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Sarasota News Leader February 8, 2013 Page 42 COMMUNITY MEMBERS, RINGLING MUSEUM STAFF HELPING LEAD THE LAST OF THIS YEAR'S ONE BOOK PROGRAMS ON UNBROKEN By Cooper Levey-Baker Associate Editor One Book One Community, the Sarasota County Libraries' attempt to get as many residents reading the same book at the same time as possible, hits its big finale this month, with a string of free events that dovetail with the book's major themes. Last summer, county residents were asked to help pick which book the community should read, and thousands of voters weighed in online and at libraries, Sarasota's Bookstore 1 and Venice's Books-a-Million, eventually selecting Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. The book's popularity should be no surprise: It spent 100 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and it has picked up a dandy handful of prizes. Unbroken is the nonfiction odyssey of Louis Zamperini, an American Olympian-turned-airman whose bomber crashed in the Pacific Ocean in 1943. Surviving 47 days at sea, Zamperini was eventually captured by the Japanese and kept in a prisoner of war camp till the end of World War II. Hillenbrand, best known as the author of Seabiscuit, spent seven years writing the book, and when it was finally published in 2010, she had a hit on her hands. According to libraries Outreach Coordinator Barb McDonald, Hillenbrand is "not well" and unable to travel to Sarasota for the One Book festivities or to participate via Skype. So rather than build their event calendar around the author's participation, the libraries reached out to a wide range of community partners to create events that echo the book's themes and history. Next Wednesday, Feb. 13, for example, New College history professor Justus Doenecke will discuss the origins of the war in the Pacific, specifically "the events that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor," on the New College campus. And the day after that, Ringling Museum librarian Alexa Torchynowycz will discuss the Merci Train, the boxcars loaded with gifts of thanks from the French people that were distributed around the U.S. after World War II. The Ringling Museum ended up with some of the Florida train's contents, and Torchynowycz will present and discuss some one-of-a-kind books, propaganda posters and advertisements the museum has in its possession. McDonald says the Unbroken selection is bringing out a different One Book crowd. It is the first nonfiction work selected in the past few years, and the last two winners (The Book Thief and The Hunger Games) were young adult titles. Unbroken book discussion groups and related film screenings have been going solid for a while now, and McDonald says the events are drawing hundreds of folks, skewing older than in past years. She does not know how many folks will attend the flurry of February dates, but a Hunger Games event drew 350 residents, so her expectations are high. McDonald is building buzz for the home stretch by schlepping all