All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

Last week, I in the library browsing for books. I desperately needed something to read so I could do a blog post, so I went to the "New Releases" section, and grabbed the first one I saw. It turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time.

All the Lights We Cannot See  contains some of the most hauntingly beautiful, precise prose I have ever read. It actively engages all five senses, in a way that ordinary writing just cannot hope to accomplish. This is one of those books, that you read slowly to absorb every last detail, dreading that moment when you inevitably turn the last page.

“A foot of steel looks as if it has been transformed into warm butter and gouged by the fingers of a child"

All the Lights We Cannot See is a novel written with two parallel story lines. One of the story lines takes place in Nazi Germany and follows a young boy Werner, who has a natural affinity for Math and Science, wins a spot in the infamous Hitler Youth Academy. This is his only way to escape the dangerous coal mines his father died in.

The second story takes place in France, following a young girl named Marie-Laurie. Who goes blind from a degenerative disease at the age of six. We look on helplessly as the Germans invade Paris, and Marie and her father have to flee to an island city of Saint-Malo.

The book poetically switches between the parallel story lines, and weaves a tale of masterful proportions.

And the Mountains Echoed

The book starts off with a touching, but sad story told from the father of  Abdullah, and Pari (the main characters) as they are crossing the desert.

This is a book about good,and evil. Purity. Darkness. Commitment and Addiction.

And the Mountains Echoed was a joy to read, such a joy in fact, that I had trouble putting it down.

Actual Story Pages 1 - 9: Click Here, highly recommend that you read it.

The story the book starts off with, is in essence the basic premise of the entire book itself. And the Mountains Echoed is a novel about brothers and sisters, and I highly recommend that you read this book, before reading the rest of the blog post, as the rest of the blog post contains spoilers.

This is one of my favorite books so I highly recommend that you read it.

PDF of the book
Epub of the book

Spoilers, Stop Reading Here if you have not read the book

Abdullah is the brother of Pari, and at the beginning of the book you are introduced to a struggling family living the in a desolate village in the middle of Afghanistan. Abdullah lost his mother when she was giving birth to Pari, so their father Saboor decides to remarry, he marries Parwana, with whom Saboor tries to have another child, but that child Omar dies because of the bitter cold when he is one year old, as the family doesn't have much money. Saboor feels extremely distraught after the death of Omar, and feels that if he had found better work Omar would still be alive. Abdullah the brother of Pari is her best friend, and loves her more than anything else in the world. He is her primary caretaker, and her father figure. At the beginning of the book Abdullah, Saboor, and Pari all go to Kabul because Saboor has "work". But it turns out that the job he has to do, was selling Pari to a wealthy family in Kabul - the Wahdati's. 

After the introduction of Abdullah and Pari, the book changes points of view, and is told from the view of Uncle Nabi, the assistant of the Wahdati's. Uncle Nabi recounts his experiences with Abdullah and Pari, and how he is associated with the Wahdati's. Through Uncle Nabi, we are able to see Pari grow up, in addition to the tensions that occur between the different characters in the novel. Hossieni uses Nabi to give a backstory of the Wahdati's, and also allows us to witness Kabul growing up.

 As the book progresses you learn the back stories of all the people associated with Abdullah and Pari, and how they grow up apart. But at the conclusion of the book, Abdullah's daughter finds Pari and brings her to Abdullah, who now has Alzheimers, and cannot remember anything from his past. But before he was diagnosed with Alzheimers he left a note to Pari, along with a present for her. The book ends when Pari finds the present and the note. The book ends on a bittersweeet note, with Abdullah not being able to remember the thing he loved most in the world (Pari) and Pari finally reconnecting with her past.

I decided to take a break from the fiction world and read something more realistic. The book I read was called Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku. This book was unlike any other non-fiction book I have read. It combined the fiction world with current science, to make all the things that seem impossible, possible to a certain extent. The author of this book is a Japanese-american physicist who, in his high school science fair built an atom smasher. Well in this book he explains how everything is possible and he explains possible ways to make things that seem impossible.

     First the book is divided into three parts, which are determined by how impossible something really is. In the first part Michio Kaku talks about how the force fields in Star Wars can come to life by using plasma and electromagnetic fields. He then talks about invisible cities built from carbon threads the strongest known building material. He then goes on to talk about teleportation and time travel. This book was really interesting to me because took the fiction world and brought it into reality.

     This book is inspirational, it shows that no matter how difficult something may seem it can be accomplished through hard work and perseverance. Michio Kaku basically shows that everything is possible. This book brings science-fiction to life, that is one of the reasons I like it. It is a good book to read even for people who dislike non-fiction because of the way it incorporates science-fiction ideas. It shows us that there is so much we still don't know yet and there are so many things that we haven't invented, and they can all be done with enough effort.

Theme Handout

Censorship causes diminished individual thought.

The theme “Censorship causes diminished individual thought” is important to our understanding of the story because the characters in this book are incapable of thinking for themselves because the government controls everything for them.

This theme connects to our modern-day society because this kind of censorship still happens today in some countries. It is important to be aware of this theme to prevent this extremity of censorship from happening in our nation.

Part 1 Quote:

"Are you happy?" she said. "Am I what?" he cried. But she was gone-running in the moonlight. Her front door shut gently. "Happy! Of all the nonsense."(Bradbury 7)

Part 2 Quote:

“We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I look around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years.”(Bradbury 78).

Part 3 Quote:

“It’s strange, I don’t miss her, it’s strange I don’t feel much of anything,” said Montag. “Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don’t think I’ll feel sad. It isn’t right. Something must be wrong with me.”(Bradbury 147)

Timeline:

• Montag meets Clarisse, a person who is observant of the world around her, and she makes him question the world that he is living in. Montag has never before questioned the society around him, and begins to open his eyes to his surroundings.

• Montag reads a book to Mildred's friends, and they also begin to think deeper thoughts than they originally would.

• Beatty tells Montag that there are no need for thinking and books, as everything in society is censored.

• Montag and Faber devise a plan to stop the censorship of books, but Montag is being chased after by the government.
• Montag runs away into a society where people are free to think what they want, and there is no censorship of books.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. [Book Club ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013. 7, 78, 147. Print.

Bilbo Baggins

On dynamic character in my book, is Bilbo Baggins. He starts out at the beginning, and is extremely shy, and doesn't want to go on any adventures, or explore the world. He is content with being an average hobbit, with an average life. The book describes him as "shy, with no magic about them, except the ordinary kind, and no sense for adventure". But after the wizard Gandalf shows up, Bilbo has a whole different outlook on adventure.


Bilbo begins showing characteristics like ingenuity, bravery, and intelligence. Hey finds the secret in the trolls cave, and also finds himself outwitting Gollum in Chapter 6.  He displays bravery, when in Chapter 12, he descends into the Smaugs layer alone, and also finds Smaugs weak point. Bilbo shows many character traits, that are uncharacteristic of a Hobbit like him. Bilbo is used to living an extremely comfortable lifestyle, but here is showing valiance.

At the end of The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins is an adventurous man, with a sense of excitement, and is unhappy with an average life after the adventures that happen in The Hobbit. "... [Bilbo] was no longer quite as respectable". This is refering to Bilbo after his adventure, and how to the community he lived in, he was viewed as queer, because of his sense of adventure.

Should NCAA athletes be paid?

Recently, I read this article, about whether NCAA athletes should get paid or not.

People who oppose this say that, Collegiate athletes, are already paid through scholarships. And that the cost of paying Collegiate athletes would be much too high. They argue, that through their scholarship, collegiate athletes receive compensation through, free or partially funded education, expert coaching, food, and a place to stay. 

Others, who have the opposite view point will say, that while the athletes coach is making million's of dollars, the athlete himself is only compensated by a higher education which doesn't have any immediate monetary value. And that if the athlete gets injured, their entire scholarship could be taken away, and the athlete could be left with nothing. 

I feel as though colleges should pay their athletes, because it gives them a reason to actually stay in school, and not graduate early. If they were getting payed, collegiate athletes would have no reason to get out of school, and put themselves in the NFL draft, just so they could support their family at home. In addition collegiate athletes also put in 40 hours a week just for their sport, and on top of that have to manage all of their college classes. And their school, athletic director, and coach, are all profiting off of them, while they get nothing.

Perserverance

In my book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,  A boy named Ishmael Beah, at the age of  twelve, becomes and unwilling boy soldier, after his village in Sierra Leone is attacked, Ishmael and his brothers go wandering from village to village in search of food and shelter. And eventually become soldiers in the child army. They become killing machines, and become addicted to various drugs. Eventually Ishmael's Lieutenant in the army turns them over to Unicef, and they go to America for rehabilitation.

Ishmael's story of perserverance reminds me of the story of Registre, a Haitian immigrant whom, through perserverance, was able to live his dream and get into medical school.