Disaster Nonfiction

Air travel is one of the safest methods of transportation, but when a disaster happens, it captures the public's imagination. Learn about how airplanes are built, how researchers investigate a crash, how engineers are making planes safer, and more.

When the Titanic was built, many people thought the massive ship was unsinkable. Today it rests on the ocean floor. Learn about why ships sink and how past disasters and modern technology have led to safer ships.

Book 9 in the Our Scary History series, this volume continues the focus on real events that ripped the land apart and left permanent marks on history. Reports and accounts from deadly volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, and disasters that reshaped entire regions between 1750 and 1930, drawn from historical records of the time. Many of these events occurred before modern rescue equipment, trained emergency crews, or coordinated relief systems existed. In avalanches, floods, collapses, and sinkholes, entire groups of people sometimes vanished without trace. Survivors reported hearing voices ...

It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through...

Normalcy is a fragile thing. For the people in these twenty real-life accounts, it shattered in an instant. What happens when the ground opens up, the sky falls, or a wall of fire consumes everything in its path? When the mundane world of deadlines and daily routines is replaced by a desperate fight for the next breath? SURVIVING - Disasters places you directly into the heart of catastrophe. Journey alongside ordinary people—parents, teachers, and commuters—thrown into the most extreme situations imaginable. From catastrophic tsunamis and terrifying wildfires to sudden building ...

“When Trust Turns to Tragedy” Every day, we put our lives in the hands of medical professionals. We trust that the surgeon holding the scalpel, the doctor reading our charts, and the nurse administering medication are competent, careful, and committed to our well-being. Most are. But sometimes, that trust is betrayed — not by malice, but by something more dangerous: negligence, ego, burnout, or systematic failure. Medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death in the United States, yet many of these cases remain buried in sealed settlements and quiet courtroom deals. The ...

The ocean is indifferent to human survival. When a ship disappears beneath the surface, the real struggle is only beginning. Because what follows is not just a test of the body… It is a test of the mind. What happens after the sinking determines who lives — and who is lost to the horizon. In The Ocean Doesn’t Forgive, Commander Puzzles delivers a gripping exploration of shipwreck survival that goes far beyond disaster narratives. Blending maritime psychology, documented survival patterns, and the extreme realities of open-water exposure, this powerful work reveals what the sea teaches...

In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school - one of the most modern in the Midwest - Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend. But behind his ordinary demeanor was a narcissistic sadist seething with rage, resentment, and paranoia. On May 18 he detonated a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the school and everyone in it.

Do you know how to survive a disaster? If the answer is "no" then The Disaster Survival Handbook is a must-have! This is a no-nonsense reference audiobook on how to stay alive during man-made and natural disasters. It will also teach you the basics of prepping so you can survive the aftermath. Prepare yourself with the knowledge you need, because you never know when disaster will strike. Get it now. Knowledge is your best disaster survival tool.

A powerful nonfiction book that explains the science, history, and human cost of tsunamis — and why the next one could be deadlier than the last. Tsunamis are not just waves — they are sudden, unforgiving forces capable of wiping out entire cities in minutes. Tidal Waves & Tsunamis: The Science and Fury of the World’s Most Devastating Waves takes readers on a gripping journey into how these events happen, what causes them, and why modern civilization is more at risk than ever. From the 2004 Indian Ocean catastrophe to future megatsunami threats, this book covers: The science of wave ...

"In an understated performance, Simon Vance details one of the stunning tragedies arising from the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011...Vance's steady pacing, crisp enunciation, and careful inflection enhance the weight of the story, which moves between reportage and interviews, and ultimately...

Terrorist attacks. Natural disasters. Domestic crackdowns. Economic collapse. Riots. Wars. Disease. Starvation. What can you do when it all hits the fan? You can learn to be self-sufficient and survive without the system. ""I've started to look at the world through apocalypse eyes."" So begins...

From one of America’s leading reporters comes a deeply personal, extraordinarily powerful look at the most volatile crises he has witnessed around the world, from New Orleans to Baghdad and beyond. Dispatches from the Edge of the World is a book that gives us a rare up-close glimpse of what...

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...

On the night of February 18, 1952, during one of the worst winter storms that New England has ever seen, two oil tankers just off the shore of Cape Cod were torn in half by the force of the storm. This middle-grade adaptation of an adult nonfiction book tells the story of the shipwreck and a harrowing Coast Guard rescue when four men in a tiny lifeboat overcame insurmountable odds and saved more than thirty stranded sailors.

A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history. If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. But such catastrophic events - as terrible and frightening as they are - have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth.... and even before. From ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's mass killings in the 20th century, humanity's continued existence has always seemed perilous.

Dangerous, deadly, and disastrous. From frozen Arctic seas to collapsing mountain trails and mosquito-choked jungles, this book explores real expeditions where confidence arrived long before understanding. These are true stories of explorers, surveyors, soldiers, and scientists who set out with careful plans - only to discover that terrain, weather, disease, and distance had plans of their own. This is not a book about heroic triumphs. It’s about what actually happened when expeditions met environments that refused to cooperate. Inside, you’ll find: Real expeditions that stalled, failed...

In 1932, Australia faced an enemy it did not know how to defeat. The enemy did not carry weapons. It did not wear uniforms. It did not negotiate. It walked on long legs, moved in scattered groups, and refused to behave like anything a modern army had trained for. The War Australia Lost to Birds tells the true story of one of the most astonishing and uncomfortable episodes in modern history: the moment a national government authorized military force against a population of emus—and failed. In the years following World War I, Australia was under immense strain. Returning soldiers were given...

WINNER OF THE TENNESSEE BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A riveting courtroom drama about the victims of one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history—and the country lawyer determined to challenge the notion that, in America, justice can be...

What if extreme success quietly rewired the risk around you? The Deadly Side of Billionaire Living - The 11 Laws of Wealth is not a book about greed, scandal, or moral failure. It is a surgical examination of something far more unsettling: how extraordinary wealth systematically relocates powerful people into environments where rare, high-impact events become more likely to reach them. Across private aviation, superyachts, remote estates, experimental technology, elite travel, and complex family structures, a hidden pattern repeats. Systems that function flawlessly for years can fail in ...