310 All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr, 2014

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge: Read a book with a main character or protagonist with a disability.

It’s the early 1940s and war is breaking out across Europe. Young Marie-Laure LeBlanc, who has gone blind due to congenital cataracts, accompanies her father to a Paris museum, where his routine work belies his genius at creating intricate designs that he uses to delight and educate his daughter. When Paris becomes too dangerous for them, they leave the city on foot and take up residence in Saint-Malo with Marie’s great uncle Etienne and his housekeeper Madame Manec. Unbeknownst to Marie, her father also carries with him one of four versions of a precious artifact, the Sea of Flames, which is known for keeping its possessor alive while simultaneously bringing them great misfortune. Several hundred miles away, Werner Pfennig and his sister Jutta enjoy listening to the strange radio broadcasts of a French man until all radio broadcasts are shut down by the German government. Werner finds himself drafted into the Hitler Youth, where his astounding capabilities with radios – he rebuilt the one he found in his attic – brings him a certain amount of respect and awe. These are their stories as they grow up in the same war, in two very different worlds, amid unimaginable hardship and loss.

201 Night

by Elie Wiesel, 1972
translated from the French by Marion Wiesel

This is one of the most affecting pieces of literature I’ve ever read. Elie Wiesel was 15 in 1944 when the Nazis entered Hungary and he and his family were moved into concentration camps. Separated from his mother and sister, it was not long after that he and his father were moved to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, some of the most infamous concentration camps of the war. Wiesel’s treatise is, in a word, harrowing. His short, direct manner of writing (perhaps due in part to the translation) gives a stark portrait of some of the greatest evil known to mankind. Night is an exceedingly difficult book to read and, despite being barely more than 100 pages, was one that I found I could only consume in short bursts. However, it is one of the most necessary books that I have ever had the opportunity to encounter and it is imperative that we continue to read this story and hold this terror close to our hearts.

93 Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb

by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, 2012

I don’t remember where I ran across this book, but its title and subject matter immediately caught my eye. You see, I grew up at White Sands Missile Range, a place whose large territory encompasses the Trinity testing site. Nuclear weaponry is part of our specific narrative as New Mexicans and it’s as common to learn about this in history class as it is to learn about the presidents. I wouldn’t say nuclear science is a particular area of my interest, but the idea of the area’s history told in graphic form was something I hadn’t seen before and the WSMR school child in me just had to get her hands on it.

6 Unbroken

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Laura Hillenbrand, 2010) is the biography of Olympic distance runner and World War II prisoner of war survivor Louie Zamperini. It is both an enthralling action story and harrowing account of the strength of men, and a trove of history for people (like me) who have the luxury of not really knowing what happened during that dark time in our world. It is an utterly compelling book whose pages beg to be turned while being overwhelmingly heartbreaking. I could not put it down.