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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption
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Archive: Other Books > Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption 4.5 stars rounded up

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Karin | 9252 comments 4.5 stars

Olympian Louis Zamperini was one of two Americans who survived 47 days on a life raft in the Pacific after their plane crashed during World War II, who then spent the rest of the war in Japanese POW camps. This book starts with Louis' misspent early youth, moves to his brother's insistence he turn his energy into running, his one time in the Olympics--he could have been the first runner to break the 4 minute mile if World War II hadn't intervened. In Japan, Zamperini was absolutely hated by the most brutal prison guard.

One of the things I prefer about the book to the movie is that Hillenbrand doesn't stop when American planes fly over the camps when the war was over. I listened to the audiobook which is very well done, and liked this better than Seabiscuit: An American Legend, which I gave 4 stars. My teenage son wanted to listen to this with me, or I'd have finished it sooner. He saw the movie at school, but liked the book much better.


message 2: by Joi (new) - rated it 5 stars

Joi (missjoious) | 3970 comments This is one of my top non-fiction books!


Book Concierge (tessabookconcierge) | 8447 comments Edward Herrmann does a marvelous job narrating the audio!


Karin | 9252 comments Aha, 3 of us with 5 stars for this one!


JoLene (trvl2mtns) | 1532 comments Make it 4...... however I don't recommend the movie at all!!!!
They left out a lost of the back story (as the must), but it became a jumbled mess.


message 6: by Karin (last edited Aug 17, 2017 10:33AM) (new) - rated it 5 stars

Karin | 9252 comments JoLene wrote: "Make it 4...... however I don't recommend the movie at all!!!!
They left out a lost of the back story (as the must), but it became a jumbled mess."


If I'd read this in print, it probably would have been 4 stars for me. Sometimes an audiobook makes the book better for me and I really can't rate it based on the print book I didn't read :).

I have only seen a few of the scenes, which weren't as good, but my son saw most of the movie at school and I respect his opinion on this; if it's not about airplanes he doesn't read much, but he liked this audiobook.


AsimovsZeroth (asimovszerothlaw) | 436 comments Sounds like you picked a much better WWII book than I did this month! I've never seen the movie, but with all these glowing reviews, I'm convinced this needs to go on my TBR list. Thanks for the review Karin!


Karin | 9252 comments LiteraryMania wrote: "Sounds like you picked a much better WWII book than I did this month! I've never seen the movie, but with all these glowing reviews, I'm convinced this needs to go on my TBR list. Thanks for the re..."

I hope you like it!


message 9: by Ladyslott (last edited Aug 19, 2017 08:32AM) (new) - rated it 5 stars

Ladyslott | 1880 comments I thought this book was outstanding, I read it when it first cam out and it was my favorite book that year. It's also on of PBT's Top Ten books in 2011 and 2012

I did not like the movie. It started well, but the POW portion went on far too long and was extremely graphic in its violence. I couldn't wait for it to end.


Jgrace | 3959 comments I'm glad I didn't see the movie, a choice I made becuase of comments here. The POW portion of the book was very disturbing. I couldn't listen to it and when I read that part of the book, it gave me bad dreams. Hard to imagine how anyone could survive that.


Karin | 9252 comments I'm glad now I haven't seen more than a few clips of the movie!


Book Concierge (tessabookconcierge) | 8447 comments My husband, who never read the book and is a combat veteran of Vietnam War, liked the movie. Thought it was realistic (and then some!), and gripping. Violent and graphic, to be sure, but so was the real experience.


Barbara M (barbara-m) | 2603 comments I love this in audio but it is not an easy book, emotion-wise. I had to borrow the book too because I needed to see the photos in the book. That happens to me with non-fiction audio - I miss that feature of DTBs.


message 14: by Karin (last edited Aug 20, 2017 03:33PM) (new) - rated it 5 stars

Karin | 9252 comments Book Concierge wrote: "My husband, who never read the book and is a combat veteran of Vietnam War, liked the movie. Thought it was realistic (and then some!), and gripping. Violent and graphic, to be sure, but so was the..."

Yes, I'm sure it is very realistic, but so is the book in its descriptions--they were not easy to listen to! However, there is a lot more to the story than could be fit into the movies. But I'd have far more nightmares watching the movie than listening to the book, and I didn't even live through it--what they went through was far, far worse than just hearing it.


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