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Leisure reading: Book Recommendations from Librarians and Others

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand

 

Currently sitting at the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list for non-fiction, Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resliience, and Redemption, is a page turner.  Written by Laura Hillenbrand, who also wrote the bestseller Seabiscuit, the book is the story of Louis Zamperini, an world class runner, who as a bombadier in the Pacific was shot down, endured 47 days on a raft, with little or no food or water, and finally was rescued by the Japanese, only to be placed in some of their most cruel POW camps.  The experience was horrific. and when Zamperini was finally released at the end of the war, he rapidly spiraled into a life filled with thoughts of revenge on his captors, and alcoholism.  An encounter with evangelist Billy Graham on one of Graham's earliest revivals, turned Zamperini's life around.  Zamperini is still alive at the age of 93, and still has the positive life-affirming attitude that he reached after his meeting with Graham.

This book is not an easy book to read.  The hardships and torture portrayed are very disturbing, but the book is very well written and researched and the main character is worthy of your interest. 

Zamperini comes across as one of the finest examples of what Tom Brokaw called "The Greatest Generation."

I am giving my copy to the library, and it should be on the shelves of the popular reading section in about two weeks.

Ann Noble, Library Director  (February 26, 2011)

 

Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Rex Stout

Rex Stout's novels and short stories about Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are some of the best detective stories ever written.  Wolfe is one of the most eccentric detectives ever created; he is heavy and lazy, seldom leaves his house, spends hours a day with his orchid collection, argues constantly with his chef about gourmet dishes, and solves crimes only because he needs the money.  The stories are narrated by Archie Goodwin who serves as Wolfe's legman as well as his gadfly who prods him into solving cases. 
 
The series began in the 1930s with FER-DE-LANCE and continued into the late 1970s.  The books can be read independently of each other, but, if read consequitively, they offer an extended commentary on America in the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war period.  THE DOORBELL RANG attracted considerable attention when it first appeared because it was one of the first books ever to criticize J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. 
 
Although the puzzles are intricate and compelling, most readers enjoy the series because of the interaction of Archie and Nero.  Particularly memorable is Wolfe's destruction, page by page, of a dictionary of which he does not approve. 
 
HCU has all of the series and most of them remain in print.
Jon Suter (March 2, 2011)
"Bitter End" — Carl Mueller illustrated Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe novella for The American Magazine (November 1940)