American Disaster

A “balanced, engrossing account” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of the Bay of Pigs crisis drawing on long-hidden CIA documents and delivering the vivid truth of five pivotal days in April 1961. At the heart of the Bay of Pigs crisis stood President John F. Kennedy, and journalist Jim...

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction Winner of the Kirkus Nonfiction Prize Shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Stunning…A heart-pounding thriller…Challenger...

Charlie is good at her work. As a hard-charging drug rep with the brains and talent to make it to the top, she has the world at her feet. Then, the lights go out, and everything changes. An EMP decimates the United States, leaving the country in the dark. With modern technology suddenly and permanently turned off, society's dark side quickly takes over. Caught on the road, she teams up with two new companions and they fight their way towards safety and freedom. Criminals, gangs, and worse stand between them and the safety of a friend's farm.

In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows. The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since...

New York Times Bestseller From Neal Stephenson—who coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 novel Snow Crash—comes a sweeping, prescient new thriller that transports readers to a near-future world in which the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of...

The city has become a warzone. Charlie and her companions must survive the gangs and corrupt government agents that are out to stake their claims on the nation’s riches. Should she try and flee to the countryside, with each neighborhood a potential trap and every house a threat? Or should she stay and fight the building tyranny? Dwindling food supplies and the daily risk of capture are taking their toll. Mistakes are fatal, and the exhaustion that comes with living under constant danger is wearing them down.

The dramatic and moving account of the struggle for life inside the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, when every minute counted. At 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers -- reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the...

To contain secrets, American and Soviet leaders created plutopias - communities of nuclear families living in highly subsidized, limited-access atomic cities. Fully employed and medically monitored, the residents of Richland and Ozersk enjoyed all the pleasures of consumer society while nearby, migrants, prisoners, and soldiers were banned from plutopia - they lived in temporary "staging grounds" and often performed the most dangerous work at the plant.

Doug Drew, John Seymour, and their team battle for their lives and for their beloved country from Washington DC to the Mexican border and into Canadian territory and the northeastern United States. They exposed the lies the current US administration was promoting that allowed illegals to come freely into our country. These illegals were stealing the freedoms that patriots in our country had fought for, for years. This team of freedom fighters was doing what they could to stop the coming disaster, and a hostile takeover.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “This heartwarming and sexy novel is a beautiful, sometimes angsty examination of how a love story can be rekindled when one least expects it.”—Ali Hazelwood, The New York Times Book Review (Best Spicy Romance Novels) “The most amazing rollercoaster of big feels...

From a New Yorker staff writer and PEN award winner, a blend of memoir, history, and reportage on one of the most complex and least understood states in America. “In Alabama, we exist at the border of blessing and disaster….” Alexis Okeowo grew up in Montgomery—the former seat of the...

The creator of the wildly popular award-winning podcast Hardcore History looks at some of the apocalyptic moments from the past as a way to frame the challenges of the future. Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human...

ENGINEERING DISASTERS: Real Stories of Collapses, Breakdowns, and Horrible Blunders Unbelievable - but completely true - engineering failures shaped America in ways most people never learn about. From bridges that snapped without warning to dams that burst in the night, this book uncovers the real moments when bold ideas, rushed designs, and ignored warning signs collided with catastrophe. These weren’t just broken machines - they were disasters that toppled towers, wrecked factories, flooded communities, and forced engineers to rebuild the nation’s safety rules from the ground up. ...

Ellena Reed has found safety in a Rocky Mountain nuclear bunker. Six months later, air is running out, and she has no choice but to join a small group of refugees traveling to a mythical “billionaire’s bunker” sixty miles to the south. But the Yellowstone eruption has transformed the landscape into a desolate volcanic wasteland. And the group isn’t alone: some animals survived the blasts, and they aren’t all human.

Months after the EMP crippled the country, Charlie concentrated on survival. Unfortunately, that wasn’t working out too well. Russians and Chinese soldiers were now part of the occupation, while the loss of several of her friends to state sanctioned gangs had pushed her to the edge. It was time to fight back. Combatting a tyrannical government seemed beyond sane, but every journey starts with just one step. For Charlie and her group, that time had come. Retribution was to be meted out and with the help of a growing Resistance, reclaiming the country seemed more plausible by the day.

“Hugh’s imaginative worlds and tales within them never fail to entertain!” —Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of Project Hail Mary The first original novel from author Hugh Howey in six years, Across the Sand takes us back to the world of Sand, to a far future many generations...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Negroni is a talented aviation journalist who clearly understands the critically important part the human factor plays in aviation safety.” —Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, pilot of US Airways 1549, the Miracle on the Hudson A fascinating exploration of...

The 1935 Labor Day hurricane annihilated between four hundred and six hundred lives in the middle of the Florida Keys, and like all disasters, both exposed long-standing social and economic inequities and reminded us of the bonds that enable us to provide what rescue we can for those we cherish. In this fictional account of the storm, rooted in the record but brought to life with Shepard’s unparalleled command of interpersonal impact, Village of Islands follows a handful of residents of a small beachside town in the moments leading up to, during and after this event.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The award-winning book that inspired an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ A landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and the suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice—from a Pulitzer...

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...