Unbroken

Hello all, as usual, Julie was the hostess with the mostess, showing us all up with Salmon en Croute, I am so impressed! Thanks for allowing us to come, it was a blast as usual.

Thanks also to Fiona for setting up our own blog! This should be fun and a great way for us all to weigh in on our books, our recipes and our travels. It may take me a bit to get used to, but I have been wanting to try blogging, so here goes.

As far as the book goes, we were all in agreement (except one person perhaps?) that Unbroken was a great read, really well written and an extraordinary story. Although very readable, there were several among us (me, in particular) who had to put the book down periodically, it was just too painful to read. The hardships just never seemed to stop, in fact they didn't until liberation. How anyone could physically endure all that was beyond belief, not to mention the mental endurance required.

Most of us liked the characters (at least the American ones) and the statistics about the Japanese soldiers and POWS were eye-opening, a real revelation. That also seemed to be our consensus, this was a fascinating new look at a sad period of time in the world.

Laura Hillenbrand did a masterful job with the material, she writes like an angel (in my opinion). All the more remarkable that she is unable to leave her house for weeks at at time as she suffers from a severe case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In interviews she talks about how on some days she has to choose between taking a shower or brushing her teeth as she does not have enough energy for both.
Lucky for us, it gives her a lot of time to find interesting subjects. This one she found while doing research for Seabiscuit, as Louis Zamperini was often mentioned in same articles, as in the fastest horse and the fastest human. She herself is an interesting subject, it is worth reading up on her. Given her condition and history, it is unlikely she will write another book anytime soon, so that might be a good way to hear the way she can position a story and draw out a conclusion - even when you know how it ends.

On to our next book - Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind by Ellen Brown and John Wiley, both of Richmond. John Wiley evidently has one of the largest collections of GWTW memorabilia (the book version) in the world and Ellen Brown became fascinated with him and the collection, hence the book. Since they are from Richmond, I am going to try to include them in our next meeting, or go to see the collection, wish me luck!

Backup plan is to meet at Amuse, on August 1st at 6:30. In the meantime, post your further comments and your recipes if you so choose, see you all soon!