Sarah Hackley

I have a really hard time with self-help books. I don't really know why... I guess I'm just really cynical and skeptical and hate the idea of someone telling me that the reason my life sucks is that I didn't align my chakras or something.

This book was different. I had seen this book in stores before and obviously the title stood out, but didn't end up buying it until it became a “book club” pick at work. Which meant I had to read it. Double whammy – I hate being told what to read, and I don't particularly care for self-help books. I was sure I was walking into a trap.

Surprisingly, though, this book wasn't nearly as misery-inducing as I expected. (I swear, Jen Sincero, if you're reading this, that's a compliment!) I did threaten to throw in the towel at the chapter about Source Energy, which felt a little too preachy and new-agey for this non-theist, but I persevered and I am glad.

This is really a great read. A lot of it felt like common sense to me, but then I had to step back and ask myself why, if it was so common sense, wasn't I living it? Some pieces rang very true to me and others seemed kind of “duh”, but overall, it was information that I think most of us need to read in order to learn how to get out of our own way and out of our own heads and be the badasses we were meant to be. I wish I had read this book sooner, honestly, and I'm glad I was forced to read it for our book club because I may have given up on it the first time it felt too swishy.

I would recommend this book to anyone, even cynical jerks like me who think they know better. You will learn a thing or two, I promise.

I am pretty sure that this is the first time I've written a review on Goodreads, but I think that it's time.

I have to say that initially, I had a very hard time getting into this book. I have a hard time reading works that use a lot of descriptive language, and Doerr does just that. It is beautiful, evocative language, but my brain really struggles with it most of the time. But I told myself that with so many stellar ratings, a Pulitzer prize, and all of its critical acclaim, I had to give All the Light We Cannot See a good college try.

I am so glad that I did. I found myself completely enrapt by the characters' nuances, namely main characters Werner and Marie-Laure, but also great-uncle Etienne. The depth that I felt I understood them is unparalleled in many of the books I've read, and I did not expect this from a work set in WWII Europe. I could not stop reading, hoping, quietly wishing for the best for these robust fictional people.

My favorite thing about this entire book, though, is that when I first started reading, I found myself predicting the ending. I read through a lot of the book kind of assuming that a certain thing was going to happen to wrap the story up. I am very pleased to say that this was not what happened at all. To be fair, if my prediction had been correct, I still would've loved the book and rated it highly, but the fact that the predictable finale that I was so sure of was not the case at all gave me faith that good, non-formulaic authors still do exist.

I am so, so very glad that I gave this book a chance. I don't think that I can say that this is my favorite book of all time, but I am now resolute in my decision to not write off historical fiction (as I had been wont to do) and to give the “difficult” books a fair shot. This is a book that we will be reading and raving about for decades to come.

[a:Robert Dugoni 63650 Robert Dugoni https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1405264763p2/63650.jpg] is an excellent storyteller. Once again, I was riveted from page one, finding myself wanting to be Tracy Crosswhite, forming my own hypotheses on who the killer was. (Hint: I was wrong. Perhaps I'll stick to my day job.) The writing elicits a mental picture with the clarity of a major motion picture. I can see the action happening and envision all the characters as if they're real people standing right in front of me. I can't wait to read the rest of the Crosswhite series, and then dive into all of the rest of Dugoni's work!