New Year's Resolution and Inspiring Biographies

To begin the new year, I have made a new year's resolution to post to my blog at least twice a month!
When it comes to non-fiction, my greatest love is biography. I am intrigued and inspired by biographies - here are two titles that were memorable.


Unbroken : a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption  by Laura Hillenbrand
Written by the author of Seabiscuit, this biography chronicles the life of Louis Zamperini who was a troubled teen and then discovered his talent for running. Part of the US Olympic team, he competed in Berlin and was in training when the U.S. entered World War II. Zamperini was on a B-4 bomber that was shot down in the Pacific and survives a 47-day ordeal adrift on a life raft, only to be imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp. His story is one of resistance, survival, and redemption. Be warned that the narrative tends to be detail laden, but the life of Louis is worth the telling.

Another WWII biography features someone who might be more familiar to readers - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor who was part of the German Resistance during the Hitler regime. Bonhoeffer : pastor, martyr, prophet, spy : a righteous gentile vs. the Third Reich by Eric Metaxas. The biographer recounts the story of a man in pursuit of God, as well as his passion for Christian community. This book is a combination of the revelation of Bonhoeffer's character, mixed with an extensive survey of his theological writings. Exhaustive research makes the narrative cumbersome at times, but the reader will bear with the author's style to glean the richness of an outstanding German Christian in times of great turmoil.




Both books - highly recommended!