Unbroken

I just finished one of the better books I have read in a really long time.  It is called Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand.  If you enjoy reading about history, especially World War II stories, this is definitely a must-read!

The book is about a man, Louie Zamperini, who is known as quite the trouble maker as a child.  He gets into all sorts of mischief, and his parents don't know what to do about him.  When we gets a little older, his brother urges him to join the track team.  Turns out, he is really good at running.  He ends up going to the Olympics, he doesn't win, but he does race in the finals.  The beginning of the book is about his journey as a runner.

After his first Olympics, which just so happened to be in Berlin right before WWII started, he decided to join the Air Force.  He ends up being sent to Hawaii after the Pearl Harbor attack.  There is even talk and stories about what people went through after the Pearl Harbor attack.  We hear tons of stories about the day, but you don't stop to think about what they people went through afterwards.  They had to black out their houses, they lived in constant fear whenever they heard planes flying over.  It's very interesting.

Louie is stationed with a flight team, and he has a special job on the plane.  I do not remember what it is specifically, but you have to read to find out :)  The story describes quite a few expeditions he does with his flight team, and you get nervous because you know something is going to have to happen soon.

On one flight, his plane went down.  Louie and 2 others from his team survived.  The author goes on to describe Louie's 46 day survival at sea on a raft.  They had to catch rain water so they had something to drink, they had to try to catch fish even though there were sharks stalking them, so they had something to eat.  They even catch birds with their bare hands and use them as food as well as bait to fish.  I can't believe what they had to go through.  After 46 days, they ended up at the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.  However, they got captured by the Japanese.  He and the one other crew member who was still alive were shipped to an island known as "execution island."  Luckily they survived, because the Japanese soldiers had heard about Louie and knew he was a well known runner.  However, everyone in the US assumed he was dead.  Louie ended up being sent to three different POW camps in Japanese.  You have to read the story to hear the details about specifically what they went through.  Everything was so dirty, they were forced into labor, the POWs were given hardly any food.  I am amazed at how many men survived these POW camps.  These men really had to have the will to survive to make it out of there-- it's crazy what they were put through.

I could go on and on describing this book.  It was so fantastic and I loved everything about it.  I was skeptical to read it, because I did not like Seasbiscuit, which was written by the same author.  I highly recommend this book.  It is an amazing story about a man who never gave up.

I'm already on to the new Nicholas Sparks book.  I was in the middle of this book when his new book came out, but I was able to resist.  However, I've already downloaded the new Nicholas Sparks book and I'm going to sit down and read it later today :)