Unbroken/Laura Hillenbrand/400 pgs

This might be the only non-fiction review you see from me all year as I tend to stick to fiction. Unbroken is a biography of Louis Zamperini, an irreverent and high-spirited Italian-American who was on his way to what looked like a spectacular Olympic career as a miler when World War II broke out. Louis became a bombardier in the Pacific theater after the United States entered the war. On a mission to search for a downed plane, Zamperini's own plane crashed into the ocean. He, Russell Phillips, and a third young man named Mac were the only survivors. While Mac died at some point, Zamperini and Phillips managed to stay alive for over 40 days adrift on the vast ocean, only to be "rescued" by the Japanese and taken as POWs. Their time as starved and beaten prisoners/slaves was just as horrific as their time lost at sea. But both survived.

This is an intense story, full of graphic scenes about the horrifying experience of these young men. I appreciated that this story wasn't just about Zamperini, the more famous of the two, but included the heroics and fortitude of Phillips as well. As mentioned, this is certainly not an easy read but a worthwhile one to learn about the "unbroken" spirit of ordinary young men who went off to fight in World War II.

The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA / Doug Mark / 336 pgs

I've really enjoyed this book! The author visited all of those U.S. territories that most of us know nothing about including Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and really gets a feel for the culture, the problems, the history, and everything else you could ever want to know about these places that are part of America, and yet not quite. I like how the author describes the islands that he visits. He shows the beautiful and the ugly and really gives life to the people who he meets on his journeys. I highly recommend if you're looking for a good book about travel.

For the ReadHarder challenge I am doing, I am using this book for the Travel Memoir category.