#COLLABOREADS: A NYTimes Bestseller
This is our first month of #COLLABOREADS and let me just say, I am SO excited. It has been a blast seeing our friends on social media choosing New York Times Bestsellers and reading them and chatting about them already, so I can't wait to link-up with everyone!
If you're just hearing about this for the first time, here's the short summary: for the month of June, Amber and I decided the topic would be "a book currently on the NYTimes Bestseller list," and anyone who was interested could choose one, read it throughout June, and then today, they'll publish their review (we gave an acrostic of R.E.A.D.S. that everyone can use for this!) and link-up with us at the very bottom of this post and Amber's.
I chose All The Light We Cannot See and absolutely LOVED IT. Here's my R.E.A.D.S. review!
Riveting.
What part of the book could you NOT get enough of?
Um, the WHOLE THING. I started reading this book last Tuesday evening probably around 7 or so, and the only time I put it down was for a quick walk around the block with my mom and our pup. I was up until close to 2 am reading all 530 pages...it was that riveting and THAT GOOD.
Elements.
How did you relate to/care for the characters?
What's your thought on the plot line and twists and turns?
The plot line of this book took a little bit to get used to. It is broken up into thirteen chunks by year, but they jump forward and backward and time a little bit (in the BEST way possible, once you get used to keeping better track of the jumps in your head so everything makes sense). Within those thirteen big chunks, the book has mostly really short chapters that shift focus like from "Leaflets" to "Bombers" to "The Girl" but again, once you get used to hopping around, it starts to really flow beautifully and all the pieces weave together in the most elegant and exquisite way.
I fell in love with the characters-- Marie-Laure is a young, blind girl with a father who absolutely adores her and does everything he can to give her the world, Werner is an orphan who is talented and brilliant and even though he goes to an academy for Hitler Youth, you connect with him, root for him, and always know he is pure-hearted and just trapped in a world he can't escape. Even the supplemental characters are incredible, and you are introduced to them gradually in a way that builds your interest in them and love for them.
Associate.
What other books are like this one?
If none, did it remind you of a particular TV or movie with its themes and characters? Does it serendipitous-ly line-up with things going on in your life or the news right now?
Honestly, I've never read another book like this one. It was ten years in the making, and you feel that dedication and thoroughness and attention to detail on every page. There's an Anne Frank correlation due to the time period and young-girl main character similarities, but the way this book was structured and woven together is unlike anything else.
Design.
You know you judged this book by the cover.
What did you think of it? How did it relate to the contents of the novel? And the font and layout of the pages?
The cover is beautiful-- all cool blues and greens with simple, bold type for the title. After reading it, I recognize the significance of the city on the cover, but at first glance, it was just a pretty location with a wispy cloudy sky and a mysterious vagueness about it all. When I started reading, I didn't pay much attention to the chapter titles or to the numbered chunks, but I quickly learned how important they were to the progression of the plot, so they became something I intentionally noticed and processed instead of skimming over. It changed the way I connected with this book.
Stars.
How many out of five do you give this book? Would you recommend this book to a friend?
ALL FIVE STARS. I have been recommending this book to everyone I've seen even look at a book lately. I'll be recommending this book forever.
Now, for NEXT MONTH:
The topic for July is "A book with someone's name in the title" and we hope you'll find a book, read it throughout July, and link up with us again on July 27!
Need help finding a book for this theme? Check out this list on Goodreads!
Without further ado... LET'S LINK UP with your posts about the New York Times Bestsellers you've read this June!
In the spirit of collaborating (where the whole #collaboreads name came from), let's comment on each other's posts and spread some love and thoughts and recommendations and all that jazz!