Recounts the four-day ordeal of Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert and the dramatic struggle to bring back to Earth the tiny lunar module spacecraft into which they were forced to retreat when their main ship was damaged.

Nando Parrado regained consciousness to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as family members and supporters, had crashed deep in the Andes. Many were dead or dying, among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a glacier at nearly 12,000 feet, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search...

Presents an absorbing, minute-by-minute account of the demise of the "unsinkable" Titanic, the massive luxury liner that housed a French "sidewalk cafe" and a grand staircase, among other extravagances, but failed to provide enough lifeboats for the 2,207 passengers on board.

Discusses the ordeal of the survivors of an airplane crash in 1972 in the Andes wilderness.

A researcher and nuclear energy advocate describes a number of nuclear mishaps, analyzing what happened and why and explains how each of these accidents have furthered the study of the atom and nuclear energy.

Every time an astronaut makes the trip into space, he faces the risk of death from the slightest mechanical error or instance of bad luck. In February 2003, American astronauts Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin were on what was to be a routine fourteen-week mission maintaining the International Space Station. But then the shuttle Columbia exploded beneath them. With the launch program suspended indefinitely,...

"A journalist recounts the surprising history of accidents and reveals how they've come to define all that's wrong with America. We hear it all the time: "Sorry, it was just an accident." And we've been deeply conditioned to just accept that explanation and move on. But as Jessie Singer argues convincingly: There are no such things as accidents. The vast majority of mishaps are not random but predictable and preventable. Singer uncovers just how the...

General George S. Patton, Jr. died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost seventy years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident -- and may very well have been an act of assassination. "Killing Patton" takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton's tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced....

A woman who sleeps among garbage she has not put out for forty years. A man who bled quietly to death in his living room. A woman who lives with rats, random debris and terrified delusion. The still life of a home vacated by accidental overdose. Sandra Pankhurst brings order and care to the living and the dead as a trauma cleaner. Krasnostein tells about a fascinating life among lives of desperation. Pankhurst's belief is that, as isolated as we may...

"Popular Mechanics' ultimate survival manual will teach you the essential skills to protect your family, save yourself, and conquer any possible danger. In an emergency, would you know how to survive--to purify water, jump-start a car, escape a flood or fire, forage for firewood, protect your family? Whether the threat is low or the risk is apocalyptic, Popular Mechanics can help you handle it with lifesaving advice for dangerous situations. Crucial...