Unkbroken: A world War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Has anyone read this book or is anyone going to?

What did you think?



It's got such great reviews that I'm simply amazed by it. I haven't seen a book praised this much in a very, very long time. I can already see a movie in the next year.

https://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-Survival-Resilience-Redemption-ebook/product-reviews/B003WUYPPG/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I don't know why my title is so long.

I've been reading it. The first half of the book is great. It's an incredible story, full of drama and war etc etc. I do have to say, though, that the author was obviously rather uncritical of the material - she happily recounts anecdotes and stories that are obviously exaggerated. It begins to drag after that though. I'm still slowly working my way through it, but I've been reading other books in between bouts of it. I want to know what happens next, but actually reading it has turned into a bore.

I dropped it in favor of Wise Man's Fear, which was an absolutely fantastic book (sequel to Name of the Wind, also a great book). Right now I'm reading Water for Elephants, which is a pretty terrible book. About a third of the book is nothing but nursing home cliches and the rest of it is set in a traveling circus in the early part of the 20th century. The circus parts have the right dialog, but the prose has a very modern dry style identical to the modern nursing home parts and all the circus characters blend together into sort of one "circus folk." Some of them show some changes, but no development. It's overly sentimental and simplistic. Thankfully it's short. Very disappointed in it.

I haven't read Unbroken yet, but I plan on doing so once I get done with three others.

Wise Man's Fear and the Name of the Wind are superb. I loved both of those books, they're among my favorite fantasies.

Yeah, Water for Elephants was a huge disappointment and I don't get what so many people praise it. While it may be heavily researched as far as circus life goes, the author completely abandoned putting any effort into her characters. They were all pretty one dimension with sides of two. The writing was on a level for middle-schoolers and the dialog was the worst. What really bothered me is that she paid no attention to the time period and she made her characters say things like "whatever," and "duh" when those phrases didn't exist back then. Character development lacked... I mean, I had no idea why Jacob loved or even liked Marlena. She was just this thing with no personality and Jacob was infatuated with her from the moment he saw her. It was a pretty sucky book.

The movie was quite good though, but I watched it before I read the book.

Maybe I'll see the movie once I'm done with the book.

Unbroken is good for historical perspective if nothing else. Gives you a good view of prewar life and what the war in the Pacific was really like. We've all been fed with images and stories and videos of the European theater since we were little, but much less about the Pacific and what happened in Japan.

Speaking of historical perspective, I've also recently finished a few Ken Follett books: Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, and Fall of Giants. All three are absolutely superb. The level of historical research and study that went into these massive novels (PotE - 12th century, WWE - 14th century, FoG - WWI) is absolutely staggering, and the stories are engaging all the way through. After I finished each book, I felt like I had just completed a semester-long course focusing on each historic period. FoG was the least good in terms of characterization, but what it lacked in development and sympathetic characters it more than made up for with plot, historic details, perspective, and teaching ability.

I'll have to check out those three. I know you mentioned Pillars of Earth before and it's on my list. So far you seem to like all the books I do.

Another really good one is the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's pretty accurate but is more character focused with history tying the narrators existence together... which is what I love when I want to read historical fiction.

One book you should avoid though, and even though you are a a guy is Outlander by Diana Glibadon which is more historical fiction than any other genre. One of the worst books I have ever had the displeasure of reading. I'm so mad at that book. It's horrible. I've had that book shoved in my face with recommendation after recommendation for years and finally this past weekend, I decided to read it after not being able to read to get into it in the past and it's really one of the worst books I have ever read. You're better suited to read a history book which would have been far more interesting that that stupid book. I'm through reading books that people recommend unless I know their reading preference before hand.

Excellent. I put Book Thief on my list and will try to remember to avoid Outlander

I'm also thinking about the Master and Commander series. Sounds like a similar genre, and that setting is one we see a lot of in movies but have very little realistic grasp of. I've clearly found I'm rather fond the historical fiction genre.

Awesome lol. Hmm... don't' know much about the Master and Commander Series. I've haven't even seen the movie so I can't really comment. Let me know how it goes if you do try it.