Hillenbrand's biography of Louis Zamperini, a one-time Olympic runner and a World War II POW in Japan, surprised me. Given its popular success, I thought it would be much more of a feel-good story; don't get me wrong, it lives up to its title -- Zamperini is indomitable. But it doesn't shy away from a very dark time in Zamperini's life, and the unflinching look is both intensely uncomfortable and necessarily enlightening.
laura hillenbrand