Unbroken

image from nytimesbestseller.net

I just finished an amazing book about a remarkable man. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand relates the absolutely inspiring life story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic athlete, a soldier in the Pacific during World War II and, ultimately, a man who did not allow the extreme challenges in his life to permanently break him. Or, perhaps Louie's story isn't so much about how to deny life the opportunity to break oneself, but is instead a story that proves that it is the way we put the pieces back together, after being broken, that truly define us.

This excerpt, from when Louie began to run seriously, moved me.  Perhaps it was my own physical proximity to where he had been decades earlier, but I felt as if I knew exactly what he had experienced.

"...he went to stay at a cabin on the Cahuilla Indian reservation, in southern California's high desert...He ran up and down hills, over the desert, through gullies...He didn't run from something or to something, not for anyone or in spite of anyone; he ran because it was what his body wished to do."

I imagine it looked like this...

Get this book for athletes, veterans, WW II history buffs, and anyone struggling with personal challenges. It is unforgettable.