Unbroken

  It may be hard to believe, but I've been reading like crazy lately.  I didn't expect to have any time to read with the baby coming, but I've actually had quite a bit of time for it.  Caleb spends so much time feeding and sleeping that I've had some time for myself, and even when he falls asleep in my arms, I can hold a book with the other hand.  Although, I sometimes have to backtrack a few paragraphs because I find myself staring at him rather than paying attention to what I'm reading.  It's all just so amazing...

  Last night I finished The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing's Greatest Generation , a staggering tale about the British mountaineering generation that followed Sir Edmund Hillary and the conquest of Everest.  I also made it through The World's Greatest Elephant , a tale about a boy and his elephant, but the book I read before that was simply amazing--it was one of those books that you could barely believe it was true.

  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (who also wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend Seabiscuit) is the story of Louie Zamperini.  He was best known as an Olympic runner until he was drafted and ended up as a bombardier on a B-24 in the Pacific theater of WWII.  Many people thought he might go on to be the first to break the 4:00 mile barrier, but instead he ended up cramped inside the nose of a bomber trying to help defeat the Japanese army that was seeking to control the Pacific.

  The story about his life before the war, circling around his running, is interesting enough, but then Louie is sent to war and eventually winds up in a damaged plane that goes down in the Pacific.  Louie and two others float for 47 days in two rafts with little to no resources while getting attacked by Japanese bombers and sharks that try to jump into the boat to eat them before they are captured by the Japanese and sent to prison camp.  Louie's life turns from bad to worse as he goes from one camp to another, where a guard devotes his life to trying to crush Louie's spirit.  It's a miracle that the guard did not succeed.

  It's an amazing story of endurance, one that eventually finds its way in a tent revival with Billy Graham.  The end of the story is a sweet conclusion filled with grace and highlighted by the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  It's not a story that I expected to be filled with forgiveness and new life, but Christ shows up in powerful ways, and this book is well-worth the read for the adventure as well as the lessons about how big forgiveness can be.