Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - 473 pages

Rags to riches, Olympic Medal winner, WWII, lost at sea, POW, torture, alcoholism, PTSD, and the power of the Gospel. 

Hillenbrand masterfully tells the powerful true story of a real hero, Louis Zamerini. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this book is going to be the best book I read this year....because it's one of the best books I've ever read. And it's all true. Read it.

Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon by Edward Dolnick - 400 pages

My super awesome sister-in-law Miriam bought this book for me a few years back and I finally got to it this year.  It's the story of the first expedition down the Colorado into the Grand Canyon. 

Adventure, white-water danger, one-armed manly men, presuppositional atheistic geology, Mormon murder mystery...all told in breathtaking detail by award winning journalist Edward Dolnick.

 Excellent read!

A Short Life of Jonathan Edward by George Marsden - 152 Pages

Despite the fact that this is a distillation of Marsden's much larger biography - Jonathan Edwards: A Life - this book still delivers much insight, information, and illustration of the dynamic life that was Jonathan Edwards.  In this short work Marsden captures the impact that this obscure pastor in an obscure new world was used by God to change the whole world.  Like most historical figures, the extent of Jonathan Edwards' influence was not seen until after his death and Marsden does a great job of connecting the dots for the modern reader.

Three thoughts that have lingered since reading this book are:

1.  Conflict:  Most of Edward's defining moments came out of conflict.  Conflict with his culture, conflict with his congregation, conflict with his soul.  Edwards was a man of conviction - compromise - for better or for worse - was completely foreign to him.

2.  Emotion:  I had no idea how emotion driven the Great Awakening was.  I wonder what the Strange Fire crew would have thought of it.

3.  Benjamin Franklin:  Marsden often brought attention to the fact that Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards where contemporaries.  Although they never met as far as we know, their stories and journeys intersected in many places and Marsden masterfully weaves the reader through understanding the significance of these two lives.


I look forward in the future to reading more of and about this influential jar of clay.