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

Mailbox Monday is a meme  created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books, that is now being hosted at different blogs on a monthly basis. This month, you can find Mailbox Monday links at A Sea of Books. Come have a look at the books we're all collecting!

Here's the book I bought today: Unbroken. A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. I've heard some buzz about the book and thought it sounded interesting, but I don't read a whole lot of nonfiction except for research or for things I have a particular interest in. However, this is the July selection for a book club I've participated in before and am trying to attend more regularly. I downloaded the sample pages on my Nook and I have to say, I can't remember ever reading a more riveting preface. We were out at my local independent bookstore today (hooray for the indies!) and I bought the book. (I still prefer paper to the Nook.) I'm determined to make it to this month's book club meeting, so now I have to read the book. Has anyone read it? Is it as good as the preface?

GOODREADS DESCRIPTION: 

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