Real-Life Disasters!
Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence
Michael Capuzzo The summer before the United States entered World War I, when ocean swimming was just becoming popular, Americans were abruptly introduced to the terror of sharks. In July 1916 a Great White left its usual deep-ocean habitat and headed in the direction of the NJ shoreline. There, near coastal towns and – incredibly – a community 11 miles inland, this predator carried out the first shark attacks on swimmers in U.S. history. |
When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake
Brian Hicks The Morro Castle was the most famous passenger liner of its day, elegant and lightning fast. It was also a ticking time bomb. In the summer of 1934, two sailors joined the crew: one a teenager on his first job away from home, the other a dangerous psychopath. Within two months they would witness the ship’s end in a night of catastrophic fire and killer storms. And that was only the beginning of a 20-year-long story… |
Titanic: Voices From the Disaster
Deborah Hopkinson Hear the stories of real survivors and witnesses to the disaster -- from the stewardess Violet Jessop to Captain Arthur Rostron of the Carpathia, who came to the rescue of the sinking ship. This book follows the Titanic and its passengers from the ship's celebrated launch at Belfast to her cataclysmic icy end. |
The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger In 1991, a tempest catches the North Atlantic fishing fleet off guard and unprotected. Readers weigh anchor with sailors struggling against the elements, meteorologists who watch helplessly as the storm builds, and helicopters and boats that navigate 120-mph winds to attempt rescue against harrowing odds. |
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer Only a few people have stood atop Mt. Everest. Krakauer is one of them, but the story he tells here is not of glorious triumph. He had a front-row seat to the headline-making 1996 climbing disaster that resulted in the deaths of five people, and his account of the unfolding tragedy, filled with keenly observed details, is not only a transfixing drama but also an inquiry into survivor guilt and the outer limits of human strength and responsibility. |
Flesh and Blood So Cheap: the triangle Fire and Its Legacy
Albert Marrin On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burst into flames. The doors were locked to ensure workers stay inside; 146 people were killed. The story of the fire is one of immigration, hard work, greedy bosses, and avoidable disaster. It is also the story of fearless activists who changed the working conditions of our entire nation, initiating radical new laws we take for granted today. |
An American Plague
Jim Murphy On August 3, 1973, a young French sailor died in Richard Denny's boardinghouse on North Water Street in Philedelphia. As church bells rang more and more often, it became horrifyingly clear that the de facto capital was being ravaged by an unknown killer... |
Left for Dead
Pete Nelson On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a submarine. Those who survived the sinking waited in shark-infested waters for a rescue. But the U.S. Navy did not even know they were missing. The Navy court-martialed the captain, but the survivors knew that their captain wasn't to blame. For 50 years they worked to clear his name, but the Navy would not budge – until an 11-year-old boy named Hunter Scott entered the picture. His history project on the Indianapolis soon became a crusade to restore the captain’s good name and the honor of the men who served under him. |
