You’re probably wondering what exactly happened with my title, well this week’s thing is about Spring but of course it’s Autumn for me! So I’m mashing the two together and we’re going to see what happens. Exploring My Bookshelves is a weekly meme co-hosted by Shannon @ For The Love of Words and Victoria @ Addlepates and Book Nerds. Each week we’re given a new theme and we get to talk about one book that relates to it.

And now! For the obligatory shelfie!

This week’s theme is:

A BOOK SET IN SPRING

Do you know, this was really quite a tricky one. I don’t really take much note of when books are set unless it’s absolutely crucial to the story line, like The Boys of Summer, or  something like that. But! After scouring through my bookshelves I tried to find a book that said it was set (or key events took place) in either March, April, or May. And I found one – and it’s totally not what you thought I’d post.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

ADD IT ON GOODREADS

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.

Genre: Historical Non-Fiction, War
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Published: February 2012 {1st pub. Nov. 2010}
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Pages: 473 {paperback}

Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

Cheery, right? Now, according to Goodreads this is non-fiction but I can’t see it saying ‘based on a true story’ anywhere, so I’m just assuming that it is and I haven’t looked hard enough. I should have read this by now but it’s sort of big which means I pick it up and go ehhhhhh and shy away from it. But I am actually really keen to read this one – it’s recently been made into a movie (directed by Angelina Jolie) and I refuse to watch it until I’ve read the book. Which will hopefully be soon. It’s all about a solider who, after spiralling in the ocean in his plane, is captured as a prisoner of war. I don’t know much else than that except that the main guy was training to be an Olympian . . . or became an Olympian . . . I’m not quite sure whether he made it or not – so that’ll make for a spectacular story. I can’t wait to read this because I loved The Railway Man by Eric Lomax (my review) which was utterly heartbreaking but beautiful nonetheless.

// GOODREADS // BUY //

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 Have you read this?

What did you think?

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~~ Kirstie ~~

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