I can't quite figure out my fascination, but I do enjoy a good disaster book. I used to think I must have died in a fire in some past life, or maybe in a shipwreck. I think my interest is based in the combination of the surprise, the freakishness, the impact, the courage and strength and the learning process these stories of natural and man-made disasters relate. “Oh, the humanity!”
Here is a list of some of the disaster books I’ve read over the years, in no real order, but I have tried to list at the top the ones I think are the best written and/or the most interesting. I’ve listed two novels at the end; they’re both good. I’d love to hear what anyone else thinks.
Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, by Erik Larson -- Unnamed hurricane, Galveston, TX, 1900
Circus Fire, by Stewart Onan -- 1944 circus tent fire, Hartfort, Connecticutt
Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, by Stephen Puleo -- Molasses storage tank collapse in Boston
Last Man Out, by Melissa Fay Greene -- Mining disaster killed 75 men in Nova Scotia in 1958; Governor of GA invited 19 rescued and their families to Jekyll Island, not knowing some were African Americans
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, by John M. Barry -- 1918 flu epidemic
The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America’s Deadliest Hotel Fire, by Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin -- Deadly 1946 hotel fire on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, GA
Firestorm at Peshtigo, by Denise Gess & William Lutz -- 1871 fires around Lake Michigan, simultaneous to Chicago’s great fire
Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean, by Les Standiford -- 1935 hurricane, FL Keys
Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy, by John C. Esposito -- Nightclub fire in Boston in 1942 killed nearly 500
Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum, by Edward T. O’Donnell -- 1904 fire onboard pleasure boat in the East River, New York City
The Sinking of the Eastland, by Jay Bononsinga -- Pleasure boat capsized in 1915 in Chicago River, killing 844
Curse of the Narrows, by Laura M. MacDonald -- 1917 explosion of the Monte Blanc, loaded with 2,925 tons of explosives, in Halifax, Nova Scotia
The Sultana Tragedy, by Jerry O. Potter -- 1865 steamboat fire that killed over 1,800 on the Mississippi River
Wreck of the Medusa:The Tragic Story of the Death Raft, by Alexander McKee -- 1816 wreck of a French frigate
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick -- Shipwreck that was somewhat the basis for Moby Dick
Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938, by R. A. Scotti -- Hurricane hit New England between the two World Wars
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, by David Von Drehle -- The 1911 New York City factory fire, the resulting trial and labor movement
To Sleep With the Angels: The Story of a Fire, by David Cowan & John Kuenster -- 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago killed 92 students and three nuns
City on Fire: The Explosion That Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle, by Bill Minutaglio -- French freighter carrying ammonium nitrate exploded in Texas City, Texas harbor in 1947; killed nearly 600 people
Saved!: The Story of the Andrea Doria, the Greatest Sea Rescue in History, by William Hoffer -- 1956 collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm
Fire at Sea: The Mysterious Tragedy of the Morro Castle, by Thomas Gallagher -- 1934 cruise ship fire
When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake, by Brian Hicks -- 1934 cruise ship fire
Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire, by John N. Maclean -- 1994 wildfire ultimately cost $4.5 million and the lives of 14 firefighters
The 100 Greatest Disasters of All Time, by Stephen J. Spignesi
Gales of November, by Robert J. Hemming -- 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior
Triangle, by Katherine Weber (fiction) -- Triangle factory fire
Uprising, by Margaret Peterson (fiction) -- Triangle factory fire
