it appears that Jutta has a hard time forgiving Werner for what he does to the radio.

Doerr has created and developed characters that you care about as soon as you meet them. The role that these people, including Marie Laure, play in the resistance is so courageous. Some bad things and some very sad things happened but after all this was war.

But I loved the connections of people in the end and the ultimately uplifting feeling of hope – another light in this book.

I highly recommend it. View all 60 comments. So, I know I should be oohing and ahhing over this book, but it just wasn’t for me. This is definitely one of those “it’s not you, it’s me” moments. I can see why many people have given such glowing reviews, but I found it to be unbearably dull and slow-moving. I never felt a strong connection with either of the main characters or the story itself.

I’m just glad that it ended. View all 52 comments. Jul 20, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: historical , 21th-century , fiction , war , united-states. Her father constructs a scale model of their neighborhood to help her visualize her surroundings. In Germany, 8-year-old Werner Pfennig is an orphan in the coal-mining town of Zollverein. Werner is exceptionally bright and has a natural skill for repairing radios. After he finds a broken one with his younger sister Jutta, he fixes it and he uses it to hear science and music programs transmitted across Europe.

View 2 comments. Jun 06, Adina rated it liked it Shelves: historical-fiction , france , pulitzer-winners , book-club , us. How do I review a novel that most of my friends loved but left me mainly indifferent.

Again, I have a case when I feel guilty for not liking a book more and trying to figure out what is wrong with me. Firstly, the writing. It is beautiful, intricate, full of elegant, well thought sentences.

However, they let me untouched. Maybe, How do I review a novel that most of my friends loved but left me mainly indifferent. Maybe, as others also mentioned, the author struggled too hard to impress and it had the opposite effect on me.

Secondly, the characters. They felt too flat, too likeable without risking any emotion or treat that could make them more interesting and complex. I still enjoyed reading about them, but I fell like their personalities were too subtle. All the bad things were toned down, in my opinion. Maybe because this novel is in essence a YA story. The search for the mythical diamond felt a bit weird and introduced in the plot by forced but It did not bother me that much. I liked reading the novel at times but when I closed the book, I was in no hurry to restart.

The short chapters did not help as I had no problem to close the book after 2 pages, especially at night. The short chapters also kept me on the outside of the plot and the characters. However, it was a light, fast read and I do not regret the time spent with it. View all 62 comments. There are parallel lives here in the guise of Marie-Laure, a French blind girl, and Werner, a German boy living in an orphanage with his sister Jutta. It’s not just a war story though, it’s a coming of age, a childhood interrupted.

Marie-Laure flees Paris with her father after the advancement of the German army. They take refuge with Uncle Etienne in St Malo. Werner meanwhile, becomes a radio expert with that same army from which Marie-Laure has fled. This is a captivating storyline, the writing exquisite, it’s hard to put down, and even harder to forget.

I expected a lot from this book and it didn’t let me down. Quite simply, beautiful! View all 99 comments. For me, this was a very special read. I feel like I have been on a long gut-wrenching journey, and in a way I have, traveling with two young children, one in Berlin and one in Paris and follow them as they grow-up.

There are poignant moments, downright sad moments, moments that made me smile and moments that made me so very angry. Werner in Berlin is a curious child, a child with the talent for putting things together, like radios, he and his sister Jutta live in an orphanage. Marie-Laure, a bli For me, this was a very special read. Marie-Laure, a blind girl and her father live in Paris, her father is the keeper of the keys for a prestigious museum.

It is the radio that will connect these two lives long before they actually meet. The descriptions are wonderful, very detailed as they are made for a blind girl, to enable her to envision the many things described. The novel travels, back and forth, times when they were young, times when they are a bit older and Marie-Laure finds herself and her father in St, Malo at the home her eccentric uncle, who is another amazing character Werner finds himself chosen for a school, and we travel along with him as we learn the many young men in the Nazi party were trained to be cold blooded killers.

How far would you go along with the prevailing threats and times, how would you react when confronted with an injustice? One young man pays heavily for his supposed weakness of character. How long can one pretend everything is fine, trying to keep eyes closed so one cannot see?

So it is radios, little built towns and houses, built by Marie-Laure’s father so she can get around wherever she lives. Malo, of imprisonments and yes love. Moral questions and a great character study.

It even follows a few characters after the war in Berlin, which is where this quote comes in, “Does any goodness linger in this last derelict stronghold? A little. I read this as slow as I could, I really did not want it to end. ARC from publisher View all 82 comments. May 26, jessica rated it really liked it. View all 11 comments. Jun 01, Marialyce absltmom, yaya rated it it was ok. This is a case of where I am going to hate myself for again feeling a book that has received a multitude of five star ratings feel short for me.

It was not that I disliked it, but I found it to be jumpy and often disjointed. I am not a fan of the current trend of devoting one chapter to one character and the next to another and flipping back and forth. To my way of reading and thinking, it doesn’t allow the reader me to gather depth of a character.

It makes me overly anxious to sally forth try This is a case of where I am going to hate myself for again feeling a book that has received a multitude of five star ratings feel short for me. It makes me overly anxious to sally forth trying to connect and find the thread. My interest wans and the moment I seem to be getting there with a character I am pulled away to the next chapter. While the characters were different, I felt by the time I reached the final page I really did not know them well at all.

They were like phantoms and perhaps that is exactly the way the author wished them to be. Midway throughout this overly long novel, I felt that I had turned a corner and had finally grasped onto the people of the novel, but seemed again to lose their continuity and their relevance as the book continued to what I felt was a murky conclusion. Sorry to say, I feel like I did when I finished The Book Thief , a bit of a traitor to a book that so many loved, but from which I received not much satisfaction.

View all 35 comments. Feb 22, Charlotte May rated it it was amazing Shelves: war , historical-fiction , page-plus , favourites , tear-jerker , magical-realism. Haunting, harrowing, heartbreaking. This book was an incredible depiction of the Second World War, told from the point of view of two characters in very different circumstances.

Switching between narratives following Marie-Laure, a young blind girl living in France with her father, a museum caretaker. Forced to flee Paris, Marie Laure’s father carries the real one of 4 copies made of the legendary ‘sea of flames’ a jewel said to bring bad luck and destruction on whoever holds it.

The second narr Haunting, harrowing, heartbreaking. The second narrative is Werner, a young German boy recruited into the Hitler youth and used for his exceptional intelligence with wireless and technology. Their stories run parallel, the prose is wonderful and enchanting giving real insight into the terror of war and the effects it had on the lives of such different people.

Without using characters who were soldiers which gave this novel a different edge. The two characters eventually meet briefly and beautifully near the end, and to follow their stories and the stories of those around them was both heart warming and heart wrenching. Absolutely incredible. View all 16 comments. Dec 23, Matt rated it really liked it Shelves: literary-fiction , historical-fiction , contemporary-fiction.

First, I buy it, right away. Like the instant I finish reading the review in the New York Times. Second, I put the book on my shelf, as soon as I receive it. Finally, I read it, two or three or four years later, when I finally get around to it. This routi “So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light? This routine is a function of several things, chiefly a love of books, a deliberate reading speed, and also financial impulsivity.

At one point my wife found this charming. As a history lover, and a lover of historical fiction, the setting and the characters were irresistible. World War II. A young German radioman hunting partisans. The walled city of Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast.

And all this with a literary pedigree to boot. When it got to my house, it came out of the box and straight to the top of my reading list. Full disclosure: It was also chosen by my Book Club.

I might have had something to do with the choice. This is an excellent book. It is intricately structured. It is beautifully written. It has some memorable characters. There are even some equations, just like in a Harvard bar. Yes, there is some self-conscious and rather heavy-handed literary pretensions — this is a book with leitmotifs , I tell you, honest to god leitmotifs — but in the end Doerr is so self assured in the story he is telling, and the book itself is so damned readable, that I am willing to forgive the parts that felt churned from a creative writing workshop.

To begin, the novel is told in tiny chapters. Sometimes a couple pages. Sometimes a paragraph. Thus, despite being pages, this is a rather quick read. The short chapters give Doerr the opportunity to present the perfect details at the perfect moments. Much of the power of this book comes from this clever delivery, these mini-scenes that burst and fade like fireworks. The novel begins on August 7, , with Allied bombers dropping leaflets on Saint-Malo, warning people to leave.

After a few chapters, Doerr jumps back in time to , with alternating Marie-Laure and Werner chapters. The flashback timeline progresses chronologically, often with rather large jumps in time. Every so often, however, the reader is thrust back to and the onrushing German-Allied cataclysm.

We live in an era of sophisticated storytelling, when even popular sitcoms e. Just to be sure, however, he always date-stamps his time shifts. This is what I mean by readable. All the Light We Cannot See is literary fiction more than historical fiction, and like I said above, there are equations, and long discussions about radio waves, but none of this is off-putting.

This is a book that wants to be read.

 
 

Rare book collector near me free –

 
 
They specialize in books published beforeincluding antiquarian Bibles, early cookery books and manuscripts, travel, topography, the arts, architecture, the classics and miniature books. Events here include an annual Apple Day, unpredictable meetings of the Cafe Philosophique, a weekly Buddhist gathering and frequent celebrations of the Derbyshire school of children’s writers.