It lurks in the corner of our imagination, almost beyond our ability to see it: the possibility that a tear in the fabric of life could open up without warning, upending a house, a skyscraper, or a civilization.

Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? Will our upbringing, our gender, our personality–anything we’ve ever learned, thought, or dreamed of–ultimately matter?
    
Amanda Ripley, an award-winning journalist for Time magazine who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, set out to discover what lies beyond fear and speculation. In this magnificent work of investigative journalism, Ripley retraces the human response to some of history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to a plane crash in England in 1985 that mystified investigators for years, to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Then, to understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts, formal and informal, from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear.

Finally, Ripley steps into the dark corners of her own imagination, having her brain examined by military researchers and experiencing through realistic simulations what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.
    
Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better, with just a little help.

The Unthinkable escorts us into the bleakest regions of our nightmares, flicks on a flashlight, and takes a steady look around. Then it leads us home, smarter and stronger than we were before.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow
Comment: Such an in-depth study of the human psyche. Great read. I highly recommend this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What If????
Comment: Everyone does it. Bored at work, staring out a window. Or late at night, unable to sleep. The "what if" game.What if the unthinkable thing ever happened, what would you do? Could you handle it? Would you survive?

THE UNTHINKABLE by Amanda Ripley is based on just this intriguing premise and she takes us into the world of several different heroes and heroines who, yes, they did just that. They survived. But more than that, Ms. Ripley slips into analytical mode to help us understand the reasons behind their sudden bursts of courage, often breaking free of an otherwise ordinarily unremarkable normal life.

THE UNTHINKABLE was an engrossing read, one that I would recommend for many reasons. Entertainment, of course. Information, always a plus. But more importantly, it gave me a sense of awareness. Of how sudden all things precious can be plucked away from us and while we can never truly plan for that, a sense of awareness is always a valuable thing, not to be taken for granted.

As any student of history would sadly agree.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: "The Unthinkable" - A must read!
Comment: "The Unthinkable" logically deconstructs disasters and examines who survives and who doesn't. It provides a fantastic framework for examining risks in your life, and thinking about how best to surive these risks. It is not a doomsday book about stockpiling food in your basement bunker, but instead deals with a way to think about these situations beforehand, so that you will be better mentally prepared.

The book is well-written, and I had trouble putting it down. My wife is currently reading it, and enjoying it also. After reading this book I believe I will react differently if I am ever faced with a looming disaster scenario. I believe that everyone should read this book, and I am giving to my parents to read next.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Unthinkable made Thinkable
Comment: Amanda Ripley's "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Srikes and Why," is a tale told that might just keep you alive. The "3-D's" (Denial, Deliberation and Decisive Moment) provide structure for her narrative. These are the stages that human beings typically pass through when some catastrophic event actually occurs. I would have preferred that Decisive Moment be called simply "Decision," but that is a minor point.

Although it sounds simple and corny, being prepared really does improve one's odds of survival. To have thought about what might happen when a disaster strikes, to have a plan, to have practiced the plan are the way-steps to putting yourself into survivor mode.

Ripley takes the reader through a wide variety of modern disasters and catastrophic events. The bombing of the World Trade Center, the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Air Florida crash, the London subway attack, earthquakes, fires, the Virginia Tech shootings, Hurricane Katrina to name a few.

For some, the fickle finger of fate will mean instant death without any opportunity for action or escape. However, for most people there are decisions to be made and actions to be taken which can dramatically improve one's ability to survive death or serious injury. Personality traits factor in, even one's body type plays a role, along with an understanding of human evolutionary history are some of the ingredients in the survival stewpot. But any person can learn, prepare for and practice steps that will improve one's own odds of survival.

There is a fresh air of optimism to Ripley's narrative, which I really like. It is not fantasy optimism. The practical and simple things that one can learn and the actions one can plan for in a disaster situation are key ingredients in the survival recipe. Except for an unlucky few, most of us still have opportunites and choices when the unthinkable does happen.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Slight content, more about interviews than the topic
Comment: After reading the related Time magazine article "How to Survive a Disaster" (May 29/June 9, 2008), I read this book with great anticipation, only to be sorely disappointed. I found too little additional information in the book to warrant recommending reading it instead of, much less in addition to, the article.

I speculate that many of the glowing reviews here are more reactions to the topic of disasters being so interesting rather than this being a good book about that topic.

If you are looking for "actionable" information, there is little more than what you will find in run-of-the-mill disaster preparedness pamphlets.

Neither can I recommend the book for "motivation" or "inspiration": The author's meandering style (repeated digressions, reiterations, irrelevancies,...) drains the narrative force from the events and the interviewees' experiences -- I repeatedly stopped reading in the middle of an account (I normally read several chapters at a time). However, if you read a few pages at a time, this may not register.

Rather than a book on the topic, it is a more of an account of a series of the interviews on this topic, for example, describing the room in which an interview was conducted decades after the event. Although focusing on a few participants in an event is often used to provide the skeleton on which to build, this book doesn't flesh out the skeleton with the expected related examples, analysis and synthesis. Interesting and relevant topics are mentioned only in passing instead of being explored and tied into the larger narrative. My impression is that the author is much more interested in talking to people about the topic than in the topic itself.

Even major topics seem to be _unnecessarily_ sparse and fragmentary. For example, if you have read/watched reports on the evacuation of the World Trade Center (on 9/11), you may be perplexed by why basic information that supports/enhances the book's points is not even mentioned. I was repeatedly frustrated by how much space the book took to present so little.

A friend who is less goal-directed than me said that, although the content was "slight," the book was "generally entertaining" with sections that were "flat." She too was very disappointed by the many unexplored topics and missed opportunities. (She and I participate in a citizens' group promoting the role of residents in our city's disaster plans and prep)

If you are involved in disaster preparations, the alluded-to topics might help you organize and articulate your experiences and thoughts by triggering memories in a useful way. If you are newly interested, these brief mentions might prime you to better recognize and comprehend these topics in future readings and discussions. Despite this, it is impossible for me to recommend a book for what it skips past.

Comments on chapters:

Risk: I have read many good introductions on how people assess risk. With so many examples and templates available, I was surprised that the chapter here was poorly rendered and missing so much.

Panic: If you--like me--deal with officials who (mistakenly) believe that widespread panic is likely to occur in most disasters, then you may find the chapter on panic useful. Not because it's particularly good, but because panic is so poorly treated in so much of the accessible literature (typically little more than "panic is rare"). I was disappointed that the book presents stampedes/crushes as instances of panic. In many cases, the individuals seem to be acting rationally (irrational action is the core of "panic") based upon their local circumstances, unaware of the global situation and how the cumulative effects of those local actions are harmful.

Errata: pg 219: A referenced website has moved. The domain for "ReallyReady" no longer exists but its content can be accessed at the FAS site in subdirectory "reallyready" (Can't be specific: Amazon prohibits external URLs in reviews for legitimate security reasons).

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