"Seven Months, Ten Days in Captivity" by David Rhode

After finishing this story I was literally at a lost of words. David Rhode was a journalists for the New York Times who went to Afghanistan and Pakistan to report on the Taliban side of the story regarding the war. On their way in they were kidnapped and he had the quick realization that he was going to die along with the driver, Asad, and the Afghan journalists Tahir. Months go by and the Taliban is trying to negotiate the prisoners ransom with the United States. Their offers are astronomical and it starts to set in that they are never going to escape. Asad however starts to become close with the guards. They give him a gun to carry around and basically training him to become one of them while David and Tahir do their normal daily chores like cleaning. Finally after man escape plans of David and  Tahir's are ruined my Asad's telling the guards their ideas, they are able to get away and they leave Asad behind. David and Tahir could not agree upon whether they hike 15 miles to Afghan or if  they go to the Pakistan military base for help and protection. Either option is risky because the militia could shoot them dead on sight with no questions asked, and walking 15 miles they could be spotted or recaptured. After David pleads Tahir to go to the base one last time they are told to freeze with their hand above their heads and all David can think is we have been recaptured, but they weren't. Finally the pakistan officials decide to let them in and promise them safety from the Taliban. This journalists narrative takes you on a page-turning journey that opens my eyes to what is really going on in the Middle East. Months go bye not knowing if they will still be alive when they wake up every morning. Threats of being killed was lie asking them how their day is going. The monsters of the Taliban have been raised from children to show no mercy, and the fact they made it more then a week surprised me. A question i still had after was why spare the lives of Asad or Tahir. Like they said wasn't only David's whose life was worth any type of collateral? Of course i wouldn't want anything to happen to them but wouldn't they hurt one of them to scare the United States into giving them their money quicker and not negotiating any other terms? Overall this piece was an eye opener, and the strength that David had was beyond courageous.

"What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" by Etgar Keret

Although this story was on the shorter side it turned out to be one of my favorites so far. It starts out with a man named Yonatan who wants to make a documentary about what people would wish for if they had a magically goldfish which could grant them three wishes. Many people wished for more money, longer life, beauty, fortune, all the really generic stuff. He then reached a few people who wished for things out of the ordinary. One person acted as if they knew this question was coming. A man answered by saying he wished all the Nazi'z still alive could be held responsible for their actions. The reality of this statement was very strong and kinda was a nice wake up call for not only myself but many people who have let the horrors of the holocaust slip their mind. Over all the theme of loneliness began to catch on when the story of Sergi was told. He used two of his wishes to save people from mental or physical diseases which was great. But when he had helped his girlfriends son out and she left him he became very alone. After he had killed that boy he could have used a wish but then the fish's job would be over and Sergi would be all alone again. Then when they found an Arabian man they were hoping he would just nod his head an wish for peace, but instead he told them he would put that fish in a jar and keep it, because he would wish for anything but loneliness. Always having a goldfish that can talk and reason with you, you would never have to worry about that. Also, that mean didn't wish for peace, because for him it is his peace of mind that he needs more then peace all around the world.

"Like I Was Jesus" by Rachel Aviv

Being raised Roman Catholic i was hard for me to relate to this story or even take it seriously by any means. The purpose of this isn't trying to put one religion down over others but at the same time, i would be interested listening to the method behind "saving" someone in less then ten minutes. This isn't Super Market Sweep people! Religion is the basis of many lives and is a sole branch of support for BILLIONS of people! Initially reading this i felt like the "They Say" was it is good to introduce children to salvation. I felt as though the "I Say" or in this case the "Aviv's Say" was that it is pointless to be introducing it in this manner. I feel like people have begun to look at religion as a race of who can get to that blank slate for  mind first and mold it into whatever they want it to be. When i child isn't able to comprehend what the verb "rose" means or non-the-less holy, shouldn't you be making a wise decision and understand that they are just too young. Religion is something to cherish and get help reaching what  your beliefs are but not having them thrust upon you without a moment to breathe. Although my family raised me as Roman Catholic, i have made the decision to not go through with my 2nd confirmation, because i don't feel ready yet. That is a decision i made all on my own, because i was old and mature enough. That's how it should be everywhere else. Although i don't feel like my views 100% rely with the Roman Catholic fate, they pretty got their stuff together on helping people find whats right for them.

"War Dances" by Sherman Alexie

While reading "War Dances" by Sherman Alexie i thought it was fun and relate to due to the language that Alexie decided to use in it. It kinda of woke you up at parts. Aside from the language i felt myself interested in the reading but not really grasping the point in the long run.In the 1st chapter,"My Kafka Baggage", The son began to talk about how after he had returned home from LA he found a dead cockroach in his bag. First i asked myself why a cockroach? Why not something that dies regularly like a stink bug, or a lady bug. My initial thought was that Alexie used a cockroach because everyone knows that cockroaches don't die easily or very often. The rumor mill has it they could survive a nuclear war, so why a cock roach. It then makes a point to state that it was a single coach roach in his bag. Also unusual that there weren't more, because usually when there is one there is bound to be more. The son then looks at it sadly and says, "For who is lonelier than the cockroach without his tribe?" This made me start thinking about how you need a support system to rely on, otherwise you will die inside, and be left alone with no help. However in the next chapter the sons states he has become deaf in his right ear. After hearing myths about people who have had cockroaches in their ears he beings to pray that an angel is in his ear and she will fly out and kiss him for giving her shelter to complete her metamorphosis. I think the angle kind of resembled a blessing of silence. He could just shut off the sounds of his two little boys running around and finally just lay. When at the hospital with his father the only connection i could find was that while his father was dying he ran into another Indian family that was experiencing a birth. This made me think of the circle of life where comes a death a birth will follow. This also can go back to the angel finishing her metamorphosis. After these few chapter and the interview with Leonard Elmore, the man who fought next to the sons father in World War 2, i felt like the rest of the story was the son just complaining and whining about his benign tumor and the doctors requested treatment plan. The Tumor ended up not growing in size like the doctor had told him and then he seems unappeased with that information. It was lie he wanted something to be seriously wrong so he could be messed up like his dad. Did he crave attention because the lack tor of attention his father gave him as a younger boy? Overall i enjoyed the 1st five chapters then LE's story in chapter ten, but other than that i wasn't very impressed.

Best American Non-Required Reading of 2010

While reading the editor's note in the collections Best American Non-Required Reading 2010, I learned that the pieces in this book are not chose by stuffy publishing companies but by people much like myself. Once a week high schoolers from the San Fran Bay area to lower Michigan get together and read individually the pieces that are sent to them. They then talk and decide which ones give them that "gut" feeling about which ones deserve their space that other companies may have not given them. I enjoyed reading this because i feel as though it helped me connect to the pieces in this book at another level aside from just being another assigned reading from my professor. Knowing that students my age thought enough about these articles and that composition was important enough to them to take their time and do this made me look at this book in another light. The introduction was well written and had a nice point behind it but i feel like David Sedaris took too many roads to actually get to his real point. After all the intros and what not one of the 1st pieces i read was Best Women Comedy Piece. This was a great piece to start off with because it got you laughing and gave u a sense of what this reading was going to be like. I enjoyed how Wendy Molyneux actually wrote this article telling the reader everything she was doing while she wasn't writing. Her sarcastic and witty jokes were easy to follow however clever enough to get. Next i read about the overqualified Joey Comeau. This man actually sent real letter to companies telling him why he was great for the job, or maybe too good for it. Imagining a company like Nintendo or Hallmark actually taking time out of their day and reading these fake resumes was too good. The idea was great and the writer was hysterical. Next was a piece by Berry Lopez which was under the category Best American 350-Word Story. The 350 word story came from a cause trying to rise awareness of the climbing CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Basically this story was a man walking along a path and finding a piece of the inner earth that could only be there from a splurging volcano. However with no volcano's in site and with this rare piece of mineral in hand he leaves it behind instead of taking it with him to show his daughter he was trekking to see. The moral of the story is that the earth we live in now isn't ours to take, but  better place to leave behind for our sons and daughters. However with climbing CO2 levels and excess amounts of fossil fuel emissions being let into the atmosphere we are making that task virtually impossible. I thought this reading was a great alternative to the regular facts and boring lectures about what we need to do. Last but not least i finished reading  piece titled, Best American Poems Written in the Last Decade by Soldiers and Citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan. Right off the bat i knew that no matter if i agreed or disagrees about the war in Iraq this collection was important above all other. These poems are from men on the front lines risking their lives. No matter the cause those men deserve the up most respect. I was surprised to see that the poems were published in the context they were. Usually the press will only release things that are uplifting and showing hope to then end of this conflict, however this was different. All of the poems were dismal and sad. The men writing them i felt what they were trying to say, and it was a very sad read, but every important at the same time. Overall i enjoyed all of these reading very much. No matter the message they weren't the typical messages said in the same typical ways. Maybe the reason why i liked them so much was because the title of the book was "NON-REQUIRED READING". If the title was changed to "Required Reading", the feeling may be different.