Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Laura Hillenbrand recounts the story of World War II hero Louis Zamperini in Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption.  Zamperini was a troubled youth until encouraged, or maybe forced, by his brother Pete to become a distance runner.  Zamperini participated in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, and his performance helped propel the young runner onto the world stage.  Zamperini was preparing for the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo when World War II broke out.  He entered the Army and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as a bombardier.  After harrowing bombing runs against Japanese bases from his base in Hawaii, Zamperini’s plane crashed into the ocean.  Zamperini and his surviving crewmates were lost in the ocean with Zamperini spending over 40 days in a life raft.  After his recovery from the ocean, Zamperini experienced brutal conditions in Japanese captivity.   The reader is left with the question of how and will Zamperini survive his incredible and horrifying story.      

Hillenbrand is a solid author who spins a story that is engaging.  Readers will be regret putting down Unbroken when in the midst of the story.  And Zamperini’s story, of which I was not aware, is incredible.  It leads one to wonder how we did not discuss Zamperini more often in history courses as a representative of those held captive by the Japanese.  I left the story understanding how these men would have seen the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima as a god send as Hillenbrand chronicles events in several POW camps around the events of the flight of the Enola Gay.  Hillenbrand does an excellent job of providing tension to her readers as one questions if Louis, crewmates, or other POWs will survive the war.  Additionally, this is a book that I have been talking about as I read it.  My copy will be passed to a co-worker as I have been unable to not share Zamperini’s story as I dug into Unbroken.  Along with being well-written the text is also well researched using both oral interviews and archival documents.  Sources also come from both the United States and Japan. 

           

Unbroken is an excellent book that I cannot recommend enough.  It helped provide a very personal and engaging face to the facts and figures of Americans in POW captivity.  And with a story that includes castaways at sea is highly engaging.                                 

Review Copy Provided by WaterBrook Multnomah

The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances by Andy Andrews

The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews presents two compelling and engaging stories. The first story, which consists of parts 1 and 3 of the book, tells the story of Andrews’ discovery of World War II German U-Boat artifacts in his Gulf Coast yard and his own personal journey to uncover the origins of how these items got into his yard. The second story details the ramification of a chance encounter between Josef a German submariner who becomes separated from his German U-Boat while patrolling the Gulf of Mexico during 1942 and Helen a woman deeply hurt by personal loss leading to anger with God and everyone she is in contact with. Their story is one of grace and ultimately forgiveness allowing each to gain a fresh start on life.

I started this book expecting it to read much like Andrew’s The Traveler’s Gift which used an interesting story to present a number of principles. Instead, this book uses both stories to underscore one valuable lesson, the power of forgiveness and the freedom it gives the forgiver. The book itself and both stories within it are engaging. This combined with the fact that the story is based on real people, made it difficult for me to keep from peeking to the end of the book and where they are now section or searching the internet for information about U-166, Josef’s boat. The story of Josef and Helen combine elements that both men and women will enjoy, giving the reader images of both U-571 and The Notebook as they race through the text. If Andrews’s goals were to entertain and provide a valuable lesson about forgiveness, he has achieved his desire. The Heart Mender is a release of Andrews’ Island of Saints, which he notes had a vocal but small audience. This rerelease will hopefully expose more readers to this engaging tale.

Review Copy provided by Thomas Nelson