June KITastrophe: Man-Made

Welcome! I hope everyone is staying sane during this crazy time.

This month we're looking at man-made catastrophes, those caused by human error, negligence, greed, or malice. There could be a lot of overlap with other categories, but it also includes terrorism and ecological, economic, or other types of disasters.

Some possibilities:



The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn
The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 by Anthony Summers
Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack . . . by Scott Helman, Jenna Russell
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak
A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Theater Shootings by William H. Reid

Don't forget to update the wiki.

I'm tempted to reread McCullough's The Johnstown Flood followed up by Julie (by Catherine Marshall, the author of Christy) which is a fictional account of a disaster strongly resembling the Johnstown Flood.

If the library reopens on schedule, I'll sure I'll come up with more....

"Columbine" made my favourites the year I read it, so I second that recommendation!

I also wanted to recommend The Day the World Came to Town / Jim Defede about all the planes that landed in Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11.

Although it's not really about the attack itself, but about the aftermath and how the town came together to help all the stranded travelers.

Oh, and options for me:

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood... / Stephen Puleo
The Great Halifax Explosion / John U. Bacon
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands / Chris Bohjalian

So many good possibilities for this month--going to check out all the suggestions. As far as Columbine goes, last year I read A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold. I found it to poignant and humbling--because most of us think that our kids are normal and they would never do anything like this. I can recommend this book.

>3 LibraryCin: The Day the World Came to Town is one I've been meaning to read - thanks for the reminder! And i just discovered it's on Kindle Unlimited - no need for the library.

>4 LibraryCin: I really enjoyed Dark Tide - I definitely recommend it. The Great Halifax Explosion is one I've been aware of for a while, and would like to get to.

>6 Dejah_Thoris: I hope you like it!

Of the three I'm leaning toward, I suspect "Dark Tide" will be my first one (then see if I have time to add more in). The Bohjalian might be next. I think both of those may have been on my tbr longer.

>7 LibraryCin: I'll put in another thumbs up for Dark Tide. I thoroughly enjoyed it a couple years ago.

The Day the World Came to Town was good. I'd also recommend Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 or The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 or 102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers.

The Great Halifax Explosion is on my tbr list. Not sure what I'll read for this month. I haven't been keeping up.

I requested and received the same day The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede and it was excellent. I read it in 2 days. I applaud the people of Gander, Newfoundland!

I can only borrow books at the moment that are on the shelves at my town's library - no hold requests from other libraries. We can look online and see what is on the shelves, place a hold and every Tuesday and Thursday we can do contactless pick up at the front door.

So I found this on the shelf for this challenge, The 9-11 Dogs: The Heroes Who Searched For Survivors at Ground Zero.

I just finished Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, an account of a fire started by arson that killed 32 patrons of a gay bar in New Orleans in 1973, a meticulous account of an event I was only vaguely aware of going in.

>12 susanna.fraser: I think I'll try to join you for that one, library permitting.

Been meaning to read The Road to Jonestown for a while.

Just as the March KITastrophe about epidemics was hit by the current pandemic this month's topic is being hit with man-made disasters with police brutality against blacks and protesters. I have on hold from our public library Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill which I hope to receive via the bookmobile next week. In the meantime, I plan to read Selma's Bloody Sunday by Robert A. Pratt.

I have just finished Death in the Air by Kate Winkler Dawson. This covers two different stories that occurred in London in 1952. The stories are interwoven though the book. The first is the Great Smog, a disaster which killed thousands of Londoners. The main cause of the smog was the burning of nutty slack, a cheap fuel that consisted of coal dust with small lumps of coal. Nutty slack was cheap and unrationed and it was the only fuel many households could afford to buy.

The second story is about the serial killer Reginald Christie who murdered at least 7 women (including his wife) and who probably murdered a 14 month old girl as well.

I read The 9-11 Dogs, a short but powerful book about the dogs who searched for survivors at Ground Zero.

The July thread up yet? I can't find it!

>18 Tess_W:. The same person, Dejah_Thoris, is the host for both the July MysteryKIT and the July KITastrophe. I have not found any evidence of either thread being posted yet. I looked on her profile screen and saw the following message:

I love LT, but I'm terrible at the social aspects of it. I'm not on consistently - sometimes I won't visit for months. I'm going to try to track my books for the rest of 2014 and participate a little, but otherwise keep a low profile.

Obviously, this was posted many years ago, but apparently she is still not visiting on a regular basis. I'm not the main hostess for either KIT, and did not want to write to Dejah on her profile screen and mention that she has not yet posted either thread before anyone commented on the missing threads. Who should do this?
If you want me to try contacting her about both threads, I would be glad to do so unless we want LadyoftheLodge and LibraryCin to each do their own KIT.

>19 sallylou61: Nah, you never know what is happening in someone's life. I know a person who contacted somebody about not posting and come to find out she was in the hospital for cancer surgery--I'm sure LT was the last thing on her mind. I'm sure Judy will notice it soon!

I just popped over to ask if she is ok. I did also mention the two threads. I do hope all is well.

>21 LibraryCin: TY Cindy

She's ok. She'll get the threads up this weekend.

Well, I didn't get it up (the July thread) over the weekend, but it'll be up today.

I'm sorry for the delay - it's been a rough two weeks or so.

And it's up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/321799

>25 Dejah_Thoris: Thanks! Sorry for the rough couple of weeks you've had.

Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 / Stephen Puleo
3.75 stars

In 1915, a giant tower meant to store molasses was built in Boston, near the water, near the train tracks, right beside a poor and crowded area of the city. In January 1919, the molasses burst from the tower, creating a wave that eventually left 21 dead and many more injured.

In addition to info on the tower and the disaster, the book included information on politics at the time and other happenings (the war, the Spanish flu). It followed a few families who were affected or who had some “doings” with the tower, who later testified in court. It had information about anarchists at the time (the company that owned the tower blamed anarchists for dropping a bomb in the tower causing the flood).

I found the parts about the families, the people involved, the flood itself, and the trial after to be quite interesting. Where I lost interest (and the book lost a quarter star) was in the political discussion and the anarchists. I read the ebook, which apparently came from the slightly later paperback edition, which included an additional afterword. This was interesting, as the author described letters he received from descendants of many of the people involved.

>24 Dejah_Thoris: Hope things are going better for you now.

>28 JayneCM: Thank you - they finally are!

Sadly, I only finished one book for this challenge: The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough. It was excellent, as you would expect. I hope I do a little better in July, since I'm hosting, lol.

I read The Great Halifax Explosion by John U. Bacon. Lots of backstory on some of the major "characters" made it somewhat difficult to get into, but then when we finally did get around to the disaster and the aftermath, I actually cared about those people and what happened to them.

>30 BookLizard: I requested The Great Halifax Explosion from the library, but never got to it. I'll give it a shot for the Catch Up month.