Everything Is Illuminated | 
#BookCoverChallenge
Day 207.
Here I will note 365 books (or as many as I will have before I get tired) that have shaped my taste in literature. No explanations, no reviews. Just the cover of the book.
I do not challenge anyone. You are all welcome to take part.
pickThis book is a strange mix of funny and heartbreakingly sad with plenty of weird as well. It‘s about family and friends and the lasting impact of war. Alex‘s translations into English were probably my favorite aspect, but I came to appreciate all of the story.
#1001books #audiobook
😂🤣😆 Translating from Ukrainian to broken English to the American.
panIt makes my brain bleed when people are self satisfied about their cleverness. This book reeks of that feeling.
Is it genius writing? Yes.
Is it a special whimsical humor (which I normally love)? Yes.
Did I like this book? No. No I did not. I wish I did but it just filled me with rage.
pickMy #officialbookspin for the month of July! I loved the concept of the Bingo challenge and will definitely try that again going into August (June/July has not been kind to me). As for this book, I thought the different narrator voices was interesting and it was pretty laugh out loud funny in some parts. The book itself was okay, still think Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is Foer‘s best novel.
#lighttheway #flyhighjuly A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms; a "blind" old man haunted by memories of the war; and a guide dog named Sammy Davis Jr, Jr.
pickI love this story! I had seen the movie years ago and I think Elijah Woods‘ performance holds up to the Safron Foer character.
🐘The tagged book is SUCH a ride! I love it!
🐘Bret Easton Ellis. I‘ve only read American Psycho but he made an impression.
🐘Emperor‘s New Groove is hilarious & quotable!
🐘Eminem
🐘Everybody Talks -Neon Trees (I dare you not to dance to that song)
#ManicMonday #LetterE
So along with reading for the #PemberLittens book club and Reddit‘s book club, I will also be participating in #bookspinbonanza 🙈 Am I crazy? A little bit, but it‘s fine! I have not had this much fun reading and analyzing books since college. I am so happy to have found my old passion again.
pickI have no idea what I just read - that was totally bonkers!
A young man goes to #ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. However his guide is Alex, who speaks mangled English, with Alex‘s nearly blind grandfather as their driver.
I really liked the parts narrated by Alex, and the overall storyline about the search. However the more ancient history parts detracted from the overall story for me ⬇️
I hope this is good. I need a bit of a distraction from real life just now.
pickIt‘s almost impossible to describe this strange, funny, odd and moving novel. It‘s complicated in structure, and also in its language. But after I struggled to get into it, it eventually won me over. Alex is Ukrainian and is the road-trip tour guide, penpal and self-appointed editor to the ‘author‘ Jonathan, and his grasp of the English language is hilarious...(continued below....⬇️)
#103 Well I wasn‘t going to start a new book till tomorrow but I have 30 min of waiting to do so here we are!
pickI rarely enjoy dual/multiple narratives, especially when one is historical, gradually building the backstory that will unite with the present day narrative. I just attach more to one than the other and then feel impatient that I'm not getting to continue the story I was absorbed in moments before the chapter ended. It doesn't stop me liking the book completely - I just enjoy it less!
so-soMaybe this book would have been better in Polish? I'm still trying to figure out the overall point of this story. Friendship? Making fun of crappy translating? History as it's remembered?
Jonathan Safran Foer and some Githeri. It's a good night.
so-soThis book was exhausting because it was so intellectually challenging and intense. The plot was super complex and I‘m honestly still kind of confused but his prose was really nice and I liked the flashes between the past and present along with the letters. Overall, it was good, but not great.
Everything is Illuminated is so brilliant and so sad. Alex is one of the most memorable supporting characters. The novel's innovative structure interweaves the protagonist's present with his ancestral past and the near future.
pickMagical realism, slapstick comedy, high tragedy, epistolary novel in one: this is a book about how to talk about the collective tragedies of the past (in this case the Holocaust). It is not an easy novel, despite the comic sections. Parts of it are painful to read, yet it is still compulsively readable.
Recommended to lovers of literary fiction and modernism. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I understand there is also a film to watch, which I hope is premium.
Feeling a bit down (it's Monday and the baby's teething again) and this audiobook is just perfect for cheering me up. Chapter 1 is so funny.
This book was #🙅🏻♂️ for me 😕 #readingresolutions @Jess7 But I loved his book from which a movie was made: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
panThis was weird. It is going to be my lowest rated book of the year (I think this is only the 2nd book, ever, I‘ve rated less than 2 stars). I couldn‘t figure out how the translator could even be a translator with his awful English; the author had the same name as the actual author of the book, so that simply confused me for ages. There were other odd parts written like a play or written like Bible verses. Weird. Not good. At all.
panWell, my time in Ukraine has been disappointing... This book has been on my TBR for years and I was excited to finally get into it—but I didn‘t enjoy it. I did like seeing the countryside and experiencing a bit of its history... I‘m just not sure Alex and Jonathan were the best hosts for my visit.
#BackpackEurope: Ukraine ✔️
pick#backpackEurope travelogue *fictional*
County 13: I was in Ukraine when I got word I was delayed for a week. I saw churches, toured Pripyat (abandoned city where Chernobyl sits) and the Tunnel of Love (treelined railway, it's beautiful).
Everything is Illuminated is one of my favorite books. I was happy to revisit it. I love parts with Alex (such unique dialogue).
Fave OOC quote: "Your books are arranged by color of their spine. How stupid."?5/5
Made myself a tracker for the #backpackEurope challenge. Eventually I hope to add a travel line of sorts if I can do it without looking too cluttered. Keeping busy despite my travel delay this week. Enjoying my extended stay in the Ukraine/am catching up with other reading. #bulletjournal #bujo #readingchallenge
Describing books as “Worthy would-be worlds of words, whorls of working wonder”. Never have I heard it better
About to take a bite out of my special edition copy...hello yellow! #currentlyreading #specialedition
Page 1 and I had forgotten how much I adore Alexi and his very unique command of the English language. 😍😍 #backpackEurope
#backpackEurope has led me to the Ukraine, where I get to revisit one of my favorite books ever. I've actually never read this copy - I had borrowed my friend's and read that but then purchased this one when Jonathan Safran Foer gave a talk at my college so I could have him sign it. If you've never read it, it is something truly special. #autograph #booksigning
This book broke my heart, so much so that I am scared to read it again! #sunnyreads #riotgrams
Books have taken over my closet at my parents‘ house... and this is just the back layer. The stacks that go in front are almost as high! 🙈 Although I haven‘t lived at home for a few years now, I‘m not looking forward to the day that I officially move out! All of these books, plus my entire bookshelf and three other shelves around the house will make for some heavy lifting!
#TBR ready for tomorrow's #readathon Probably won't through all of these but it's nice to have options 😉 Everything is Illuminated is a re-read, one of my favourites. Rarely get a chance to re-read stuff with my ever growing TBR stack so readathons are a nice chance to re-visit faves 📚
#QuotsyMarch18 Day 25: Have been meaning to read this book which clearly features some sort of #Struggle - for the longest time. Hopefully, soon.
“I am #always sad, I think. Perhaps this signifies that I am not sad at all, because sadness is something lower than your normal disposition, and I am #always the same thing. Perhaps I am the only person in the world, then, who never becomes sad. Perhaps I am lucky.”
Image from the movie. #QuotsyFeb18
#heartsandhardcovers #everything
I've yet to read this title pulled from my pile of books but I saw the movie years ago and it enjoyed it.
panThis book was impossible for me to follow. #LitsyAtoZ #E✔️
bailed
