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4.46k reviews for:
Unbroken (Movie Tie-in Edition): A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand, Laura Hillenbrand
4.43 AVERAGE
4.46k reviews for:
Unbroken (Movie Tie-in Edition): A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand, Laura Hillenbrand
4.43 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
One of the best books I have read in a while. I enjoyed it so much, I keep telling everyone needs to read it. It sure opened my eyes about a certain part of our country's history. WOW, truly a GREAT read!!!! All, I have to say is..."The Bird"...OMG!
Very well researched and written, intense to say the least, and a great primer on WWII.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
I read this novel for a book club and for whatever reason I thought that this was a holocaust survivor story so it was a nice surprise to find out that it was about American bomber planes and the Japanese as I had not read any biographical content on this part of the war.
I have to admit there was something about Laura's writing that took me a bit to get used to. I found the first few chapters long and way too drawn out and it took me a little bit to get used to her sentence structure for whatever reason. With that being said, I became very involved and captivated with the story and the characters after the first few chapters. I also appreciated the amount of effort that Laura took in collaborating this remarkable story. It must have been such an honour and a pleasure to interview Louie.
I honestly still can't get my head around the amount suffering Louie and his comrades were subjected to after being captured by the Japanese. How does someone go on in those conditions? The resilience displayed by Louie and his friends still amaze me. What I don't understand is how a someone can cause that much pain and discomfort to another human being. I am glad that near the end Laura included some of the perspectives of the tormentors, specifically the Bird, not that it validates at all what they did but it is despicable to me the things that some people can convince themselves of. I recall feeling as vengeful and angry as Louie did in the novel though I don't know if I found the same peace as Louie at the end. I want people to be punished for their crimes and I don't feel like the Bird ever was.
I really appreciated that the book continued on after Louie finally made it back home to his family. So many war related stories stop once they've reached the safety of home but while one battle has ended another one begins. So I'm very thankful that Laura was able to provide insight into the PSTD that these men experienced and how they were able to overcome that final battle.
I have to admit there was something about Laura's writing that took me a bit to get used to. I found the first few chapters long and way too drawn out and it took me a little bit to get used to her sentence structure for whatever reason. With that being said, I became very involved and captivated with the story and the characters after the first few chapters. I also appreciated the amount of effort that Laura took in collaborating this remarkable story. It must have been such an honour and a pleasure to interview Louie.
I honestly still can't get my head around the amount suffering Louie and his comrades were subjected to after being captured by the Japanese. How does someone go on in those conditions? The resilience displayed by Louie and his friends still amaze me. What I don't understand is how a someone can cause that much pain and discomfort to another human being. I am glad that near the end Laura included some of the perspectives of the tormentors, specifically the Bird, not that it validates at all what they did but it is despicable to me the things that some people can convince themselves of. I recall feeling as vengeful and angry as Louie did in the novel though I don't know if I found the same peace as Louie at the end. I want people to be punished for their crimes and I don't feel like the Bird ever was.
I really appreciated that the book continued on after Louie finally made it back home to his family. So many war related stories stop once they've reached the safety of home but while one battle has ended another one begins. So I'm very thankful that Laura was able to provide insight into the PSTD that these men experienced and how they were able to overcome that final battle.
this is an incredible story, very well researched and written.
I am not going to finish this book, not because it is bad, because it isn't.
There are certain things that just make you shiver and feel all queasy and panicky if you allow your brain to linger on them more than a split second. One of mine is being buried alive. You know, the whole waking up in a casket thing with no chance in hell of getting out until you die for real, days later.... that idea just creeps me out. When this happens in a book, they don't typically put it on the back blurb, so I am usually blindsided by it ([b:The Vanishing|598535|The Vanishing (The Golden Egg)|Tim Krabbé|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176153305s/598535.jpg|1185680], [b:Revelation|618197|Revelation (Rai-Kirah, #2)|Carol Berg|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176386089s/618197.jpg|2324717]) and I spend hours, days or longer trying to squash the unwanted images it provokes. Burning alive comes a close second. (Just for the record: I want to be cremated. If I'm not actually dead dead when that happens at least it'll be over quick.)
So with the help of this book I have come to realize that slowly starving to death on a raft in the Pacific Ocean is also in the top 3 of I-really-do-not-want-to-die-like-this. The prologue, where we visit with 3 men on the verge of death on a raft with sharks circling around is burned in my brain already. Very much in a unpleasant way, I assure you.
Like [b:Seabiscuit: An American Legend|110737|Seabiscuit An American Legend|Laura Hillenbrand|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171644213s/110737.jpg|17572], this book is well written, meticulously researched and detailed, but still entertaining. So I sailed through Zamperini's childhood, his running career and early war career as a bomber. I started getting a little uncomfortable when he started flying the actual missions with so many near misses. Then we get a nice expose about how freaking unlikely it was that these fliers were ever found if they happened to go down in the ocean. And then the plane crashes. And I stopped reading. And couldn't get myself to go back to it for days. And finally I realized I so do not want to provide my overactive imagination with a detailed story of how these men end up like described in the prologue. Can't do it. It may well be worse than burning alive (although being buried alive would still hold the #1 spot, because of the added claustrophobia and darkness). I really really do not want to know how this story goes. Especially not in the meticulous detail [a:Laura Hillenbrand|30913|Laura Hillenbrand|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1269922635p2/30913.jpg] will undoubtedly describe their misery.
Yeah, I know, Zamperini survives. But there are 3 guys on that raft in the prologue. And the fact that he survives is not going to erase the images from my brain. So I expect to lead a marginally happier life by not reading the rest of this book......
There are certain things that just make you shiver and feel all queasy and panicky if you allow your brain to linger on them more than a split second. One of mine is being buried alive. You know, the whole waking up in a casket thing with no chance in hell of getting out until you die for real, days later.... that idea just creeps me out. When this happens in a book, they don't typically put it on the back blurb, so I am usually blindsided by it ([b:The Vanishing|598535|The Vanishing (The Golden Egg)|Tim Krabbé|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176153305s/598535.jpg|1185680], [b:Revelation|618197|Revelation (Rai-Kirah, #2)|Carol Berg|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176386089s/618197.jpg|2324717]) and I spend hours, days or longer trying to squash the unwanted images it provokes. Burning alive comes a close second. (Just for the record: I want to be cremated. If I'm not actually dead dead when that happens at least it'll be over quick.)
So with the help of this book I have come to realize that slowly starving to death on a raft in the Pacific Ocean is also in the top 3 of I-really-do-not-want-to-die-like-this. The prologue, where we visit with 3 men on the verge of death on a raft with sharks circling around is burned in my brain already. Very much in a unpleasant way, I assure you.
Like [b:Seabiscuit: An American Legend|110737|Seabiscuit An American Legend|Laura Hillenbrand|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171644213s/110737.jpg|17572], this book is well written, meticulously researched and detailed, but still entertaining. So I sailed through Zamperini's childhood, his running career and early war career as a bomber. I started getting a little uncomfortable when he started flying the actual missions with so many near misses. Then we get a nice expose about how freaking unlikely it was that these fliers were ever found if they happened to go down in the ocean. And then the plane crashes. And I stopped reading. And couldn't get myself to go back to it for days. And finally I realized I so do not want to provide my overactive imagination with a detailed story of how these men end up like described in the prologue. Can't do it. It may well be worse than burning alive (although being buried alive would still hold the #1 spot, because of the added claustrophobia and darkness). I really really do not want to know how this story goes. Especially not in the meticulous detail [a:Laura Hillenbrand|30913|Laura Hillenbrand|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1269922635p2/30913.jpg] will undoubtedly describe their misery.
Yeah, I know, Zamperini survives. But there are 3 guys on that raft in the prologue. And the fact that he survives is not going to erase the images from my brain. So I expect to lead a marginally happier life by not reading the rest of this book......
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
A straightforward account of a crazy POW survival story. Pros: a page-turner, a story worth telling that sheds light on the awful treatment of POWs by the Japanese during World War II, and a deeply researched and footnoted work. Cons: lacks writer's voice and creative structure, nearly succeeds at making an unbelievable story dull.
I’m not big on war books, I enjoyed the humor and found this very educational