Simon Winchester

Unleashed by ancient geologic forces, a magnitude 8.25 earthquake rocked San Francisco in the early hours of April 18, 1906. Less than a minute later, the city lay in ruins. Bestselling author Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities to this extraordinary event, exploring the legendary earthquake and fires that spread horror across San Francisco and northern California in 1906 as well as its startling impact on American history and, just as important, what science has recently revealed about the fascinating subterranean processes that produced it—and almost certainly will cause it to strike again.

America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

A Crack in the Edge of the World

Jeni Enjaian

I enjoyed this book more than my rating might suggest. There was just thing that kept me from giving it a higher rating. Before that, I will mention that the narrator was good but not amazing. He definitely did not make me drowsy like the last one. 
The biggest problem for me was Winchester's narrative ADD. I assumed, incorrectly as it turns out, that he book was entirely about the San Francisco quake. While that particular quake consumes the majority of the narrative, the rest of the narrative brunches between scientific discussion about the origin and mechanics of earthquakes to surveys of other fault lines and brief anecdotes about other quakes. All of that information was absolutely fascinating. However, it did prove to be a but distracting from the main story, the San Francisco quake.
I do, however, recommend this book. It's a fairly good work of history.

A Crack in the Edge of the World America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

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