American Disaster

From the bestselling author of Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys, and The Imperial Cruise, a spellbinding history of turbulent U.S.-China relations from the 19th century to World War II and Mao's ascent. In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America's engagement in...

For Hazel Northrup, it’s the day she escapes the only world she’s ever known—a fanatical water-worshipping cult deep in the Oregon wilderness. With her little brother in tow, she flees into a dying world, vowing to keep him safe from both the toxic wasteland and the ruthless men hunting them. Miles away, a remote research team discovers something far worse than silence: water that kills. Stranded and grieving, scientist Emily, survivalist Bash, and their last remaining colleague make a desperate bid to escape the forest—only to collide with Hazel and Caleb.

Part memoir, part expert analysis, Disasterology is a passionate and personal account of a country in crisis—one unprepared to deal with the disasters of today and those looming in our future. With temperatures rising and the risk of disasters growing, our world is increasingly vulnerable...

Deep Down Dark is the novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas. When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking...

At the end of Edge of Collapse, Luke managed to get within 60 miles of his family's Bug Out Location. As he struggles to make it home, he faces new threats. He teams up with a mysterious stranger to battle the lawless world. Without power, food, or water, they face a grueling uphill battle against the forces of darkness. He'll have to get creative if he wants to survive, but nothing will keep Luke from getting back to his family. Nothing. Not even the people who stand in his way.

In this voice-driven young adult debut by Andrea Mosqueda, Maggie Gonzalez needs a date to her sister's quinceañera - and fast. Growing up in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, Maggie Gonzalez has always been a little messy, but she’s okay with that. After all, she has a great family, a goofy group...

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS HYPERALLERGIC The most personal writing yet to come from a noted scholar of race: a bold and moving look at race, gender, aging, and immigration that examines, through lenses both intimate and political, what...

An eight-audiobook collection from the creators of the New York Times Best-Selling What Was? series that details the most famous disasters in history, including the Titanic, Pompeii, and the Great Depression. Perfect for curious young listeners, these eight titles provide exciting details about...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER As gripping and unforgettable as Fredrik Backman's Bear Town and Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone, this haunting novel digs into the impact of a fatal avalanche on a small BC mountain town, as seen through the eyes of those who survive the tragedy. "Heart-rending and...

The hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people. Prior to advanced communications, few people knew about impending hurricanes except those closest to the site. In the days before television or even radio, catastrophic descriptions were merely recorded on paper, limiting our understanding of the immediate impact. Thus it was inevitable that the category 4 hurricane would cause almost inconceivable destruction.

His mission was top secret: deliver mysterious components of some superweapon that would end this awful war to the island of Tinian, then return to the fleet to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Little did Captain Charles McVay III know that he would survive his ship's sinking, shark attacks, starvation, and five days adrift in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued. Discover this untold story of Captain McVay and his amazing men of courage: the crew of the USS Indianapolis.

When 1919 began, the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious, expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling, unglamorous place into “the Metropolis of the World.” But just as the dream seemed within reach, pandemonium broke loose and the city’s...

Brittany and Ladarius had been together their whole lives and got married shortly after their high school graduation. She was willing to go to the ends of the earth for her man but he wasn't willing to do the same. Ladarius left Brittany for another woman and her world came tumbling down. They say when trouble comes, it comes in threes and they couldn't have been more right. One devastating event after another sends Brittany spiraling out of control. Will she straighten up and fly right or self-destruct?

Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Americans underwent a dramatic transformation in self-conception: having formerly lived as individuals or members of small communities, they now found themselves living in networks, which arose out of scientific and technological innovations.

There is a popular saying that declares "timing is everything", and in no other field of study is that truer than in history. For instance, under normal conditions, a ship that sank with more than 2,000 passengers aboard - most of whom died - would be big news, yet today the sinking of the SS Sultana is often overlooked if not entirely forgotten.

Two years after the war to end all wars, the American people are confronting the reality of the altered world. As the US’ armed forces—weakened from the peace dividend—begin again to flex its slowly recovering offensive muscle, a second war rages in the Korean peninsula, and American and British forces circle each other warily from the North Atlantic to the Straits of Hormuz as the wounded Soviet bear broods behind its borders.

Anything that alienates and divides us leaves us weak and exposed to disaster. Simple human compassion is more essential to our national resilience and strength than most of us recognize. Shallow values won’t suffice as the foundation of our social and cultural infrastructure. With anecdotes and unexpected stories about growing up during the '60s and '70s in Los Angeles and from her work in disaster recovery, Diane Burden Cox illustrates the importance of our relationships with each other to our national resilience.

We Are Unprepared is a novel about the next big storm, the one that changes our relationship to nature and each other...the superstorm that threatens to destroy a marriage, a rural Vermont town and the Eastern Seaboard when it hits. But the destruction begins months earlier, when fear infects...