Krakatoa

 Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester is an exhaustive nonfiction account of a big volcano. The Krakatoa eruption was the deadliest in human history. It killed over 36,000 people, mostly from a series of enormous tsunamis. Winchester explores everything around the volcano: plate tectonics, the discovery of plate tectonics, volcanology, animal evolution, Dutch colonialism, Victorian-era communication, Javanese local politics, the rise of Islam, economics, cartography, maritime technology, and on and on. It's too much, actually. The volcano doesn't even erupt until page 234, and by that point I don't know what else there is to possibly learn about the context of this event. Winchester's obsessive attention is made palatable by his easygoing, almost conversational prose. While I think the book probably overstayed its welcome, the writing itself was pleasant and interesting.