Everyday Carry

Unbroken

Louis Zamperini: Olympic runner, bomber crash, 47 days on a raft, then two years in Japanese POW camps.

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Mike ManningBy Mike Manning
Marine veteran, gym owner, dad
Recon Report: full review pendingPhotos: Laura HillenbrandUpdated 2026-10-04
More from Laura Hillenbrand

Product Information, Not A Review

Specs, pricing and buying notes taken from the manufacturer so you can compare this against whatever else you are looking at. I have not had this one in my hands. When it goes through real use it gets rewritten as a full review, with a rating and my own photos.

Unbroken

Quick Specs

CategoryEveryday Carry
BrandAmazon
ReviewedOct 4, 2026
AuthorLaura Hillenbrand
CategoryWWII, survival
FormatsAudible and print

What Stands Out

  • Hillenbrand's research is exhaustive and it never reads like research
  • The raft section alone would carry a book; it is a third of this one
  • The postwar chapters on what captivity did to him are the ones that matter most
  • A genuinely hard-to-stop audiobook

What To Check

  • POW chapters are brutal and sustained
  • The film covers maybe half of it and stops before the important part
  • Long

Why it is on this shelf

Every Dad Carry has a veterans section because I am a Marine and most of the people I train are veterans or married to one. This shelf exists partly to point at the books that do that experience justice, and partly because a long drive or a long session is the best time most of us get to read anything.

Audiobook or print

Both links are below. The general rule I use: memoir and narrative history go well on audio, because they are stories and a good narrator carries them. Anything with maps, photographs or a large cast you need to keep straight is easier in print.

One note on war memoirs

These are first-person accounts, and first-person accounts are shaped by the person telling them. Several of the books on this shelf have had details publicly disputed. That does not make them worthless, it makes them testimony rather than history. Read enough of them and the shape of the thing comes through.

The Short Version

Louis Zamperini: Olympic runner, bomber crash, 47 days on a raft, then two years in Japanese POW camps.

Mike Manning

MIKE MANNING

Founder, Every Dad Carry

Dad | Coach | Marine Corps Veteran

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