Ocean adventures, an aviation disaster, and disappearances on the Pacific Crest Trail

Three nonfiction books with varying degrees of terror

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean

by Susan Casey
Read it if you’re into: Marine biology, extreme excursions, environmental conservation

Established marine writer Susan Casey’s first person account chronicles her many journeys accompanying scientists and explorers to the ocean’s depths, shedding light on the little known world that exists down in the darkness.

The bizarre geological magic of the deep sea, the luminescent creatures that dwell there and the scientists on the forefront of its exploration all compete for top billing in this intriguing look at the deepest places on planet Earth. What lies beneath is freakier than you can imagine, and marvelously captured here. Tens of thousands of feet below the surface there are unexploded live munitions from centuries ago, translucent fish with eyes sealed inside of their transparent skulls, and mysterious nodules composed of super valuable metals which companies around the world are competing to mine for manufacturing. The Underworld is worth reading for Casey’s dizzying descriptions of the otherworldly phenomena in the abyssal zone alone. Part memoir, part scientific exploration, and part rousing call to protect that which we cannot see, this book depicts the ocean with the reverence it deserves.

Collision on Tenerife: The How and Why of the World’s Worst Aviation Disaster

by Jon Ziomek
Read it if you’re into: Plane crashes, survival psychology, aviation

In 1977, the world was rocked when two 747 planes carrying more than 600 people in total collided at Tenerife Airport, leaving just 61 survivors. With the help of a passenger who was on board one of the flights that day, Jon Ziomek provides the most comprehensive account thus far of the events leading up to the disaster, as well as what exactly happened during and after.

Those of us who travel by air frequently take for granted the ease and safety of flying today — but 40 years ago, the world was a much different place, and this book does a remarkable job of capturing exactly what that world was like. It’s a fascinating look at pre-security era flying, and a brisk but robust accounting of the many dominoes that had to fall in order for these two packed jets to smash into one another on a remote island. The author investigates not just how this happened but why, as well as the many significant changes to international aviation procedures that were implemented as a result (and which remain in effect to this day). It is also a careful look at the psychological tendencies that keep certain people alive, and why some make it when others do not.

Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail

by Andrea Lankford
Read it if you’re into: Hiking and the outdoors, The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman, missing persons cases, national parks

A former park ranger with the law enforcement branch of the National Parks Service investigates the mysterious disappearances of three young men who vanished over the course of a few years while hiking alone on the PCT.

Andrea Lankford, as becomes clear pretty quickly here, is a veteran of cases like those she is now investigating. She has participated in more than a few search and rescue operations while in the Parks Service, some with miraculous endings, others more grim. Here, she launches her own investigation (now as a layperson), teaming up with the loved ones and families of the missing, in an attempt to find these three young men. Her mission is laudable and intriguing, and along the way there are psychics and oddballs, bad weather and cults. Lankford is as reliable a narrator as they come thanks to her own expertise and experience, which lends a credibility to the book that it otherwise would not have, and an enjoyable writer to boot.