Books with title Disaster Island

In this extraordinary fiction debut--rich with love and betrayal, history and intellectual passion--two remarkable narratives converge on Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world.It is 1913. Elsa Pendleton travels from England to Easter Island with her husband, an anthropologist sent by the Royal Geographical Society to study the colossal moai statues, and her younger sister. What begins as familial duty for Elsa becomes a grand adventure; on Easter Island she discovers her true calling. But, out of contact with the outside world, she is unaware that World War I has been declared and that a German naval squadron, fleeing the British across the South Pacific, is heading toward the island she now considers home.Sixty years later, Dr. Greer Farraday, an American botanist, travels to Easter Island to research the island’s ancient pollen, but more important, to put back the pieces of her life after the death of her husband.A series of brilliant revelations brings to life the parallel quests of these two intrepid young women as they delve into the centuries-old mysteries of Easter Island. Slowly unearthing the island’s haunting past, they are forced to confront turbulent discoveries about themselves and the people they love, changing their lives forever.Easter Island is a tour de force of storytelling that will establish Jennifer Vanderbes as one of the most gifted writers of her generation.

More than 7,000 people living in the Chicago area and Michigan City, Indiana, eagerly anticipated Saturday morning, July 24, 1915. This particular Saturday was going to be anything but a routine summer day. Plans had been carefully made for it to be the social and entertainment event of the year, and for some, a lifetime. The fifth annual midsummer excursion and picnic had been organized by the employees of the Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works. Thousands of carefree merrymakers would enjoy a festive day including a lovely cruise across Lake Michigan to an awaiting parade and day-long picnic. The day would conclude with an evening cruise back to Chicago. For thousands of hard-working immigrant laborers and their families and friends, it was going to be a day to remember. Instead, the day's scheduled event turned into a tragedy unlike any other. The SS Eastland, while still tied to the wharf, rolled into the Chicago River with more than 2,500 passengers on board. Nearly 850 people lost their lives, including 22 entire families. The ensuing struggle for survival, and the resulting death, heroism, cowardice, greed, and scandal gripped the city of Chicago.

Easter Island is a true land of mystery. One of the most remotely inhabited places on Earth, this 64-square-mile speck in the South Pacific is more than 1,000 miles from anywhere else, yet Polynesian voyagers managed to settle Easter Island a thousand years ago. No one knows why the Moai, nearly a thousand megalithic volcanic statues, were carved, transported, and erected--or why they were all found facedown by European explorers. In addition, did a Stone Age population of less than 10,000 actually deforest the land, causing environmental devastation? There were as many as 16 million Chilean palms covering 70 percent of the island when the settlers first appeared, but Westerners in the early 18th century were astonished by the total absence of trees. Furthermore, the islanders adopted a new cult based on the worship of birds and in the process, annually elected a "sacred birdman" in a competition that may have been the most dangerous of its kind anywhere in the world. Though the island is one of the most studied and probed places on the planet, Easter Island remains one of the most mysterious places on the planet. Read in this new title about this fascinating place.

Who is the true master of disaster? Earthlings: prepare for the shock of your lives! Global warming...reversed. The energy crisis...over. The greatest problem on Earth...solved. Voltarian Royal Officer of the Fleet, Jettero Heller, has it all figured out. And he's devised a daring and ingenious plan to make it all happen...if he lives to see the day. Saving the world is never easy, and for Heller, it turns out to be a tricky-and risky-business. He'll have to blast a gang of space pirates in a lethal laser firefight. He'll have to find a way to capture and control a black hole. He'll have to undertake a perilous journey to Saturn and back and transport a titanic chunk of ice across the solar system. Then comes the hard part...because Heller is headed back to Voltar, where he's about to uncover the identity of the powerful figure behind the conspiracy to end all conspiracies. He's facing his deadliest nemesis yet, and before the intergalactic battle is over, the entire mission could end in DISASTER.

Who is the true master of disaster? Earthlings: prepare for the shock of your lives! Global warming...reversed. The energy crisis...over. The greatest problem on Earth...solved. Voltarian Royal Officer of the Fleet, Jettero Heller, has it all figured out. And he's devised a daring and ingenious plan to make it all happen...if he lives to see the day. Saving the world is never easy, and for Heller, it turns out to be a tricky-and risky-business. He'll have to blast a gang of space pirates in a lethal laser firefight. He'll have to find a way to capture and control a black hole. He'll have to undertake a perilous journey to Saturn and back and transport a titanic chunk of ice across the solar system. Then comes the hard part...because Heller is headed back to Voltar, where he's about to uncover the identity of the powerful figure behind the conspiracy to end all conspiracies. He's facing his deadliest nemesis yet, and before the intergalactic battle is over, the entire mission could end in DISASTER.

Documenting some of the worst devastating catastrophes in world history, this book examines the terrible toll they have taken on human life and their impact on society. Colour cross-sectional artworks convey the scale and the human drama of each of the disasters. From massive earthquake to monster cyclone, the text uses an on-the-spot perspective and chronological sequences to take the reader directly to the scene. As well as examining the lessons learned from each catastrophe, the text assesses potential disasters of the future, and our ability to prevent them.