We recently read Doerr’s popular novel from 2014 and thought it might be more interesting to share our thoughts on it in a more conversational format.
Team Review: All the Light We Cannot See
Swamplandia!
“The beginning of the end can feel a lot like the middle when you are living in it,” Karen Russell.
Lincoln in the Bardo
When it’s done right, I love weird fiction. But it has to be weird for a purpose, and Saunders is, in my opinion, the master of weird.
A Visit from the Goon Squad
It isn’t often that I close a book and feel goosebumps crawl across my arms while a deep satisfaction glows in my core. But that’s exactly what happened at the end of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
Mayflower
Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower covers one of the most significant moments in American history. I was surprised to learn that my mythological idea of the first Thanksgiving and the Plymouth Rock landing weren’t terribly far from the truth.
The Edge of Everything
Amidst a crowded library book sale—where there’s a fair amount of friendly competition to grab the best books—I saw a book on fire.
South and West
“I had only some dim and unformed sense, a sense which struck me now and then, and which I could not explain coherently, that for some years the South and particularly the Gulf Coast had been for America what people were still saying California was, and what California seemed to me not to be: the future, the secret source of malevolent and benevolent energy, the psychic center.”
The Queen of the Tearling
"Even a book can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and when that happens, you blame the hands, but you also read the book.” ― Erika Johansen, The Queen of the Tearling
The Tombs of Atuan
The first thirty pages of The Tombs of Atuan bear little resemblance to A Wizard of Earthsea. Yet it is without a doubt a sequel, as many connections to the first book are made toward the end.
Valley of the Dolls
I thought this novel would be stale—it was written in the 1960s and it’s the first book that was frank about sex and drugs. Instead, it was stunning.
Lit Lens 