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 | From Erik Wander, your About Books & Literature Editor Because our very existence depends on the predictable working of the planet's atmosphere, we have, since the beginning of time, been in awe of natural phenomena, and there has been and continues to be a fascination with the workings of nature that started long before the words "climate change" entered into the public discourse. Stories about droughts, floods, storms, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions or any number of other potentially devastating geologic processes and natural disasters continue to captivate us, as we remain unable to turn away. Works on such acts of God as David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood and, more recently, Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson are among the best examples. This week we take a look at other books from various literary genres about natural disasters and the often tragic consequences they bring. | |
The Grapes of Wrath
Set during the Great Depression, John Steinbeck's classic is about the tenant farming Joad family, who are driven from their Oklahoma home because of drought and the economic hardship Dust Bowl families were forced to endure amid the changing agricultural and financial landscape of the times. The Joads join thousands of other "Okies" who set out in search of jobs and fertile land to farm, but also to reclaim their dignity.
| The Year of the Flood
In the second book of an as yet completed trilogy of futuristic novels about an apocalyptic time as the earth deteriorates (MaddAddam, the third book, is set for a September 2013 release), Margaret Attwood shifts the perspective on the collapse of civilization from the characters in Oryx and Crake, relatives of the "crakers" living privileged lives in the compounds, to that of the lower class inhabitants of the "pleeblands," where "God's Gardeners" predict "The Flood" that will radically change the planet.
| Children's Books about Hurricanes
| The Big Burn
In his review of The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by National Book Award winner Timothy Egan, Bestsellers guest reviewer Michael Sullivan calls the Great Fire of 1910 "the largest wildfire in American history," one that "burned 3 million acres in [one] weekend." The story of the wildfire that burned in parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana, including parts of 10 national forests, is interwoven with the story of the founding of the United States Forest Service, which, according to a 2009 New York Times review, Egan tells "as the stirring tale of a very odd couple," Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt's chief forester, "an ascetic loner who sometimes slept on a wooden pillow and for 20 years mystically clung to his deceased fiancée." Learn more about the fire, Roosevelt, Pinchot, the Forest Service and the book they all inspired.
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