Friday April 13

100 Years After Titanic: 9 Books That Take Us Back

April 15, 2012, marks the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. We remember this tragedy and imagine her passengers' range of emotions: excitement about traveling on the biggest, latest, most luxurious, and technologically advanced ocean liner to terror as they witnessed a catastrophic fate unfolding. In the new book Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage, Hugh Brewster presents a never-before-seen glimpse of the rich-and-famous set on the Titanic. He specifically looks at the first-class passengers and re-creates their luxurious atmosphere while presenting their personal narratives. Through these millionaires, authors, and actresses, we are given insight into the arts, politics, and culture of the time, as we join them throughout this doomed maiden voyage.

Of course, there are many other books about Titanic that tell the equally important stories of both the affluent passengers and the less-lucky ones in steerage, as well as gripping accounts from survivors. Here are a few other eBook recommendations about this heart-wrenching disaster, which brought out the best and worst of human nature.

Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend, by Michael Davie
Journalist Michael Davie investigates the events, controversies, and legends that have surrounded Titanic's tragic sinking. Davie offers insightful portraits of the protagonists and dramatizes the confusing and terrifying hours that passed from the moment the ship hit the iceberg until its survivors were picked up by the USS Carpathia a full day later. Newly updated on the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy by Titanic expert Dave Gittins, Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend will fascinate Titanic experts, amateurs, and newcomers alike.

Titanic: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Greatest Shipwreck, by National Geographic
National Geographic revisits the romance, glory, and tragedy of this tremendous ship and presents an insider’s look at the new findings about the passengers and scientific study of the wreck site.

Voyagers of the Titanic: Passengers, Sailors, Shipbuilders, Aristocrats, and the Worlds They Came From, by Richard Davenport-Hines
Voyagers of the Titanic follows the stories of the men, women, and children whose lives intersected on the vessel's fateful last day, covering the full range of first, second, and third class -- from plutocrats and captains of industry to cobblers and tailors looking for a better life in America.

101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic, by Tim Maltin
People have an endless fascination with Titanic, yet much of what they know today is a mixture of fact and fiction. In one hundred and one brief and engaging chapters, Tim Maltin, one of the foremost experts on Titanic, reveals the truth behind the most common beliefs about the ship and the night it sank.

A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord
Walter Lord's definitive re-telling of the events of Titanic's only voyage is based on interviews with sixty-three survivors. This is the book that made Lord famous.

The Dressmaker: A Novel, by Kate Alcott
Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.

Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic, by Suzanne Weyn (Young Adult)
Four sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor. When they all find themselves on Titanic, one of Tesla's inventions dooms them ... and one could save them.

Shadow of the Titanic, by Andrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson brings to life the colorful voices of many of those who lived to tell the tale, from famous survivors like Madeleine Astor, Lady Duff Gordon, and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, to lesser known second- and third-class passengers.