Book 17: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

I.e. not Seabiscuit. It's important, I think, for people who read this book to realize going into it that it is not Seabiscuit. It turns out that being in a Japenese POW camp is a lot more...harrowing than horse racing. Unbroken tells the story of Louis Zamperini, one time Olympic runner turned WWII soldier. It recounts his early life as a runner, then his war experiences, notably the part about how his plane crashed and he spent nearly 2 months adrift on a life raft, surrounded by sharks, followed by a couple of years in a Japanese prison camp, then follows him home and details his life after the war as he attempts to come to terms with everything that happened to him. As I suggested, I was a little unprepared for how relentlessly grim much of this book is, although there's not really any reason why I should have been. Except for Seabiscuit. But I stuck with it because it is a hell of a good story, and very well told. My good luck streak with narrative non-fiction (AKA my new favorite genre) continues. I can't even begin to list the warning labels this book should come with. Though I do think Hillenbrand handles the gritty details as non-sensationally as possible without doing any sugarcoating.