Weekend picks for book lovers

What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include an inspirational title from the late Louis Zamperini of Unbroken fame.

Don't Give Up, Don't Give In: Lessons From an Extraordinary Life by Louis Zamperini and David Rensin; Dey Street, 238 pp.; non-fiction

Louis Zamperini started smoking at age 6 and lived to be 97 years old. Death by tobacco would have been far too prosaic for a man who survived, in order: a plane crash while serving as a bombardier in World War II, a shark-stalked drift through the Pacific, confinement in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, and a postwar life that included everything from battles with the bottle to getting "mixed up" in a bank robbery.

He became a track star at USC and made his name at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where even Hitler noticed his fast finish in the 5,000-meter race.

Zamperini's life story is a more than twice-told tale. His 2003 autobiography, Devil at My Heels, led to Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 mega-best seller, Unbroken, due Christmas Day as a film directed by Angelina Jolie.

Zamperini died July 2, just two days after he and co-writer David Rensin sent this new book to the publisher. It exudes the nothing-to-lose honesty of a nonagenarian whose to-hell-and-back history results in a spiritual self-satisfaction. It also sheds more light on post-traumatic stress, which afflicted Zamperini but which he, like so many other World War II veterans, managed to repress just enough to resettle in married American life.

Paste BN says *** out of four. "This valedictory book reflects a great deal of the charm and colorful authority (Zamperini) brought to the world."

Revival by Stephen King; Scribner, 416 pp.; fiction

A dark and haunting tale about old-time religion and one man's search for a mythic "secret electricity."

Paste BN says ****. "Worshipers at the Universal Church of Stephen King have a lot to rejoice about with his latest literary sermon."

Hope: Entertainer of the Century by Richard Zoglin; Simon & Schuster, 576 pp.; non-fiction

Biography of the popular comedian (1903-2003), perhaps best-remembered for his movies with Bing Crosby.

Paste BN says * * * ½ stars. "Invaluable."

Some Luck by Jane Smiley; Knopf, 416 pp.; fiction

The first installment in a new trilogy of novels following an Iowa farm couple and their children over an entire century beginning in 1920.

Paste BN says ***1/2 out of four. An "auspicious beginning" to a trilogy… "a masterpiece in the making."

The Burning Room by Michael Connelly; Little, Brown, 400 pp.; fiction

In Michael Connelly's 19th Harry Bosch mystery, the only fresh evidence in the LAPD's warmest cold case is a mushroomed bullet removed during an autopsy from a mariachi band guitarist's spine.

Paste BN says ***1/2. "The author writes smart procedurals for breakfast."

Contributing reviewers: Matt Damsker, Bill Desowitz, Brian Truitt, Kevin Nance, Don Oldenburg