In 2001, a man walked up to Hampton Sides in Virginia, as he signed copies of Ghost Soldiers, his book about the rescue of Bataan Death March survivors during World War II. The man put a card on the table that read 鈥淭he Chosin Few.鈥�

鈥淗e said, 鈥楬ey, you ought to write about the Chosin Reservoir,鈥欌€� says Sides, a Santa Fe, New Mexico鈥揵ased author and longtime editor at large for 国产吃瓜黑料. Sides had never heard of the 1950 Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, in which U.S. Marines fought Chinese soldiers in North Korea鈥檚 mountains during the Korean War.

Sides has a track record of writing jaw-dropping books on historical topics, like the shipwreck of the North Pole鈥揵ound U.S.S. Jeanette听or frontiersman Kit Carson鈥檚 consequential actions in the American West. He misplaced the card but started researching the conflict, which was fraught with mistakes and temperatures that reached听20 degrees below zero, causing vehicles to cease functioning and wounds to freeze over. The two-week marked one of China鈥檚 first military operations in the Korean War, surprising U.S. officials. By the end, roughly 750 Marines and 30,000 Chinese soldiers . 鈥淚 realized here was the ultimate military survival story,鈥� Sides says. 鈥淣ot only was it a battle, but it was a battle against the elements.鈥�

On October 2, his newest book, (Doubleday; $30) hit shelves. We spoke to Sides about his travels to research the book, his writing process, and how he conveyed terrifyingly icy combat conditions.

On Interviewing Survivors: 鈥淲inter had descended so quickly that [the Marines] had no choice but to forge ahead. The veterans I talked to never really got the cold out of their bones. They still talk about it like it was this force that they had to contend with. They talk more about the cold than they do the Chinese鈥攈ow the temperature affected their thinking, how it affected their performance, how it affected their sense of hopelessness.鈥�

On Experiencing the Terrain: 鈥淎 group of veterans, my son, and I took a bullet train down to Busan, which is on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula. Half of the trip you鈥檙e in a tunnel, because it鈥檚 just ridgeline and then valley, ridgeline then valley, ridgeline then valley. All the veterans used to talk about this. You climb one hill, and there鈥檚 another hill, even higher. And another and another and another. The topography is wrinkled and relentlessly mountainous.鈥�

On What Makes a Good Book: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 fully understand it, even now. But I always say there are two kinds of ledgers that I use. The first set is purely rational and almost technical. The story has to have good characters, a compelling setting, a good story arc, and good primary source material. The other side of the process is that purely irrational side, which is that a story鈥檚 got to grab you. It鈥檚 got to make you excited. Hair standing on the back of your neck kind of thing. It鈥檚 got to fascinate you for reasons maybe you can鈥檛 even explain.鈥�

On War Stories: 鈥淚鈥檓 not really interested in war itself, but war creates situations that show human character in its most intense and unvarnished phase. Things become elemental and stripped down, and I think war creates kind of a compression of character. That is interesting on the page. I鈥檓 drawn to those stories because of what they reveal about the human condition鈥攖he decisions people make when they find themselves in these sorts of life-or-death situations.鈥�

On Surviving Dark Times: 鈥淥ne thing that is a common strain in a lot of these stories is these guys have a sense of humor. The survivors tend to have some sense of the absurd and can find a way, either then or at least later in life, to laugh about and get some distance from these situations. Sense of humor is maybe the one quality that transcends all the others in terms of getting through a situation like this.鈥�

On What鈥檚 Next: 鈥淚 have signed a new contract with my publisher, Doubleday, about the third and final fateful expedition of Captain James Cook, the British navigator. It鈥檚 another exploration story set all over the Pacific and up into the Bering Strait and all over Alaska, so it鈥檚 going to involve a whole lot of travel.鈥�

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Humans have a special place in their hearts for megafauna, alive or extinct. Zoogoers line up for elephant and tiger exhibits, and millions flock to the latest Jurassic Park installments. Sometimes, though, people get a little too obsessed with these creatures and find themselves on the wrong side of the law. That鈥檚 when there鈥檚 a story to tell.

Enter New Yorker staff writer and her compelling new book about fossil collectors, ($15; Hachette). Williams focuses her narrative on , Eric Prokopi, an entrepreneur who makes a living finding, prepping, and selling fossils to collectors and museums. To increase his cash flow, Prokopi procures the bones of a Tarbosaurus bataar (basically, Asia鈥檚 T. rex) from the Gobi Desert and auctions them in the United States. A knotty legal battle ensues, involving, as Williams writes, 鈥渃ollectors, smuggling, marriage, democracy, poverty, artistry, museums, mining, Hollywood, Russia, China, criminal justice, presidential politics, explorers, Mongolian culture, the auction industry, and the history of science.鈥�

It鈥檚 easy to be skeptical of dustcover comparisons to by Susan Orlean. While Williams鈥檚听book doesn鈥檛 quite belong in that category of classic nonfiction, it鈥檚 an absorbing dive into a community just as insular and fascinating as rare-flower collectors. The Dinosaur Artist begins with an introduction to Prokopi, its obsessive main character. As a boy, he learned to dive in the town of Land O鈥� Lakes, Florida, returning to shore with treasure from another age. His parents鈥� house was soon filled with prehistoric souvenirs from the area鈥檚 rivers and fields. Before graduating from college, Prokopi started trading shark teeth and other specimens, naming his business Florida Fossils. At one point, he imagines what he would tell his future children about how he constructed these pieces of natural history. 鈥淭o him, self-referential talk sounded like showing off,鈥� Williams writes. 鈥淏ut, if asked, he would explain how he had prepared the bones before reassembling and mounting them like a 3D puzzle, standing the creature on its feet again for the first time since it last breathed.鈥�

Williams wastes no time plunging the reader into Prokopi鈥檚 bizarre world. She makes Tucson mineral shows and Mongolian history鈥攄ating back to Genghis Khan鈥攕himmer with intrigue. If she goes on tangents, they are filled with charming details and absorbing trivia. We meet a pipe insulator who is also a Smithsonian-recognized fossil hunter, a supplier with a garage full of dinosaurs, and a Mongolian paleontologist named Bolortsetseg Minjin who is intent on protecting the Gobi Desert from poachers. Turns out, Bolortsetseg鈥檚 concern is warranted. High-end auction houses have illegally taken Mongolian fossils since the 1990s, attracting wealthy customers looking for a striking living-room piece. In fact, none other than Nicolas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio waged a bidding war for one of Prokopi鈥檚 T. bataar skulls. (Cage won, paying $276,000 for the 67 million-year-old specimen.)

Things get really messy when Prokopi unwittingly incites an international conflict by ordering T. bataar bones from a supplier in Mongolia to sell to this fossil market. Williams deftly describes the politics surrounding fossil removal there and the country鈥檚 complicated relationship with the United States. It鈥檚 not only a legal issue, we learn: Prokopi has gotten caught up in something of a proxy for asserting the country鈥檚 independence by claiming Mongolia鈥檚 property.

As the story crescendoed with these new details, I felt conflicting sympathies. At times, Prokopi seemed like an oblivious casualty of a political debacle. Fossil sellers have ignored laws surrounding the international transportation of specimens before to no consequence鈥攖his was the first time the government of Mongolia claimed dinosaur bones from an auction house. On the other hand, Prokopi wasn鈥檛 in the dinosaur-selling game purely because of his love of natural history. Selling the T. bataar bones would have provided a much-needed windfall to his family as they stacked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt and mortgage loans.

Despite all the moral ambiguity and conflict, one thing is clear: Dinosaurs capture people鈥檚 hearts. Prokopi鈥檚 livelihood blossomed out of a childhood love of the creatures. Bolortsetseg, the paleontologist, viewed the Gobi Desert鈥檚 specimens as a source of national pride. One aside describes a South Dakota town that erupted in protest in 1992 when the government impounded a T. rex skeleton nicknamed Tyrannosaurus Sue. More than anything else, Williams effectively tells the story of people living out their passions, for better or worse.

Another book released in September, Rachel Love Nuwer鈥檚 ($28, De Capo), also deals with unsavory aspects of international trade. The difference: The animals aren鈥檛 extinct鈥攜et.

Poached gives readers an up-front look at the vulnerability of endangered animals that are worth more dead than alive. Nuwer commands attention as she relays accounts pangolin scales being sold on the black market, Kenyan officials burning millions of dollars of ivory and rhino horn in attempt to discourage their trade, and a cobra鈥檚 heart being ripped out for consumption. But these anecdotes aren鈥檛 just for shock value. Nuwer also documents the political, cultural, and economic factors driving wildlife trafficking. Ivory has deep cultural significance and status in China, for example, and many in East Asia believe consuming pangolin scales has health benefits (even though supporting scientific evidence is lacking). Sometimes Nuwer gets into a little too much detail, but her takeaway is abundantly clear: This business has major consequences.

Toward the end of the book, Nuwer finds herself in a bar talking with her husband and a friend about the illegal wildlife trade. Her friend comments on the cruelty humans inflict on animals. 鈥淚t sounds like you鈥檙e coming at this from an animal welfare perspective, though,鈥� she tells him. 鈥淔or me, the even more important concern here is biodiversity鈥攐f the possibility of losing species forever, just because of this trade.鈥�

Both Nuwer and Williams show how obsession, especially when profit is involved, can be a dark force. Hopefully, by appreciating how threatened some of our favorite animals really are, we will act to protect them before elephants and pangolins join the ranks of the T. bataar.

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As early as last听Wednesday, rain began dumping into the Havasu Falls area of the Grand Canyon, turning the renowned and typically placid turquoise water into a muddy flash flood. One visitor that almost in an instant the winds picked up with 鈥渟and blowing everywhere鈥� and the pools of water beneath the base of the waterfalls filled and sent people scrambling to higher ground. The surge caused the speedy evacuation of nearly 200 visitors, although听were reported.

From June to August, the area, which sits ten miles from any road and deep in the Havasupai听Reservation,听is especially susceptible to flash floods because of monsoon season. Visitors usually stay at a campground between Havasu and Mooney Falls, surrounded听on either side by canyon walls that are hundreds of feet high and听make it nearly impossible to escape. By Thursday the rivers had swelled so much that everyone was ordered to evacuate a couple miles upriver to the town of Supai.

The flooding听 footbridges and obstructed exit trails, so tribal members drove ATVs to help move visitors outside the canyon completely. A helicopter that normally helps shuttle supplies and tourists into town also began lifting five to six people at a time to the rim, while others in a community building and a school in town as they waited their turn.

鈥淚 saw nature鈥檚 beauty and her wrath all in the matter of a couple of days,鈥� Christopher Brewer, who was camping when the floods hit, posted in a for those visiting the area. 鈥淭his was the most happy and scared I鈥檝e ever been in my life and I still don鈥檛 regret coming down here.鈥�

By Thursday evening nearly everyone had been evacuated. Reservations to the area are often made months in advance, and for the next week tribal officials said the campgrounds and all access to the falls will be closed, according to the .

At least 300 people had reservations impacted, Havasupai spokeswoman Abbie Fink told the . Those individuals will have the opportunity to reschedule their visits for later this year.

So far it doesn鈥檛 seem like there was any serious damage to structures in the town or to the natural formations. That wasn鈥檛 the case in 2008, when a massive flash flood caused the evacuation of hundreds of campers and tribal members. When people returned they found that Navajo Falls, one of the most prominent features in the Havasu Canyon, had been decimated as water ripped through the terrain and diverted the river that feeds the falls. 听

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