I'm looking for a way out of here. I can't have it physically, so I'm going to have it intellectually. It was a beautiful thing to ride Seabiscuit in my imagination. And it's just fantastic to be there alongside Louie as he's breaking the NCAA mile record. People at these vigorous moments in their lives - it's my way of living vicariously.

A favorite of hers was Come On Seabiscuit a 1963 kiddie book. On the irony of writing about physical paragons while being so incapacitated herself Laura Hillenbrand says "I'm looking for a way out of here. Personal life
Hillenbrand suffers from debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome and remains largely confined to her home.

Hillenbrand's second book was Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival Resilience and Redemption (2010) a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini. C and rarely leaves her house because of the condition. Hillenbrand married Borden Flanagan a professor of Government at American University and her college sweetheart in 2008.