Carolyn Holderness is one of the most down-to-earth women that I know. We met each other our freshmen year of college and have since kept in touch. I was delighted to reunite with her and her lovely family in Boston this January. Even though five years had passed since we last saw each other, we picked up right where we left off. Gotta love friendships like that. Her experience reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand gives me hope on reading books I do not immediately fall in love with. She stuck this one out and was richly rewarded.
Let me start with a seemingly irrelevant tangent and confession: there is no doubt that I was the worst qualifying member the Provo Make Your Own Greeting Card club ever had. The rules of the club were simple: make ten homemade cards once a month to exchange with friends. The first month, my husband stayed up for hours the night before the exchange and made ten homemade cards for me. The next month, I bought the most-homemade-looking box of cards I could find from the store and distributed those after carefully making sure there were no bar codes or any other clues that gave away my lack of creativity. So three years later, when I joined a local book club in the Boston area, I set a goal to be a better club member. It was my failure that motivated me to read.
The first book we read was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. I checked out the book and delved into the story. My first impression was that I couldn’t possibly enjoy the book. How could I when I didn’t relate to the main character, and when I thought he had no redeeming qualities? I looked around my apartment and thought of at least ten things that would be a better use of my time. I continued to read, though, and I’m so glad I did. I ended up looking forward to my children’s bedtime so that I could curl up on the couch and read a few chapters. By the time I finished the book it was on my list of favorites. Louis Zamperini inspires readers by his refusal to surrender to his hopeless circumstances.
The first book we read was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. I checked out the book and delved into the story. My first impression was that I couldn’t possibly enjoy the book. How could I when I didn’t relate to the main character, and when I thought he had no redeeming qualities? I looked around my apartment and thought of at least ten things that would be a better use of my time. I continued to read, though, and I’m so glad I did. I ended up looking forward to my children’s bedtime so that I could curl up on the couch and read a few chapters. By the time I finished the book it was on my list of favorites. Louis Zamperini inspires readers by his refusal to surrender to his hopeless circumstances.
Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.
As I read, I found myself learning right along with Louis Zamperini and rediscovering that:
What God asks of men is faith. His invisibility is the truest test of that faith. To know who sees him, God makes himself unseen.
When I finished the book, I wanted to know more about Louis, more about World War II, and more about myself. I wanted to know more about the human mind and the capabilities we have. I Googled Louis Zamperini and became emotional when I watched a recent video of an interview with him. As it turns out, I am grateful for my initial failure because it pushed me to discover an inspirational book that left me with a new perspective.
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If you are interested in writing a guest post about your favorite book for Dog-Eared Pages, please email me at amyleescott [at] gmail [dot] com. I would love to share!
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