Sure is. I have my grandmother's original copy of The Great Galveston Disaster on a bookshelf behind my desk chair, printed in 1900. It's filled with photographs that are stunning. In desperation, hundreds of bodies were piled on barges that were towed far out in the Gulf and the dead dumped into the water. They floated onto the beaches for days afterwards. Huge neighborhoods that looked like piles of broken matchsticks. Tales of those who survived in those neighborhoods and their disbelief at what they witnessed. No one knows just how many died in the storm. It could easily be a couple of thousand more than the estimates, which were horrific enough. Galveston never really recovered. My grandmother remembered the storm as a child and told me about it, showing me that book. Their pier and beam house in the Heights, not far from the bayou and stoutly built, floated off the lot with her perched on a bed with other kids, several inches of water sloshing around inside, the wind howling. Relatives that lived nearby and some of their neighbors crowded in, some probably praying. Later, they managed to put the house back. That must have been a job. People forget that Houston was also hit pretty hard by the hurricane.
Eric Larson books I'm familiar with: * = read by me Dead Wake is an exhaustive review of the sinking of the Lusitania covering it from every possible angle. (still plan on reading this one) Thunderstruck is about the story of Marconi (inventor or wireless) and Hawley Harvey Crippen who was a famous criminal who murdered his wife. The story encompasses how their lives intersect and the "chase" of Crippen. *Issac's Storm is a great story about the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. So great in fact, I "accidentally" read it cover to cover in a Barnes and Noble one day (it was that good). I felt bad about it so went ahead and purchased some other things that day...lol. *In the Garden of Beasts is about the lives of the family of the American Ambassador to Berlin in the 1930's. If this particular place and time fascinates you, I can't recommend it highly enough. Puts the reader "in the shoes" of these people as they witness the shocking rise of Nazism. *The Splendid and the Vile is the newest book from Larson and is about Winston Churchill in his first year as Prime Minister and those surrounding him at that critical point in history. I've read the first 50 pages or so and need to get around to actually buying it. So far, so good.
Ive read Devil In The White City. Good book fo sho. I had never read Cormac McCarthy bit have worked through The Road ans All The Pretty Horses in the last week. Readiij ng The Crossing today.
I’m surprised he has read all of that and not Devil. I’ve only read that and the Nazi one. I’ll have to read Isacc’s storm based on his blurb about it.
Awesome series.....Half way through book 2. Essentially..... a CEO of a start up company signs up to be cryogenically frozen at the time of death and wakes up in the future as an AI where he has no rights. Earth's superpowers are bitterly locked in a stellar exploration arms race and the AI can either be turned off or become a Von Neumon probe (a self replicating spacecraft). He chooses to be a probe and explores the universe using the many copies he can create of himself while fighting off rival superpowers.
That’s a really interesting premise. I will check it out after I’m done with my re-read of Joe Abercrombie’s books.
I just ordered this today when I discovered this book existed. It came out last year apparently. My father took part in this operation 75 years ago last March as part of the Glider Trooper component...the 194th GIR.
Yeah, I assumed that the Japanese Internment Camp from season 2 is not located in the arctic. About a third of the way through Blood Meridian now, havent' read this in years. So good.
Jim Butcher's new Dresden Files book comes out today. Waiting impatiently for my copy to show up from Amazon. Peace Talks is the title.
Can’t wait to read it! Battle Ground hits in the fall, too. I think I’m going to re-read the series before I read the two new books.
Just finished this book. His gripping true story of surviving drifting 6,000 miles across the Pacific is an inspiring story of his courage and will to survive. You feel like you are right there going through the unimaginable experience he went through day by day,
