Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This is another book that I read because of my AP class. I do have to admit that I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. The Boys in the Boat  tells the story of the 1936 U.S. Olympic rowing team. This team came from Washington State and was made up of a seemingly rag-tag group of boys. One boy in particular, Joe, came from very humble circumstances. Having been basically abandoned by his family multiple times in his childhood, Joe lacked confidence. By the time he got to the Olympics, his coaches had helped him succeed. I know next to nothing about rowing, but that was not a requirement to understand this book. Daniel James Brown does a great job of explaining the sport, and also introducing the mechanics of the boats themselves. I thought much of the background information he provided about boats and the legendary builder of them fascinating, but at times unnecessary. Joe's story is in many ways inspiring but also heartbreaking. Brown describes his childhood and ho...

 This is a book that I plan to use in my AP Language class next year, and so, needed to read. Unbroken  follows the story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini. Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Louie's childhood and the trouble he caused in Torrance, California until he finally discovered running. From there, he competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. As World War II broke out, Louie was drafted and sent to the Pacific. On a rescue mission, Louie's plane went down over the water and the surviving two members of the crew and Louie floated on a raft for more than a month without being rescued. Instead, they landed in the Japanese-occupied Marshall Islands and taken prisoner. As prisoners of war under the Japanese, they were taken back to mainland Japan and placed in prison camps, forced into labor, unfed, and severely beaten. Louie survived two years in these camps, first at Ofuna, then Omori, and finally Noetsu. At the end of the war, the camps were liberated, and Lou...