Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

It takes 8 hours and 52 minutes into the audiobook before any sort of action happens.

aka..

if you like to hear each passenger's back story and clothes they wore that last day, this book is for you.

A very solid, Erik Larson book! Rife with the personal accounts and touches of sensory information that bring his accounts to life.

I'm just not interested in finishing it right now. Maybe there are just too many details about too many different things. I'm also listening to this on audio book, so maybe this is better to be read in a physical book. I might get back to this later. Now just isn't the right time.

I have enjoyed all of the Erik Larson books i have read so far. This one was “read” by Scott Brick (my favorite audible reader). In addition to the detailed info about the Lusitania and the passengers, there is a lot of info about President Wilson and the US politics before joining WW1. A history book that reads like a very interesting story.

I've heard several less-than-stellar reviews of this book, but I'm here to tell you to disregard them all; I loved it. I didn't know much about the Lusitania or even WWI before I started this book, but I certainly do now. The stories of the Lusitania's captain and the passengers and the submarine captain are touching and surprising and dynamic. It's Erik Larson working at the top of his game.

I wanted to love this book as much as I did Erik Larson's others. But I found it harder to get through, with only the last quarter really capturing my interest. I had hoped he would offer some conclusions about the controversy around the sinking of the Lusitania (did the British intentionally leave the ship unprotected so it would get torpedoed, bringing the US into the war? What caused the second explosion?) but I don't feel like I know any more than I did before reading this book.

Fascinating review of the events surrounding the sinking of the Lusetania. I started this one and for some unknown reason back-burnered it. So glad I picked it back up and finished it.
My father was always fascinated with ship travel and ship wrecks and I grew up with many books about both peppering the big coffee table in our living room. The Lusetania was featured in amongst those familiar books. Dead Wake humanizes the disaster by delving into the stories of many of the passengers, the captain, and key political players. Well researched and well written. (And Dad would have LOVED it!)