REVIEW: UNBROKEN BY LAURA HILLENBRAND AND WHY I MISS OPRAH...

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

The day I finished this book I felt a deep sense of sadness that Oprah was no longer on the air.  This was the kind of book she would do a show about, and have the people on to tell their story.  She just knows how to take a subject and go deeper, and enlighten and further inspire people.  In fact, it's because of her that I even read this book at all.  She sends these emails to people who sign up and was raving about it, so I googled it and snooped around and found that EVERYBODY was raving about it!  So I ordered it and read it in about 4 days.

Unbroken is a WWII memoir, but it's so much more than that!  It tells the story of Louis Zamperini, who was an olympic athlete who joins the fight via the airforce and is shot down over the pacific and is captured by the dreaded Japanese.  What follows is his unbelievable story of survival, and redemption.  And when I say unbelievable I mean HOLY-CRAP-ARE-YOU-EVEN-KIDDING-ME????!!  Kind of unbelievable.  This book is so masterfully crafted and written as a novel that it is impossible to put down.  IMPOSSIBLE.  I hands-down loved ever second of it.

If you enjoy reading stories about WWII this book is definitely for you.  If you enjoy reading stories about the human spirit.. this book is for you.  If you like to read books that have you on the edge of your seat this book is for you.  I think it is an extremely important story that everybody needs to read.  I am not the type of blogger that writes a detailed synopsis of books, just because I usually skim over any synopsis of books on blogs or reviews because I want to go in fresh, but there are plenty of them out there that do!  Click here to read more of a summary of the book.

5/5  HUGE ASS STARS.

Here's the trailer for it as well:

MAILBOX MONDAY -- JULY 25

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme that was created by Marcia over at The Printed page, this month it is being hosted by Gwendolyn over at A Sea of Books!

Since I haven't done a MM in awhile, I have quite a few books to report!  Most are on my Kindle, so I bought them, but I did get one book from Simon and Schuster Canada... THANK YOU!

Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts YA
Release date November 1, 2011

Here is the blurb from Amazon:
Since mankind began, civilizations have always fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs…Now it’s our turn. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening. An ancient evil has been unleashed, turning everday people into hunters, killers, crazies.

Mason's mother is dying after a terrible car accident. As he endures a last vigil at her hospital bed, his school is bombed and razed to the ground, and everyone he knows is killed. Aries survives an earthquake aftershock on a bus, and thinks the worst is over when a mysterious stranger pulls her out of the wreckage, but she’s about to discover a world changed forever. Clementine, the only survivor of an emergency town hall meeting that descends into murderous chaos, is on the run from savage strangers who used to be her friends and neighbors. And Michael witnesses a brutal road rage incident that is made much worse by the arrival of the police--who gun down the guilty party and then turn on the bystanding crowd.

Where do you go for justice when even the lawmakers have turned bad? These four teens are on the same road in a world gone mad. Struggling to survive, clinging on to love and meaning wherever it can be found, this is a journey into the heart of darkness – but also a journey to find each other and a place of safety

ON MY KINDLE:

Unbroken:  A World War II Story of Survivor, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Kindle Edition

I heard about this book from Oprah who emailed her fans that she was loving it and that it read like a novel.  This prompted me to google the book and holy moly are people all over the place loving it!  I downloaded the sample and as is Amazon's little trick they end the sample at an awesome part where you're like, "DAMN YOU AMAZON!!" And you have to buy it to find out what happens.  But this book really had me at "hello", and it has not let me go since.  So far an excellent read, and just brilliantly written.  I am about 23 % done, another little annoying thing about the Kindle.  I'm not sure what that is in PAGES, but I'm about 1/4 of the way through and so far highly recommend.  

You can click here to read more about it or to order.

 The Chimps of Fauna Santuary

by Andrew Westoll 

Kindle Edition

First of all I have to say that I love primates, all of them.  I actually studied 1 year of primatology in university, until I discovered as much as I loved them I hated collecting data more.  So I ixnayed the whole career in the science.  So, I am always up for a good ape story. 

I read about this book in our local newspaper awhile back, but at the time it was not available on kindle so I waited until it was.  What I like about it is it does not focus it's attention on the horrors of the lives of the chimps in the research facility, but of their rehabilitation.  

So far there is a fair amount of humour in it, something involving a cell phone smelling like chimp poop.  I like the guys voice, and I think it will be fun to read this from his perspective. 

You can click here to read more about it. 

And I know these last ones don't count because technically I haven't downloaded them yet, but I plan to later today, and it is a STEAL of a deal.  You can purchase the first four books in the Game of Thrones series on your Kindle for $9.99... thaaaaat's right, for 10 bucks you can have all four books!  I have the first book's sample downloaded and from all of the feedback from friends and family I am getting, I think I will really enjoy them.  Anyone out there agree?  Give me your thoughts on this series, I am very curious!  Historical fiction is my favourite genre, and eventhough I know that this is not historical, it is set in a fantasy world in that sort of medieval time period.. which... I ... love. 

For more Mailbox Monday's click here!