Presents a tale about the complicated interactions between mothers and daughters who unwittingly inflict harm on one another in spite of their best intentions.

Charles Perrow is Professor of Sociology at Yale University. His other books include The Radical Attack on Business, Organizational Analysis: A Sociological View, Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay, and The AIDS Disaster: The Failure of Organizations in New York and the Nation. Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more...

Flying as an airline passenger is, statistically, one of the safest forms of travel. Even so, the history of civil aviation is littered with high-profile disasters involving major loss of life. This new edition of the authoritative work on the subject brings the grim but important story of air disasters right up to date. David Gero assembles a list of major air disasters since the 1950s across continents. He investigates every type of calamity,

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In nearly a century of heavy rail travel in Ohio, a dozen train accidents stand out as the most horrific. In the bitter cold, just after Christmas 1876, eleven cars plunged seventy-five feet into the frigid water below. The stoves burst into flames, burning to death all who were not killed by the fall. Fires cut short the lives of forty-three people in the head-on Doodlebug collision in Cuyahoga Falls in 1940 and eleven people in a train wreck near...

"With its rich history and famous guests, the glamorous Boston hotel is no stranger to drama. But the bustle at the iconic property reaches new heights one weekend in mid-June when someone falls tragically to her death, the event rippling through the lives of four very different people. Over three sun-drenched days, as the truth about the woman who died and the secret she was hiding is uncovered, these four strangers become linked in the most unexpected...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes this extraordinary thriller about airline safety, business intrigue, and a deadly cover-up.
 
“The pacing is fast, the suspense nonstop.”—People
 
Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin is virtually destroyed....

An airliner on a routine flight from San Francisco to Tokyo is struck by a U.S. Navy missile. Because of the sudden change in cabin pressure, all but five people on board are either dead, comatose, or raving mad. As Flight 52 becomes the ultimate test of survival, onboard horrors begin to mount up. In addition, the airline, the insurance company, and the Navy are desperate to cover up the mishap--no matter what the cost.

Patsy MacLemoore, a history professor in her late twenties with a brand-new Ph.D. from Berkeley and a wild streak, wakes up in jail--yet again--after another epic alcoholic blackout. However, this time two people are dead, and Patsy had been driving with a revoked license. She will spend the rest of her life in prison, getting sober, finding a new community and husband, and trying to atone for this unpardonable act. Then decades later, another...

"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...

"If you made a mistake that took someone's life, you'd remember it ... wouldn't you? After a tragedy rocks the community of Promise Falls, Cal Weaver is asked to investigate the threats being made to the accused's family. He's heard all about it on the news: the young man who drank too much, stole a Porsche and killed a girl, and who claimed afterwards not to remember a single thing. The whole town is outraged that he got off lightly, but for reasons...