A very short apocalyptic story from the perspective of a cat. Bad things are happening, and by the end of the story bad things are still happening with no indication that things will get better. But the woman does the best she can to make sure her cat will be okay.

 

I came across this today while looking for other things. It made me think of my own cat (who would probably be doomed because she doesn't have any experience killing anything larger and more nutritious than a cricket) and the stray cat I and at least five other people take care of.

 

The sliver of hope for the cat was nice, but I generally like stories and books to have more hope to them than this one. Especially these days. I'm to the point where I'm considering going through my book collection and offloading anything apocalyptic, grimdark, etc. because I just can't.

I've always thought that one reason I'm a disaster junkie is that stories of various events (airplane crashes, earthquakes, floods, fires, societal breakdown, etc.) let me "practice" what I might do in different situations. This book lets people go way past "what if" and offers solid info about how to maximize your chances of surviving a disaster.

The book is set up into three sections: Denial, Deliberation, and The Decisive Moment. Throughout, the author uses real-world examples of both failures and successes to illustrate her points, and the writing is engaging and direct. She also gives sources for more emergency-preparedness info, at sites such as reallyready.org.

In short, this is essential reading for all adults. Now I need to go watch the documentary she did on PBS in 2012.

This is the one book I would universally recommend. It's well written and useful.

This book looks not at just behaviors in disasters/emergencies, but case studies, data, and the science behind those behaviors.

I found it totally interesting to see the reasons behind, not just behaviors of survivors in the case studies, but being able to understand my own behaviors in the disasters/emergencies I've been in (especially: how is it I froze here, when I was totally awesome there).

I love how the author researches using data and interviews researchers to see what they've found and how she looks at different criteria or influences in how people behave (privilege and social programming matters, yo).

My second favorite part of the book is how she's shown that public officials and others in authority totally discount the average person and the public.

My favorite part of this book is giving me the ability to look at my own behaviors and see how much power I really have. (also, I deserve a lot of bonus cookies for all of those breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga).

So yeah, get ye to the bookstore or library and read this.

According to my records here, I've listened to this 4 times since 2009. It's still awesome and I think everyone should read it. It's both fascinating and I think useful although I hope to never have to utilize any of the usefulness.