Here are some things I’ve been whining about lately.
- My right calf has been really itchy.
- I’m hold #166 on a book I really want from the library.
- My tax return was not nearly as large as I thought it was going to be!
- I want a kitten sooooo bad.
It’s times like this in life that we all need to read a quit-your-bitching book. This is it. “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand is guaranteed to pull you out of your high-pitched, teary-eyed funk.
I must emphasize this isn’t a quit-your-bitching book in the vein of “The Jungle” or “Angela’s Ashes” where you just feel depressed and want to give up on that cruel world. This book is positive, optimistic. It follows the true story of Louis Zamperini whose plane crashed in the Pacific in WWII. He survived in a raft for weeks only to become a POW in a Japanese internment camp. Yet he held on to hope and spirit. It’s unbelievable what the human body can survive, what the mind can endure.
Had a bad day, huh? Were there sharks circling your deflating life raft, lunging at your face? Were you forced to sleep in a hut with your own feces as a pillow? Did anybody beat the dignity out of you with a bamboo shoot? Is your answer no? Then I think your day isn’t going half bad.
I recently read Hillenbrand’s first book “Seabiscuit” which is also an excellent book. She is good at holding interest, suspense. Her writing style is fluid and poetic. But where “Seabiscuit” was an entertaining tale, this is another level of empowerment.
And if you need some empowerment and are too lazy to read a book?
Chrissy's Blog 
I read this book and thought it was amazing. It is good for us to remind ourselves just how lucky we are.
Once when I was in my twenties I was on lunch break with my co-workers and we were having a real bitch session about how tough our lives were. One of our supervisors,his name was Henry, pulled up his shirt sleeve to show us the numbers that were burned onto his arm. He told us that he had spent time in a concentration camp during WW II and that he had been forced to watch as his whole family was shot. I will never forget him.