All The Light We Cannot See: Anthony Doerr

This is the first book I have read in a long time, like since June. One of my former teachers actually
recommended it when I told her that we were going to France in October. The book is set in Paris and Saint Malo, France during WWII. It is a rather long book more than 500 pages but it was definitely one that you wanted to keep reading.

The novel switches between two stories that end up weaving together. One of a orphan boy that joins the Nazi military forces in WWII and the other of a blind girl living in Paris with her farther during WWII. I won't go into too much detail as not to spoil anything but I really liked this book and I felt like I learned more history about WWII as well. You might classify it as historical fiction since some of it was real but the main story line was fiction.

I learned about the invasion of Paris, one of the schools that trained the Nazi military boys from a young age that was also a very selective school, and mostly about the allied forces attack on Saint Malo. I have actually added Saint Malo as a place to visit when we go to France in October.

I would rate this book 5/5. Definitely would recommend to others.

Quotes I liked from the book:

There are no such things as curses. There is luck, maybe, bad or good. A slight inclination of each day toward success of failure. But no curses. 

The locusts have no king, yet all of them go out in ranks. - Old Testament Proverb

Some things are simply more rare than others, and that's why there are locks. 

You know the greatest lessons of history? It's that history is whatever the visitors say it is. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history. 

You will become like a waterfall, a volley of bullets- you will all surge in the same direction at the same pace toward the same cause. You will forgo comforts; you will live by duty alone. You will eat country and breathe nation. 

My father said "You dont have to stay. I'd like you to stay, but you dont have to. You probably have things to do. You can go off with your friends if you want to." 'He kept saying that. I left. I went down the strips and into the street. I had nowhere to go. Nobody to see. I didn't have any friends in that town. I had ridden trains all goddamn day to see him. But I left just like that. 

They move about with only themselves in mind. Name me someone who does not. 

He worries that to concentrate on [the memories] too long is to rise wearing them out. 

love, Carlee