One of the best of 2011…

Originally posted January, 2011

This book completely took my breath away. I was in love with Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, but this one eclipses it—and then some.

I downloaded this to my Kindle and thanked God I had it during a 16-hour roadtrip with my family. I was raptured by the book from page one.

I read during each five-minute drive between errands and for seven solid hours at a time. The tale of these men and what they endured during the war.

Hillenbrand creates characters that seem larger than life—characters that might not even fly if this was a “fiction” book. But the truth behind each chapter makes it all the more powerful and riveting.

The detail and depth of this book is astounding. As a writer, it blew me away as I imagined the amount of research, interviews and documents necessary to create such an opus.

This was a long book, but it didn’t feel like it. At the end I was grasping for more, soaking up each word of the acknowledgments. Whether or not you’re into WWII history, this is a story about human nature and redemption that will leave you walking away a different person.

If you only read one book in 2011, make it Unbroken.