![[Wesleyan University]](http://www.wesleyan.edu/common/_internal/files/logo.png "Wesleyan University front door"){kind=logo}
One Book, One Middletown 2012 selection: Unbroken
Jan. 26, 2012 by Pat Tully
One Book, One Middletown is a community literacy project sponsored by the City of Middletown, the Middletown Rotary, and Russell Library. The goal is to encourage reading in the community by sharing the experience of reading a single book, and then bring people together to talk about it.
The book for 2012 is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. It is the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner and Army Air Force bombardier, who survived a plane crash into the Pacific, followed by long weeks on a raft at sea and finally capture by the Japanese as a prisoner of war. Zamperini’s grit and determination—first to survive, and then to come to terms with his survival after the war—makes for an intense and compelling story.
There will be a series of events in and around Middletown in the next several months to bring people together to discuss the book and the issues raised there. At Wesleyan, Professor of History and Chair of Asian Languages and Literatures Bill Johnston will give a talk on the book at Olin Library on Wednesday, February 15 at 7pm. The talk is free and open to the public.
One Book, One Middletown is a wonderful opportunity to promote literacy and to strengthen the University’s ties to the rest of the Middletown community. A complete list of One Book events will be available shortly. You don’t have to read the book to participate in the events—but I guarantee that if you start reading it you’ll find it hard to put down!
Where can you get the book? Wesleyan University Library has a copy (call number: Olin D805 .J3 Z364 2010). If it is checked out, there are copies in Olin’s lobby that you can take; we only ask that you return it when you’re finished so others can read it. There are also several copies available for checkout at Russell Library, Middletown’s public library, at 123 Broad Street. And of course, you can purchase a copy in any number of places, including a downloadable version for your Kindle.