#16--A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

It is an established fact that I love history.  I am also fascinated by events in history where something went wrong and how people handled it.  Case in point, the Holocaust....so many wrongs and yet there were people who tried everything to make it as right as they could, in their limited capacity.  Other events, like disasters--the sinking of the Titanic and the Hindenberg disaster--are also fascinating to me for similar reasons.

Several years ago, while conducting a weed (to remove unused/out-dated materials from the collection) of the library, I came across a dilapidated copy of this title.  Because of its condition and age, it was removed from the collection.  (It was first published in 1955, so the author had had the good fortune to be able to interview survivors of the Titanic sinking.)  Because of my interest, I took the deleted copy home with me, in the hopes of reading it someday.  That someday finally has come.  I was recently on vacation and grabbed several weeded books to take with me (these are books that I don't worry about losing or misplacing--which makes them perfect for vacation).

The author thoroughly did his research and has recreated the events of that fateful night with as much accuracy as is possible.  While reading, I felt like I was with the people, experiencing the events right along with them.  Everyone knows how this one ends....the boat sinks, with hundreds of people on board.  However, the descriptions of the acts of heroism and courage (and stupidity/cowardliness) make the story come alive for the reader.

In the back of the book there are lists of each of the classes (first, second, and third/steerage) and who the survivors were.  The index also includes each person who is named, so you can find out more info about them.  The end-papers included a diagram of the boat itself and indicated on the boat the timeline of what happened, where, and when.

So much could have been different about this tragedy if little things had been done differently.  However, hindsight is usually 20/20.  And in the end, so much has been changed for the better because of this event: life boats are required for the capacity of the ship (as well as life-boat drills for the crew and passengers), 24-hour radio watch and distress rockets, the creation of an International Ice Patrol, and changes to how ships are designed.

Since we still have a copy of this title on the shelves at my school, I think I'm going to add it to my non-fiction book talk rotation this coming year, since I always have a few students who are fascinated by the Titanic.

Happy Reading!!