I just finished *Five Days at Memorial* and it reminded me how fascinated I am by stories of ordinary people trying to deal with really bad situations.
I want to learn how preparation, institutional culture, tiny situational factors, and individual choices make huge differences in whether people live or die when life as we know it is upended.
It’s okay if the people going through the event have training on how to handle situations like it, as long as the situation itself is unprecedented and the people involved are thinking on their feet and trying to problem-solve with what they have. Think Apollo 13, although it doesn’t necessarily have to end well.
This kind of overlaps with wilderness survival stories like *Endurance* or *Into Thin Air*, but I’ve read a bunch of those already so I’m hoping to focus more on normal situations that go haywire.
Books in this vein I’ve read and enjoyed:
-Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
-Working Stiff by Judy Melinek
-The Premonition by Michael Lewis
-Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
-A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit
-Crisis in the Red Zone by Richard Preston
-The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Please get nerdy; I love obscure topics. Thanks!
by beckuzz
2 Comments
The Indifferent Stars Above is my favorite disaster story
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is also about Hurricane Katrina, and is a really good read.
That being said, the main character is viewed through rose tinted glasses, and has since had more info come out about who he really is. I would still read the book, but when you’re done you should also read the news articles about him that were published after the book.