Read the book before you see the movie! “Pass the book, praise the ad campaign” by Christy Chase.

CBS Sunday Morning ran this story on Louis Zamperini on May 27, 2012. If you haven’t read the book, please note there are some spoilers!

Early in 2011, Louis Zamperini, the hero and subject of Unbroken, visited a journalism class at USC to discuss his story. Watch the interview here!

It was announced yesterday that the Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men, Fargo, etc.) will be working with Angelina Jolie on the film script for Unbroken. Jolie has been tapped at the film’s director.

Article: Coen Brothers team up with Jolie

Durham Region libraries are very happy to announce that the 2013 Pass the Book title is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resiliance, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. Telling an unforgettable story of Louis Zamperini’s journey from Olympic athlete to the war, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

Copies of the title will be available at your branch of your local public library. Unbroken is a fantastic story that will have you and your friends talking!

Mark your calendars! This Thursday, February 14, Durham libraries will be revealing this year’s Pass the Book title! Pass the Book is a program that encourages everyone in Durham Region to enjoy, discuss, and share their thoughts on a chosen title. We’re very excited about this one, and think it’s a riveting, inspiring read that will generate lots of discussion!

This year’s launch will be held at 11:00 am in the McLaughlin Branch (auditorium) of the Oshawa Public Libraries, 65 Bagot Street, Oshawa. Copies of the winning title will be available to check out. All are welcome to attend this exciting event!

Event details and directions can be found here:  http://www.passthebook.ca/?p=1629

Every year the Pass the Book Committee brings forward nominees for our community-wide read. Each library recommends titles that they feel will resonate with our community and that are rich with programming possibilities. This year’s longlist features a wide variety of stories — all non-fiction and all very strong contendors. Stay tuned for the official title selection on February 14, 2013. In the meantime, happy reading!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
The dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in Mumbai. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
The Book of Awesome reminds us of all the little things that we often overlook but that make us smile. With laugh-out-loud observations from award-winning comedy writer Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome is filled with warm and funny observations on every page that make you feel like a kid looking at the world for the first time. Read it and you’ll remember all the things there are to feel good about.

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
An in-depth, intimate narrative, full of fresh information and insights, Dearie is an entertaining, all-out adventure story of one of our most fascinating and beloved figures. In Dearie, Spitz employs the same skill he brought to his best-selling, critically acclaimed book The Beatles, providing a clear-eyed portrait of one of the most fascinating and influential Americans of our time — a woman known to all, yet known by only a few.

Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
Gill offers up a slice of tree-planting life in all of its soggy, gritty exuberance. Among other topics, she also touches on the boom-and-bust history of logging and the versatility of wood, from which we have devised countless creations as diverse as textiles and airplane parts. She also eloquently evokes the wonder of trees, our slowest-growing “renewable” resource and joyously celebrates the priceless value of forests and the ancient, ever-changing relationship between humans and trees.

Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike by Charlotte Grey
No event in our history is more legendary than the Yukon Gold Rush of 1896. This is the story of the Gold Rush through the lives of six extraordinary people: the saintly priest Father Judge; the feisty entrepreneur Belinda Mulrooney; the struggling writer Jack London; the imperious British journalist Flora Shaw; the legendary Sam Steele of the Mounties; and the prospector William Haskell. Brilliantly interweaving their stories, Gray creates a fascinating panorama of a frontier town in a volatile time.

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard
The Story of Stuff offers an astonishing exploration of the stuff we use every day, revealing how overconsumption threatens the planet and our health, and providing hope that change is within reach. With curiosity, compassion, and humor, Leonard shares concrete steps for taking action at the individual and political level that will bring about sustainability, community health, and economic justice.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. Telling an unforgettable story of Louis Zamperini’s journey from Olympic athlete to the war, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.