The most recommended disaster books

Who picked these books? Meet our 29 experts.

29 authors created a book list connected to disasters, and here are their favorite disaster books.
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Book cover of The Swimmers

Una Mccormack Author Of Star Trek: Picard: Second Self

From my list on speculative fiction crackling with feminist themes.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a science fiction writer who loves my chosen genre for the promises it makes for the worlds that we can haveā€”and the warnings that it offers for the worlds that might be ours if we donā€™t take care. Iā€™ve picked books for people who like their thinking to be challenged, and who also long for the world to be a much better place. These are the kinds of books I love to readā€”and the kinds of books I try to write. 

Una's book list on speculative fiction crackling with feminist themes

Una Mccormack Why did Una love this book?

Earth has suffered devastating environmental collapse and is now a world of jungles and monsters. The last remnants of humanity are split between those clinging to the surface, and those who have removed themselves to the upper atmosphere. We follow Pearl, living in an isolated forest region, suddenly taken to the stars. A vivid and luscious reimagining of Jean Rhysā€™ Wide Sargasso Sea

By Marian Womack,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Swimmers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A richly imagined eco-gothic tale." - The Guardian

"Exquisitely realised." - The Times

After the ravages of the Green Winter, Earth is a place of deep jungles and monstrous animals. The last of the human race is divided into surface dwellers and the people who live in the Upper Settlement, a ring perched at the edge of the Earth s atmosphere.

Bearing witness to this divided planet is Pearl, a young techie with a thread of shuvani blood, who lives in the isolated forests of Gobari, navigating her mad mother and the strange blue light in the sky. But Pearlā€¦


Book cover of Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Martin Pengelly Author Of Brotherhood: When West Point Rugby Went to War

From my list on brotherhood in war ā€“ and sports.

Why am I passionate about this?

I played rugby union for Durham University and at Rosslyn Park FC in London. Then I became a reporter and editor, for Rugby News magazine and on Fleet Street sports desks. In March 2002, six months after 9/11 and a year before the invasion of Iraq, my Park team played against the cadets of the United States Military Academy. Years later, settled in New York, I decided to find out what happened to those West Point rugby players in the 9/11 wars, and what their experiences might tell us about sports, war, brotherhood, loss, and remembrance.

Martin's book list on brotherhood in war ā€“ and sports

Martin Pengelly Why did Martin love this book?

Junger wrote War, about Afghanistan. But as I found the West Point rugby playersā€™ stories wouldnā€™t leave me alone, so Junger stayed with those he found in Kunar province.

In Tribe, he considers the ties that bind ā€“ notably a focus on the ā€œenergy of male conflict and male closenessā€. Junger ā€œonce asked a combat vet if heā€™d rather have an enemy or another close friendā€. The vet looked at Junger like he was crazy. ā€œā€˜Oh, an enemy, 100%,ā€™ he said. ā€˜Iā€™ve already got a lot of friends.ā€™

He thought about it a little longer. ā€˜Anyway, all my best friends Iā€™ve gotten into fights with ā€“ knock-down, drag-out fights. Granted we were always drunk, but think about that.ā€™ He shook his head as if even he couldnā€™t believe it.ā€

By Sebastian Junger,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Tribe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of THE PERFECT STORM and WAR comes a book about why men miss war, why Londoners missed the Blitz, and what we can all learn from American Indian captives who refused to go home.

Tribe is a look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the challenges veterans face returning to society. Using his background in anthropology, Sebastian Junger argues that the problem lies not with vets or with the trauma they've suffered, but with the society to which they are trying to return.

One of the most puzzling things about veterans who experience PTSD is that the majorityā€¦


Book cover of Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life: A Former CIA Officer Reveals Safety and Survival Techniques to Keep You and Your Family Protected

Cat Connor Author Of [Whiskey Tango Foxtrot]

From my list on to relive the 70ā€™s if youā€™re surrounded by spies.

Why am I passionate about this?

Crime and espionage are a lifelong fascination for me. I used to think my dad was a spy when I was young because he didnā€™t talk about work. Turned out he didnā€™t think Iā€™d be interested in his day as a Quantity Surveyor, my Grandad was a LEO so talking about work wasnā€™t really a thing. Or they were both spies. Over the years I have made some good friends in the espionage community and various policing agencies and theyā€™re kind enough to share their expertise with me. Iā€™m a big fan of fast-moving stories with intricate plots and action and hopefully they'll draw you in as well. I hope you enjoy the books.

Cat's book list on to relive the 70ā€™s if youā€™re surrounded by spies

Cat Connor Why did Cat love this book?

As a writer of a Spy/PI series, this book is super helpful. Itā€™s also good for personal security and I do recommend you get it and read it.

Because of this book, I listen to my gut a lot more when Iā€™m out. I do have a tactical pen on my person whenever I leave home and it is one of the few things that you can have in your handbag on an airplane.
Itā€™s an easy read and you can use it as a reference book like I do. If you want to know how to disappear you can find out just how hard that is in a world where cameras are everywhere. 

By Jason Hanson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestseller that reveals the safety, security, and survival techniques that 99% of Americans donā€™t knowā€”but should

When Jason Hanson joined the CIA in 2003, he never imagined that the same tactics he used as a CIA officer for counter intelligence, surveillance, and protecting agency personnel would prove to be essential in every day civilian life.

In addition to escaping handcuffs, picking locks, and spotting when someone is telling a lie, he can improvise a self-defense weapon, pack a perfect emergency kit, and disappear off the grid if necessary. He has also honed his ā€œpositive awarenessā€ā€”a heightenedā€¦


Book cover of The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster

Daniel P. Aldrich Author Of Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery

From my list on the importance of community during disasters.

Why am I passionate about this?

We moved to New Orleans in July 2005. We had six weeks in our first home, filling it with furniture, buying a new car, and taking advantage of my first job. When Hurricane Katrina collapsed the levees holding back the nearby lakes, our home ā€“ and those of 80% of the city ā€“ filled with water. As I waited for FEMA and insurance to help us, I saw instead it was our friends, friends of friends, and faith-based organizations that helped us get back on our feet. Using our own experiences as a start, I traveled to India and Japan to study how communities around the world survived and thrived during shocks. 

Daniel's book list on the importance of community during disasters

Daniel P. Aldrich Why did Daniel love this book?

We can all think of cities that have been hit by some horrible events ā€“ envision Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, hit by atomic weapons. Or the Oklahoma City bombing that leveled a whole block. Yet these cities not only survived, but thrived. In chapters written by different experts from around the world this book shows how resilient cities are to shocks and disasters. I especially liked the way that the authors focus on the way that we memorialize and remember the past, trying to learn lessons from shocks and bringing those emotions and learning into the present.

By Lawrence J. Vale (editor), Thomas J. Campanella (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Resilient City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For as long as they have existed, cities have been destroyed-sacked, shaken, burnt, bombed, flooded, starved, irradiated, and pillaged-in almost every case they have risen again. Rarely in modern times has a city not been rebuilt following destruction, be it natural or man-made. The Resilient City explores urban disasters from around the globe and the ongoing restoration of urban life. It examines why cities are rebuilt, how a vision for the future gets
incorporated into a new urban landscape, and how disasters have been interpreted and commemorated in built form. An international cast of historians, architects, and urban studies expertsā€¦


Book cover of Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up

Greg Brennecka Author Of Impact: How Rocks from Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong

From my list on books to teach you something cool and make you laugh in the process.

Why am I passionate about this?

I didnā€™t know anything at all about meteorites (or, really, space in general) until I took a cosmochemistry class during my first semester of a PhD program in geology. As soon as I learned that meteorites captured information about the start of the Solar System ā€“ the material we started with, hints about how planets evolve, and how meteorites changed the course of Earth ā€“ I was hooked. At the end of that class in 2007, I switched the main topic of my PhD research to studying meteorites and what they can tell us about the past, and I have been doing it ever since.

Greg's book list on books to teach you something cool and make you laugh in the process

Greg Brennecka Why did Greg love this book?

I donā€™t really consider myself a history buff, but I do love hearing a funny story where someone screws something up, and, apparently, I really love a funny story where someone screws something up that has immense historical consequences.

And, boy howdy, there is apparently no shortage of screw-ups causing major inflection points in history. I certainly laughed out loud multiple times while reading this book, and one time in particular I was so animated that my dog was concerned enough to come check on me.

By Tom Phillips,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Humans as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*NOW AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*

A Toronto Star Bestselling Book of the Year

ā€œWitty and entertaining.ā€ā€”Sarah Knight

ā€œLaugh-out-loud.ā€ā€”Steve Brusatte

AN EXHILARATING JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOST CREATIVE AND CATASTROPHIC F*CK-UPS OF HUMAN HISTORY

Modern humans have come a long way in the seventy thousand years theyā€™ve walked the earth. Art, science, culture, tradeā€”on the evolutionary food chain, weā€™re true winners. But it hasnā€™t always been smooth sailing, and sometimesā€”just occasionallyā€”weā€™ve managed to truly f*ck things up.

Weaving together history, science, politics and pop culture, Humans offers a panoramic exploration of humankind in all its glory, or lack thereof. From Lucy, our firstā€¦


Book cover of Bad Days in History: A Gleefully Grim Chronicle of Misfortune, Mayhem, and Misery for Every Day of the Year

John S. Croucher Author Of A Concise History of New South Wales

From my list on history books for those who like quirky statistics and facts.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been fascinated by statistics (Iā€™m a statistician by profession), and anything that tells a story of actual people and events has always captured my imagination. I have a particular affection for the quirky and offbeat, something that illustrates catastrophic failure, lack of common sense, a misplaced sense of entitlement and people who repeatedly tried but always fell short. I have a passion for black humour as it helps me to realise that, no matter how dark things look in my own life, there are others who have it much worse.

John's book list on history books for those who like quirky statistics and facts

John S. Croucher Why did John love this book?

Far from being depressing, I found great perverse enjoyment in reading about the disasters that befell others. It is a treasure trove of well-written tales that I found hard to put down. I found the contents to be an absolute treasure-chest of absorbing, beautifully written stories.

If ever I was feeling down, this volume always lifted my spirits, knowing that my day could be a lot worse.

By Michael Farquhar,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bad Days in History as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Caligula's blood-soaked end to hotelier Steve Wynn's unfortunate run-in with a priceless Picasso, Bad Days in History delves into the past to present 365 delightfully told tales of historically bad days.


Book cover of Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy

Harriet F. Senie Author Of Monumental Controversies: Mount Rushmore, Four Presidents, and the Quest for National Unity

From my list on reconsidering memorials.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been writing books on public art and memorials since the early 1990s and served on some major public commissions that select memorials and/or determine the fate of problematic memorials. These markers in our public spaces define who we are as a culture at a certain point in time, even though interpretations of them may evolve. They are our link to our history, express our present day values, and send a message to the future about who we are and what we value and believe in.

Harriet's book list on reconsidering memorials

Harriet F. Senie Why did Harriet love this book?

Given the alarming number of recent deaths by gun violence it is especially illuminating to consider the various ways sites of violence have been commemorated.

Ranging from total disappearance, to informative plaques, and major memorials, communities have reckoned with the aftermath in radically different ways.

I loved this book because it made me think about the content of site - or rather the content we attribute to the ground - where something shocking happened, be it a mass shooting or any other tragic event. 

By Kenneth E. Foote,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Shadowed Ground as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Shadowed Ground explores how and why Americans have memorialized-or not-the sites of tragic and violent events spanning three centuries of history and every region of the country. For this revised edition, Kenneth Foote has written a new concluding chapter that looks at the evolving responses to recent acts of violence and terror, including the destruction of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School massacre, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.


Book cover of Weather

Rory Power Author Of Wilder Girls

From my list on the grief of living with climate change.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always felt most at home looking out a window. I should specify Iā€™m not an outdoorsy person - take me hiking and I will simply collapse - but Iā€™m at my happiest when thereā€™s a view out to something green. Reading about the climate and reading fiction that centers landscape both offer me that view, and while Iā€™m not an expert in the particulars of climate change, I am an expert in this: finding books that connect me to the natural world, and books that express the grief of always being a little bit separate from it. The selected books are some of my favorites.

Rory's book list on the grief of living with climate change

Rory Power Why did Rory love this book?

If you donā€™t have much time to read, this is the one for you. Offill is known for her brevity - her 2014 novel Dept. Of Speculation (equally worth your time) is similarly short, and similarly shot through with humor - and for the punch she can pack into a limited space. In Weather, she brings together the mundane grind of daily life with the larger existential terror many of us experience when we think about climate change, and bridges that gap, forcing her characters to confront how their daily lives are in fact not separate from these bigger concepts at all.

By Jenny Offill,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Weather as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER 

From the beloved author of the nationwide best seller Dept. of Speculationā€”one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Yearā€”a ā€œdarkly funny and urgentā€ (NPR) tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis

Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment,ā€¦


Book cover of The Death of Grass

James Marshall Author Of The Poster

From my list on dystopian books set in Britain.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve loved reading alternative visions of Britain since I read a Strontium Dog saga in ā€˜2000ADā€™ as a boy. What was science fiction then has become closer to reality now. The idea of one event, such as a meteor shower in Triffids or a virus in ā€˜Grass,ā€™ causing havoc worldwide is gripping. I prefer the British stories because they are closer to home. Many of these were written close to the Second World War, and their authors describe deprivation in unflinching detail. Recent political events have turned my mind to how human actions can cause dystopian futures, as in Orwellā€™s 1984.

James' book list on dystopian books set in Britain

James Marshall Why did James love this book?

This is no cosy dystopia. I was shocked by the violence and ruthlessness of the protagonists. This is a prescient novel, written 64 years before COVID-19, about a virus that emerges from China and ravages the world. Instead of infecting humans, the virus kills all grass. Brutal decisions are made, and any sense of law and order disappears.
We were a gnatā€™s whisker from this happening in the UK, and I was impressed with Priestā€™s vision. The book cracks along at a good pace, too.

By John Christopher,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Death of Grass as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A thought experiment in future-shock survivalism' Robert MacFarlane

'Gripping ... of all science fiction's apocalypses, this is one of the most haunting' Financial Times

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE

A post-apocalyptic vision of the world pushed to the brink by famine, John Christopher's science fiction masterpiece The Death of Grass includes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane in Penguin Modern Classics.

At first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turnsā€¦


Book cover of The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse

Christopher J. Lynch Author Of Dark State

From my list on electrical grid vulnerabilities and our survival.

Why am I passionate about this?

I worked as an industrial electrician for over two decades. At one point during a meeting to discuss an upcoming project, a question was posed about the delivery time of a specific piece of equipment. When the answer was given that it would be about a year away, it got me thinking: what if a specialized piece of equipmentā€”critical to the grid and with an equally long lead timeā€”was destroyed, how would the grid survive? More importantly; how would we survive? That single statement was the spark that ignited the fire in me to learn all about the grid, and to write Dark State.   

Christopher's book list on electrical grid vulnerabilities and our survival

Christopher J. Lynch Why did Christopher love this book?

I first heard of The Disaster Diaries from an interview with author Sam Sheridan. While not a book strictly related to a grid failure, it was still about disaster and surviving the breakdown of societal norms. 

What was so amazing about the bookā€”and something that endeared the author to me, was his humility regarding his own lack of preparedness. Here was a man who had been an EMT, a mixed martial arts fighter, a fire-fighter, and a cowboy, and yet he still didnā€™t feel prepared enough to survive a disaster!

What follows is a unique journey as he learns stunt driving, knife fighting, even how to steal a car, all to help him prepare for ā€œThe Big One.ā€ 

By Sam Sheridan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Disaster Diaries as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Sam Sheridan has been an amateur boxer, mixed-martial-arts fighter, professional wilderness firefighter, EMT, sailor, and cowboy, and has worked in construction at the South Pole. If he isn't ready for the apocalypse, we're all in a lot of trouble.

Despite an arsenal of skills that would put most of us to shame, when Sam had his son and settled down, he was beset with nightmares about being unable to protect him. Apocalyptic images filled his head. If a rogue wave hit his beach community, could he get out? If he was forced outside the city, could he survive in theā€¦


Book cover of The Swimmers
Book cover of Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
Book cover of Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life: A Former CIA Officer Reveals Safety and Survival Techniques to Keep You and Your Family Protected

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