On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit. Read more

Jaycee Dugaard's nightmare began when she was abducted while walking up a hill to her school bus on June 10, 1991, when she was 11 years old. It ended when her abductors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, were asked eighteen years later to attend a parole meeting August 26, 2009, after two UC Berkeley's campus officers became suspicious of Garrido when he appeared on campus with Jaycee's young daughters. Their unusual behavior sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home.

"A Stolen Life" is Jaycee Dugard's story of how she, beginning at the age of eleven and in isolation, confronted eighteen years of evil by doing what she had to do to survive mentally and emotionally. She found ways to save herself and to deal with her aloneness with memories (her mother's face), symbols (a bright moon which was oft shared with her mom), a commitment to two children sired by her deranged, porn and drug addicted, sex offender captor (no one will hurt these children, they are mine), dreams of a better future (detailed in her hidden journal), love, and hope.

"A Stolen Life" is told with unflinching detail. Readers will be unnerved by the failure of a Justice system designed to prevent predators like Garrido from abusing our children, and enraged by what the Garrido's did to Jaycee - losing her life and identity (she could not say or write her name but had to use a given name, Allisa) - and to her mother - who never lost hope. Jaycee can still hear the lock of the door of the soundproofed building she was forced to live in behind the Garrido's house and the squeaky bed on which she was repeatedly raped by Garrido - "the demon angels let him take her so he could cure his sexual problems. Society had ignored him. Now, he did not have to go out and molest other little girls." The sounds and smells of her existence don't leave...they continue to haunt her

Jaycee says her greatest fear was uncertainty, not knowing what was going to happen next. Garrido threatened `more' things would happen if she did not behave. She was never sure what `more' was. She promised to "do it" better, to be good. Unknown of the future was more terrifying than what she had to do.

Jaycee wrote the book to provide a precise account of ordeals inflicted on her by the Garridos with the hope that her story might help people facing difficult situations that they can endure and survive; and to share what victims of sex offenders feel and let other victims know that the shame is not theirs. Another goal was to inspire people get their head out of the sand and to speak out when they see something amiss. Finally, she wrote this for judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials whose job is to protect the public from people like Phillip and Nancy Garrido.

"A Stolen Life" is a courageous book and may prove to be the 9/11 for how the justice system monitors sex molesters after release from prison. --Thomas M. Loarie  Read more