Titanic: Voices From the Disaster

As part of my quest to read more nonfiction, I picked up this award-winning book about the Titanic.  For some reason, I expected it to read like the James Cameron movie, and I was surprised the majority of the book concerned itself with the crash and the sinking.  But I'm kind of an idiot because the title obviously makes it clear that it's about the disaster angle and not the what happened before fun.

Anywayyyy, the text isn't pedantic, helping to make the information easy to digest, a quality always appreciated amongst the younger set (and older, let's be honest).  It's always interesting to learn about all the safety regulations that went into effect as a result of the tragedy, but you can't help but read this book and wonder how no one had the common sense to think of these things beforehand.  Also, it's obviously heartbreaking at times when you read about the tales of families ripped apart and selfish rich men taking the spots of the designated women and children (oh how times have changed...).

I felt like I had already been exposed to the majority of the information via past textbooks.  Also, the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown is only mentioned TWICE in passing.  That is shameful, in my opinion.

However, the book is definitely worth picking up for the sake of the amazing photos and images. For the teens and children who didn't experience the 1997 film that my generation was inundated with, I think Voices from the Disaster will prove to be a great nonfiction quick pick or school resource.