World Disasters

On October 30, 1938, rising radio star Orson Welles boondoggles the American public into believing that Martians have attacked Earth. With his clever adaptation of The War of the Worlds, the great showman proves he can get away with anything - maybe even murder. Minutes before the fictitious invasion goes live on the air, a dead body is found in the studio and the polarizing Welles is the obvious suspect.

On March 11, 2011, a powerful earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of northeast Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than eighteen thousand people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned. It was Japan’s greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways.

Evan, Zoe and their band of mostly young fighters have built a fragile new life amidst the chaos wrought by the Blood Virus and the New Humanity cult. Despite a series of successful attacks on the outposts of the sadistic empire of the cult and its leader, John Locke, freeing scores of its victims, Evan is no closer to real victory. New Humanity and its leadership sit secure in a headquarters complex that appears invincible, free to abuse the weak and innocent and continue a quest for a master race. Achieving final justice would take a miracle and could cost Evan everyone and everything he ...

In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America's engagement in Asia. Now comes his most engrossing work yet. Beginning in the 1850s, Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans who made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As they - good Christians all - profitably addicted millions, American missionaries arrived, promising salvation for those who adopted Western ways.

How is the global economic order shaping up for the 21st Century? Today we are forced to consider how the average working family might prepare for the next two global conflicts that we see arising. We have relied on government and media to describe global affairs, but now we present a different narrative regarding these World Wars. Using scientific futurism we look over the horizon as we simultaneously examine the history of conflict from the 20th Century forward. What can we do to protect ourselves?

When an EMP collapses society…rabid packs of ex-convicts and gangs ravage an off-grid Texas……turning Houston into hunting grounds. Double-crossed and incarcerated for armed robbery, Alex longs for a second chance. And revenge. Then the EMP downs the Texas grid, providing Alex an opportunity. Despite the buildings aflame, bullets flying, and absolute barbaric conditions, Alex seizes the chance to track down the traitor who crossed him and find Wendy—his daughter.

Evan and Zoe, together with their expanding group of comrades, find their way to a safe place, hidden deep in the Florida Everglades. With Brenda, Logan, Nate and Maria, the surprisingly deadly teen rescued in Cuba, the group has a core of skilled fighters to protect their refuge from the violence still raging across America. Seeking strength through community, they befriend other survivors of the massive, worldwide Blood Virus pandemic engineered by fanatical environmental terrorists. When those responsible for the suffering unleash a savage attack upon the most vulnerable refugees, Evan ...

Emma Peterson was nearly killed rescuing strangers who were being abused by the Sons of Liberty militia. As she recovers from her wounds, the rest of the growing band of Warriors must step up to continue their efforts to free nearby communities of ruthless gangs and to allow survivors to live peacefully. A setback like Emma’s could have ended her struggle for a better world, but instead her resolve was strengthened. The biggest challenges remain, however, as she fights the forces of nature as well as the agents of evil who would enslave and torture the innocent. Join Emma, Olivia, Shelby ...

So Others May Live: Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers: Saving Lives, Defying Death is the award-winning untold story of the US Coast Guard's quiet but resolute rescue swimmers. From deep ocean caves on the Oregon coast to the panicked and chaotic streets of post-Katrina New Orleans, here are their stunningly heroic stories.

Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters were playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like, "a roaring surf," one of them said later. Like, "a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence," said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window - "Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour.

During the height of the blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard dispatched a patrol boat, but was soon in as much trouble as the tanker. Then pilot boat captain Frank Quirk, hearing of the Coast Guard's troubles on his radio, decided to act.

Building resilience - the ability to bounce back more quickly and effectively - is an urgent social and economic issue. Our interconnected world is susceptible to sudden and dramatic shocks and stresses: a cyber-attack, a new strain of virus, a structural failure, a violent storm, a civil disturbance, an economic blow. Judith Rodin shows how people, organizations, businesses, communities, and cities have developed resilience in the face of otherwise catastrophic challenges.

Lance was just trying to get through his terrible day when his world came crashing down. As the blazing sun dipped below the horizon, Lance's heart pounded in his chest, each beat pushing him closer to the edge of desperation. Racing against time and a cosmic cataclysm, he must navigate a ravaged world after a monstrous CME strikes the Earth, plunging it into darkness. But this harrowing journey is not solely to survive the aftermath; it's a race to reach his injured father in distant Kansas, where a lonely farmhouse stands as their last beacon of hope.

Amid the constant rain of German bombs and the escalating violence of World War II, British parents by the thousands chose to send their children out of the country: the wealthy, independently; the poor, through a government relocation program called CORB. In September 1940, passenger liner SS City of Benares set out in a convoy of 19 ships sailing for Canada. On board were 90 CORB children, chaperones, and crew, along with paying passengers. When the war ships escorting the Benares to safe waters peeled off, a German submarine attacked and torpedoed the Benares.

It’s 1942, and London remains under constant threat of enemy attack as the second world war rages on. In the Bethnal Green neighborhood, Nellie Morris counts every day lucky that she emerges from the underground shelters unharmed, her loving family still surrounding her. Three years into the war, she’s grateful to hold onto remnants of normalcy—her job as assisting the mayor and nights spent at the local pub with her best friend. But after a chance encounter with Ray, an American airman stationed nearby, Nellie becomes enchanted with the idea of a broader world.

The world is doomed, and time is running out. In the near future, a stellar collision with a rogue planet destabilizes the sun’s fusion output, turning it into a ticking time bomb. With the ever-increasing heat, earth will become uninhabitable within a decade. A handful of individuals will determine whether humanity survives: NASA scientist Dr. Olivia Quinn must outwit a corrupt government system and warn the public before it’s too late. Veteran astronaut Valerie McKinnon and her crew are in a race against time to build a space colony that could rescue a multitude of lives. And ...

Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . and these are their stories. Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each other’s paths during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?

We think we know the story of the Titanic—the once majestic and supposedly unsinkable ship that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Britain to America—but very little has been written about the vessel’s 705 survivors. How did the events of that horrific night in the icy waters of the North Atlantic affect the lives of those who lived to tell the tale? Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished letters, memoirs, diaries, and interviews with their family members, award-winning journalist Andrew Wilson brings to life the survivors’ colorful voices.

The hurricane of 1900, America’s worst natural disaster, left the island city of Galveston in ruins. Thousands perished, including all 93 children at the Sisters of the Incarnate Word orphanage—except six-year-old Hester, who miraculously survived. Oleander City is the tale of this little girl and the volatile collision between the American Red Cross, the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the most famous boxing matches in American history.

Let’s get this out of the way: I’m not here to scare you. But if you’ve ever sat in the dark with a dead phone, a melting freezer, and zero clue what to do next—you already know a little fear can be useful. That flicker of “uh-oh” is your brain telling you it’s time to do something. Ideally before the lights go out, but hey, better late than never. Power outages aren’t rare anymore. Storms hit harder, grids fail more often, and sometimes things just fall apart. One minute you’re reheating leftovers and scrolling social media, the next you’re using a headlamp to check if ...