Bookworm Wednesday: Unbroken

One of the best books I have ever read. It will make you feel patriotic this 4th of July week and incredibly amazed and grateful to the soldiers who have literally given everything for the freedoms we enjoy today.

This deserves every ounce of praise it has received. A postively incredible story by an impeccable writer. Hillenbrand is a magician with words, so well thought out and researched and Louie Zamperini...I loved him from the moment he was introduced to us at 2 years old until he was well passed 90. Each segment of the book was fascinating and good enough to stand on its own. I read this aloud to Mike on our 35 hour drive and we couldn't wait to get to it everyday. Inspiring, beautiful, and full of hope and resillience. It would be a great read or audiobook...fantastic for men or women and may be especially great for a dad who loves books and war stories. If you haven't read it, you should!

Amazon.com summary: On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.