Readalikes

Readers who enjoyed Unbroken might also enjoy these titles:

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. 2001. To look at Seabiscuit one would never know that he had the potential to become the most popular racehorse of the 20th century. But, thanks to the efforts of his owner, his dedicated trainer, and his jockeys, Seabiscuit made racing history despite his stunted legs and knobby knees. The team's road to unimaginable fame and success (even President Roosevelt halted work to listen to the race between Seabiscuit and his foe, War Admiral) is the subject of this wildly popular and hugely compelling bestseller.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. 1996. The author recounts his childhood in Depression-era Brooklyn as the child of Irish immigrants who decide to return to worse poverty in Ireland when his infant sister dies.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. 2005. Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. 2013. The Boys in the Boat describes how a group of working class youths from the University of Washington rowing team emerged from obscurity to defeat a field of elite international rivals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Sports fans who love a good "Cinderella story" will cheer this fast-paced, emotionally charged account of the players' and coaches' struggles set against stark Depression-era realities.

Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff. 2013. Drawing on intensive research and a firsthand account of the dangerous 2012 expedition, this thrilling true story of survival, which moves between World War II and today, follows the survivors of a U.S. cargo plane crash in 1942 and their 148 days spent fighting for their lives during a brutal Arctic winter.

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. 2001. Chronicles the daring mission of the elite U.S. Army Sixth Ranger Battalion to slip behind enemy lines in the Phillipines and rescue the 513 American and British POWs who had spent over three years in a hellish, Japanese-run camp near Cabanatuan.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. 2008. In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. 2011. Documents the efforts of the first American ambassador to Hitler's Germany, William E. Dodd, to acclimate to a residence in an increasingly violent city where he is forced to associate with the Nazis while his daughter pursues a relationship with Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels.

Lost in Shangri-la by Mitchell Zuckoff. 2011. Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoff unleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea.

Devil at My Heels by Louis Zamperini. 2004. A motivational speaker and former POW recounts his athletic southern California childhood, participation in the 1936 Olympics, World War II military service, imprisonment and torture by an abusive Japanese guard, descent into alcoholism, and salvation by preacher Billy Graham.

Endurance by Alfred Lansing. 1959. Describes how twenty-eight men battled against almost insurmountable odds to return to civilization after their ship sank near the South Pole.

Fearless by Eric Blehm. 2012.  Blehm presents a deeply personal glimpse inside the SEAL Team SIX brotherhood that shows how these elite operators live out the rest of their lives, away from danger, as husbands, fathers, and friends. Adam Brown waged a war against his own worst impulses, persevered to reach the top tier of the U.S. military, and his final act of bravery led to the ultimate sacrifice.

The Forgotten 500 by Gregory A. Freeman. 2007. In 1944 the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped and sheltered for months by villagers behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of Operation Halyard, a story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery, is now being told for the first time.

Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie. 1957. Follow John Leckie's odyssey, from basic training on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his services with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifices of war.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. 2008. A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

The Liberator by Alex Kershaw. 2012. Traces the achievements of the World War II regiments under Felix Sparks, documenting their clashes with Hitler's elite troops in Sicily and Alerno and their heroic liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. 2007. The leader, and only survivor, of a team of U.S. Navy SEALs sent to northern Afghanistan to capture a well-known al Qaeda leader chronicles the events of the battle that killed his teammates and offers insight into the training of this elite group of warriors.

War Trash by Ha Jin. 2004. Captured by enemy forces, Yu Yuan, a Chinese army officer serving in Korea in 1951, takes on the role of interpreter due to his proficiency in English, a role that places him in a conflict between his fellow prisoners and their captors.

Taken Captive by Shohei Ooka. 1996. A Japanese soldier captured by American forces in the Philippines recounts his experiences in an American prisoner of war camp and describes how the experiences there shaped his thinking.

Don't Give Up, Don't Give In by Lous Zamperini. 2014. Louis Zamperini's struggle to survive the unimaginable - brought to life in his autobiography Devil at My Heels and in Laura Hillenbrand's #1 New York Times bestseller and its film adaptation, Unbroken - elevated him to his rightful place among our country's greatest heroes. Now, Zamperini reveals the wisdom he learned along his incredible journey.

Strength In What Remains by Tracy Kidder. 2009. Presents the story of Burundi civil war survivor Deo, who endures homelessness before pursuing an education at Columbia and eventually returning to his native land to help people in both countries.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. 1962. Internationally renowned psychiatrist, Viktor E. Frankl, endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps. During, and partly because of his suffering, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man's primary motivational force is his search for meaning.

Target Tokyo by James Scott. 2015. Presents a gripping account of the Doolittle Raid, a top-secret bombing mission and ambitious counterstrike against Tokyo in 1941, that was led by daredevil Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and turned the tide of the war but came at a horrific cost.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan. 2017. A teenage boy in 1940s Italy becomes part of an underground railroad that helps Jews escape through the Alps but is forced by his parents to enlist as a German soldier for his own protection, where he becomes a spy for the Allies. Based on a true story.

The Thin Red Line by James Jones. 1962. C-for-Charlie, an Army rifle company, struggles against death, depression, and cowardice during the invasion of Guadalcanal.

Conduct Under Fire by John Glusman. 2005. Traces the experiences of the author's father and three fellow Navy doctors who were captured during the battles of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines, which united the men as they attended patients under the eye of their captors.

Code Name by Larry Loftis. 2019. "The extraordinary true story of Odette Sansom, the British spy who operated in occupied France and fell in love with her commanding officer during World War II--perfect for fans of Unbroken, The Boys in the Boat, and Code Girls."

Source: NoveListPlus & Chicago Public Library