Kirkus Best Books of the Year • Kansas City Star Best Books of the Year A passionate student of Japanese poetry, theater, and art for much of her life, Gretel Ehrlich felt compelled to return to the earthquake-and-tsunami-devastated Tohoku coast to bear witness, listen to survivors, and experience their terror and exhilaration in villages and towns where all shelter and hope seemed lost. In an eloquent narrative that blends strong reportage, poetic observation, and deeply felt reflection, she takes us into the upside-down world of northeastern Japan, where nothing is certain and where the boundaries between living and dying have been erased by water. The stories of rice farmers, monks, and wanderers; of fishermen who drove their boats up the steep wall of the wave; and of an eighty-four-year-old geisha who survived the tsunami to hand down a song that only she still remembered are both harrowing and inspirational. Facing death, facing life, and coming to terms with impermanence are equally compelling in a landscape of surreal desolation, as the ghostly specter of Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power complex, spews radiation into the ocean and air. Facing the Wave is a testament to the buoyancy, spirit, humor, and strong-mindedness of those who must find their way in a suddenly shattered world.

A 75th anniversary e-book version of the most important and practical self-help book ever written, Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is a special deluxe edition of a book that has changed millions of lives and launched the modern recovery movement: Alcoholics Anonymous. This edition not only reproduces the original 1939 text of Alcoholics Anonymous, but as a special bonus features the complete 1941 Saturday Evening Post article “Alcoholics Anonymous” by journalist Jack Alexander, which, at the time, did as much as the book itself to introduce millions of seekers to AA’s program. Alcoholics Anonymous has touched and transformed myriad lives, and finally appears in a volume that honors its posterity and impact.

From legendary writer Paul Theroux comes an atmospheric novel following a big-wave surfer as he confronts aging, privilege, mortality, and whose lives we choose to remember.

Before moving, Will announced his intentions. "We feel obliged to insist you take us to St. Mary's Hospital and Infirmary in the city proper. We aim to tell Mother Gabriel we're alive." No one responded. "We're from the orphanage," he added, conferring further heft to his position. "Expect they know what happened," the soldier carrying Albert said. "They don't know the part about us," Will said, standing solid on the beach. The Mourning Wave recounts the moment the most deadly storm in American history made landfall on the beaches of Galveston Island in 1900 and a young orphan's fight for survival inside the doomed St. Mary's Orphan Asylum. Populated with real-life characters, historic figures, and powerful recollections from actual storm survivors, The Mourning Wave is a turbulent ride back through time which presents not merely history, but guidance for facing grief, uncertainty, and anxiety in tragedy's aftermath. Historically gripping, yet proximate, it asks if moments of indelible beauty and redemption can dependably arise from chaos in our storm-driven world.

The classic tale of a Japanese boy orphaned by a tsunami from the author of The Good Earth, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. On a mountainside in Japan, two boys enjoy a humble life governed by age-old customs. Jiya belongs to a family of fishermen; his best friend, Kino, farms rice. But when a neighboring volcano erupts and a tidal wave swallows their village—including Jiya’s family—life as they know it is changed forever. The orphaned Jiya must learn to come to terms with his grief. Now facing a profoundly different life than the one he’d always taken for granted, he must decide on a new way forward. Written with graceful simplicity, The Big Wave won the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Association of America when it was first released. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.

When an earthquake hits on their family vacation, can Kyle and his sister survive the following tsunami? The Worst Vacation Ever! Thirteen-year-old Kyle thought spending a vacation on the Oregon coast with his family would be great. He’d never flown before, and he’s never seen the Pacific Ocean. One evening Kyle is left in charge of his younger sister, BeeBee, while his parents attend an adults-only Salesman of the Year dinner on an elegant yacht. Then the earthquake comes—starting a fire in their hotel! As Kyle and BeeBee fight their way out through smoke and flame, Kyle remembers the sign at the beach that said after an earthquake everyone should go uphill and inland, as far from the ocean as possible. Giant tsunami waves—three or four stories high—can ride in from the sea and engulf anyone who doesn’t escape fast enough. Kyle and BeeBee flee uphill as a tsunami crashes over the beach, the hotel, and the town. The giant wave charges straight up the hillside and through the woods where the children are running for their lives. The perfect vacation has become a nightmare! Somehow Kyle and BeeBee have to outwit nature’s fury and save themselves from tsunami terror.

Alison Thompson, a filmmaker living in New York City, was enjoying Christmas with her boyfriend in 2004 when she saw the news reports online: a 9.3 magnitude earthquake had struck the sea near Indonesia, triggering a massive tsunami that hit much of southern Asia. As she watched the death toll climb, Thompson had one thought: She had to go help. A few years earlier, she had spent eight months volunteering at Ground Zero after 9/11. She’d learned then that when disaster strikes, it’s not just the firemen and Red Cross who are needed—every single person can make a difference. With $300 in cash, some basic medical supplies, and a vague idea that she’d go wherever she was needed, Thompson headed to Sri Lanka. Along with a small team of volunteers, she settled in a coastal town that had been hit especially hard and began tending to people’s injuries, giving out food and water, playing games with the children, collecting dead bodies, and helping rebuild the local school and homes that had been destroyed. Thompson had intended to stay for two weeks; she ended up staying for fourteen months. She and her team helped start new businesses and set up the first tsunami early-warning center in Sri Lanka, which continues to save lives today. The Third Wave tells the inspiring story of how volunteering changed Thompson’s life. It begins with her first real introduction to disaster relief after 9/11 and ends with her more recent efforts in Haiti, where she has helped create and run, with Sean Penn, an internally-displaced-person camp and field hospital for more than 65,000 Haitians who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake. In The Third Wave, Thompson provides an invaluable inside glimpse into what really happens on the ground after a disaster—and a road map for what anyone can do to help. As Alison Thompson shows, with some resilience, a healthy sense of humor, and the desire to make a difference, we all have what it takes to change the world for the better.