One of my college professors once said that he thought that reading was a good pathway toward true Christianity. What he meant was that reading allows you to expand your world and your experiences beyond yourself, making you more capable of understanding other people, and therefore more compassionate.
That is certainly one of the reasons that I love reading, too: I love being able to see the perspectives drawn from all personality types, timeframes, geographic locations, and worldviews. And so, of course, I loved Unbroken.
It's the incredible story of Louie Zamperini-- incorrigible child, turned record-breaking miler, turned WWII air force bomber, turned prisoner of war, turned alcoholic, turned youth mentor. This true story was so fascinating to me that I started telling Soren about it as I read. He got so excited that he would beg me to read more so that I could tell him about what happened next.
I felt so connected with the people whose stories are told in Unbroken, as well as with the events described. I felt horrified at the atrocities that human beings can perpetrate on each other. I felt inspired at the strength of the human spirit. And I learned so much while reading it as well! I feel so much more the reality of the War in the Pacific,
Another thing I love about Unbroken is that it is written by Laura Hillenbrand, an incredible writer who, like Louie, has had to overcome serious obstacles to accomplish the things she has with her life. Hillenbrand suffers from debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome. She is very sick, and it is difficult for her to even leave her apartment, yet she persevered through pain, exhaustion, and vertigo to complete the research, interviews, and writing for two incredible best-selling nonfiction books. She, too, is unbroken.
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