Weather Books

Switchers is all about "Switching" from one physical form into another. One starts out with a girl named Tess who has this ability. She is always by herself and plays with other animals. Eventually she meets up with a mysterious boy named Kevin who later reveals his true self to Tess. The adventure soon continues via the form of a rat. The end of the book has many surprises. The story had a great idea, a lot like animorphs, but lacked that adventure. Just as soon as the kids realize what they have the potential for, the story ends. It was a decent book, but just ends to abrupt.

Tess is a Switcher- a person who can change into any animal at the blink of an eye. Then she meets Kevin, another Switcher, who teaches her about the mechanics of their gift. Then she meets Lizzie, who has a lot to teach both of them. Throughout the series, Tess and Kevin learn exactly how much they can accomplish with their powers - and it's more than either of them thought. I don't always like science fiction and fantasy type books, but this somehow seemed not as out there as other books of its genre, and I definitely recommend it.

This could have been an excellent book. The story was exciting, the idea was great, and the characters could have been fascinating. Unfortunately, none of these qualities were used and the book became very dull.

The first few chapters are spent with Tess deliberating whether or not to trust the guy who keeps following her. I got so bored during that part, I almost put down the book. I think that the author was trying to develop some characterization during that time period, but a lack of description coupled with the shallowness of Tess's character made this section one long, boring drag. The author seems to want to show us how lonely she was, but I felt no sympathy. Whenever she's sad she just goes and plays with her little animal friends.

The next few chapters are one long boring discussion between Tess, Kevin, and Lizzie. I skipped most of this part not only becuase it was repetitive and monotonous but also becuase Lizzie's "slang" was annoying and difficult to understand at times.

The only exciting part was at the end when Tess and Kevin go off and kill the ice monsters. Contrary to the rest of the book, this part moves very quickly. I even found that I had to reread some parts several times to understand what happens. There is lots of action, but nothing really happens. After they kill the first monster, its basically just "and then they killed another and another and then the army blasted it to crumbs...". I do appreciate this though. The action was interesting and almost exciting. The conclusion is also excellent, and sets up for the rest of the trilogy, which are better than this one.

My favorite part of this book was how the POV switched from Tess to some military personnel flying planes above the ice. This really made things interesting and added and exciting twist to the plot.

Overall, the story in this book was average, but the writing and development was rather mediocre and made for a dull tale, in my opinion.

Switches is just the type of book that you want to finsh. I have read my copy 5 times now. It easily became one of my favorite books.

Tess ,just a young teen, has the ablilty to switch to any animal she so choses. She thinks she is the only one that is able to do so, until an older boy finds her and seeks her help, though he doesn't know what he askes of her.

Together they have an incredible adventure, that will capture your mind and you really can't put the book down.

The story ends in such a heart braking way, but then on the last page......you just don't want it do end.

I loved this book enough to read it 5 times, then I bought the other 2 and completed the series. It really is the best book you can read.

It was a good idea. I adore these sort of animal-human transition stories and I naturally picked the book up. At first, I was rather captivated with the good plot. But as I gradually read on, I started getting tired. Her execution was poor. She doesn't resort to much description and although, this may be good in many ways, it didn't suit this type of book. She is brief, touches merely the surface and cannot bring the reader into the story. It would have been much better if the relationship between tess and kevin had been better explored and more elaboration given to the 'switching' process itself.

Quite mediocre: 3 stars

In 1000 AD the Vikings sailed, sleeveless, to Greenland and Newfoundland. The Greenland glaciers were all but gone, and the valleys were verdant. Scotland's climate was similar to that of Southern France today. The Scots had vineyards and produced lots of wine. The rest of the world did not succumb to drought. The polar bears did not go extinct, and oceans did not rise to high as to flood London and (to come) New York. Lynas is stark raving mad, and so are those who fall for this literary tripe.

Global temperatures have been cycling, with a five degree Celsius amplitude, for 800 million years. We have been dealing with a peak of several of the cycles involved, and they are due to decline.

The foolish arrogance of those who presume that anthropogenic CO2 is somehow overwhelming those cycles will be looked upon as having as much intelligence as those who sank women in ponds to see if they are witches. Those who sank were innocent! Those who floated were sentenced to death for being witches.

Even if global warming caused a two degree warming it would take a century or more for significant changes to ocean levels to materialize. In such a period of time shoreline property values would be affected by the aging of buildings (to worthless) and the perception of young investors to live elsewhere. "Elsewhere" might mean 200 or 300 miles farther towards the poles in order to experience the same conditions they would now experience. Given the time frame anyone could adjust. Whereas the draconian measures presently advocated to solve this non-crisis would do far more harm than the crisis would at its worst.
Even "Chicken Little" is calm in the face of perceived crisis, compared to the scaremongering nonsense of Lynas, Gore, Suzuki (Canada) et al.

In this book, the author, Mark Lynas, has taken great effort to obtain original publications and to document the effects of climate change as the Earth warms one degree Celsius at a time. It is not a pretty picture. We do not have to go all the way to six degrees to see massive disruptions occurring. With only one or two degrees, we may see extensive droughts in many regions, the dying of coral reefs, and rising ocean levels.

As dire as the predictions are, the reality may be much worse. Climate change has accelerated beyond the predictions of only one or two years ago. Instead of increasing at the rate of 2 ppm each year as stated by Lynas in this book, the CO2 in the atmosphere increased by 2.4 ppm in 2007. The concentration of methane, a greenhouse gas, which had been stable, also increased.

In this book, the prediction for an ice-free Artic Ocean in the summer is for 2020. However, there were reports at the end of 2007 that NASA climate scientists are predicting the summer of 2012 as the date for an ice-free Arctic. The ice in question is floating sea ice. Its melting will not raise the level of the world's oceans. However, an ice free Arctic Ocean will absorb more sunlight, increasing the Arctic warming trend. If the Arctic Ocean is ice free, can the collapse of the Greenland ice cap be far behind? There is enough ice on Greenland to raise the world's sea level by more than 20 feet.

We may not have to wait generations to see the effects of climate change become apparent. However, we still do have time to slow greenhouse gas emissions. It will take concerted efforts on the part of all the countries of the world to change to non-carbon emitting sources and more efficient use of energy. It is still possible to save the planet.

I also recommend the books With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming, and Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change, which details the politics of climate change.

This book reads like a good mystery novel; a real page-turner. Lynas has condensed thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers on climate history and current climate change into a riveting depiction of what is in store for the world as global-warming gasses continue to accumulate. The format documents the changes that can be expected as the global average temperature increases one degree at a time. He makes a strong case that, unless warming is confined to 2 degrees Centigrade or less, "feedback loops" will cause irreversible "runaway" warming that likely will cause mass extinction of life on the planet. This book is a "must-read," especially for leaders of government, industry and academe.

an easy read, not technical, but arguably the most scary book you will ever read - the author summarizes the research papers on global warming that never made it to the popular news media

never mind saving the cute fuzzy animals, we are on course to sterilize the entire planet, including most human life - sort of like playing Russian roulette with a loaded luger

most interesting are the projections for next 5 to 10 years - the 100 year highs and lows, droughts and storms will start comming every few years as the atmosphere and oceans destabilize as they move to a new equilibrium

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts an increase in the Earth's temperature of from 1.4 - 5.8 degrees Celsius (up to 10.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. Lynas then goes on to state that a six-degree rise in the Earth's average temperature would be enough to reshape our world almost beyond recognition."

Drawing upon thousands of published, peer-reviewed scientific studies, Lynas proceeds to document his conclusion. Both historic records and simulation forecasts are utilized. (Example: Eighteen thousand years ago, during the deepest freeze of the last ice age, global temperatures were about 6 degrees cooler than today, and New York City was buried under nearly a mile of ice.) The bulk of the material is categorized into what would happen at increasing levels of warming, from one degree up to six.

"Six Degrees" contains the usual warnings about rising ocean levels, droughts, cataclysmic fires, spread of tropical diseases, etc. The book's greatest impact, however, is saved for the final chapter. There we learn that business as usual envisions energy demand increasing 505 by 2030, with 80% supplied from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, CO2 reduction targets from concerned groups (stabilize CO2 at 450 ppm) still leave a 75% chance of missing a 2 degree increase target.

The difference between a 2 degree and 3 degree increase, however, can be catastrophic. A 3 degree increase may reverse the carbon-cycle. Vegetation and soils would start releasing CO2 instead of absorbing it, and thereby add another 250 ppm and still another degree of warming. This then risks releasing enormous amounts of methane (20X global-warming impact of equivalent amount of CO2) from permafrost and thaw lakes in Siberia. This, in turn, risks releasing an even greater amount sequestered on the ocean floors.

Lynas sees 2015 as the tipping point - the point of no return if we do not initiate major change. Meanwhile, we worry that China will get a free ride if we change and they don't, try to discredit the science, and mostly worry about more important things - like some Presidential candidate's latest faux pas.

I love this book soooo much. I would love to see it as a movie!! I would recomend this book to anyone. It is enthralling

I have always enjoyed Tom Clancy's incredible attention to detail and Clive Cussler's wonderful storytelling. Now I can enjoy William Beck and his excellent plots and character development. I am anxiously waiting for book two!

Lovers of adventure novels have a new hero in Bryson McGann, the witty, savvy and brave subject of this novel. The action and intrigue rival Dirk Pitt's adventures. I look forward to the next novel....and to the further development of this character. Also, the HAARP idea is based in fact, and is a little scary to think about it actually being used!!

Mr. Beck's H.A.A.R.P.'S Fury is a fast-paced, action-filled book with interesting characters---it would be an exciting movie. Can't wait for the next novel in the series.

I'm buying the next McGann novel as soon as it hits the store.

This is such an enjoyable book. It's not 'scientific'; rather it's 'aesthetic'. And that's not unreasonable because clouds are infinitely variable - one form merging into another, one species evolving into another ..... If you judge a type correctly at one moment, a minute or two later and your assessment may no longer be accurate. I loved the stories used to illustrate the information in the book. Perhaps I might have liked more stories about clouds from the point of view of the cloud - as pilots would experience when flying close to, or through them. There is one story of a pilot who fell through a cumulonimbus - what an experience! And then there is the expectation and the exciting realisation of the morning glory in the final chapter.

Enthusiastically recommended for the way it enhances life in the way it draws interest and attention to what we might otherwise just fail to see.

Gavin Pretor-Pinner deserves praise for taking something so obvious as clouds, and writing a whole book. We tend to take the fluffy white (or bleak grey ......) objects for granted, and many know a little about what they are composed of, and where they come from. Mr P-P is obviously something of an expert in his field, and a real enthusiast, and has caused my thoughts to be "amongst the clouds", and in that the book has achieved some success. However, can I still name the 10 cloud types, and identify them? That is a different matter.

After a general introduction, there are chapters on each of the 10 (main) cloud types. In previous eras, clouds were seen to portend the weather. In the days of the 24-hour availability of detailed meteorological forecasts, that is now hard to believe. Knowledge of cloud formations is becoming something that we do not need to know. There are detailed explanations of weather fronts, (cold front, warm front and what used to be known as occluded fronts). However, there are no weather maps as a pictorial guide, with isobars. That would have been helpful.

Generally, I liked the book more as I progressed, but the subject matter is not `a story'. Gavin writes better when the detail is linked to little anecdotes, and he has a wry sense of humour, more to make the reader weakly smile that laugh. There are informative matters of detail, so that any reader will come away with items they never knew. The style brings life to the sometimes dry subject matter of condensed water vapour, which at times left me reeling with formation details and Latin names of the sub-species of clouds.

I found that some detail of the basic cloud types merged into each other, much as a blanket of Cirrostratus. But then again, I am not a paid-up member of the Cloud Appreciation Society - yes there really is such a society, and this book resulted from that organisation, with the author as its founder. Of more interest to me was the detail about halos, and other visual effects that can be seen. Before opening this book, I had never heard of a `sundog', and am now eager to see one.

Is the weather the same now as it has always been? Mr P-P talks about climate change from a different angle, bringing this in to ways in which we have changed our clouds. This has been done both consciously (Russian attempts to ensure that the weather is fine for May day parades), and unconsciously. In the latter category come the new types of clouds that are seen high in the sky on some otherwise cloud-free days - the contrails ("condensation trails") from jet aircraft. It is interesting to note the effect that 9/11 had climate on the USA, with no aircraft flying and causing contrails for 48 hours. This resulted in an increased average difference of day-time and night-time temperatures of 1.1 degrees centigrade in tem mediate aftermath.

The last chapter details a particular cloud formation, not one of the 10 cloud types, but a spectacular, localised cloud, known as "The Morning Glory". Impressive as this is, I found it has too much coverage, and there were many more illustrations than of more widely-occurring phenomena. Awe-inspiring - yes. Worth that amount of coverage - no.

One thing is certain, I walk more with my head in the clouds, looking at the water vapour above, below and around me with a little more knowledge and detail.

Peter Morgan, Bath, UK[...]

Great content, both scientific and soulful. Very accessible to every level of reader. I only wish the photos were in color.

Since reading this book my friends and family have renamed me clerd (cloud nerd). I love this book. It is written to be informative and amusing. That's the best way to learn. I remember the lectures I had where the professors made me laugh, but remember less when they stared at their shoes and mumbled.

The book describes a cloud genera per chapter, starting with the nomenclature and progressing through the science and is interspersed with all sorts of tales and anecdotes of history and art. It also goes into weird cloud phenomena such as sprites, blue jets, sun dogs and rainbows. There are beautiful pictures of clouds, science figures and art reproductions.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is even only vaguely interested in learning about what is going on above them. Gavin will draw you in and make a clerd out of you too.

Knowing the name of something is not the same as really knowing it, and this book goes much further than merely identifying the ten major types of clouds, with descriptions and pictures. And the numerous species and sub-varieties within each species. And variants and adjuncts. Accessory clouds and supplementary features. Man-made and man-altered clouds.

Pretor-Pinney explains how and why and where each cloud forms, gives a little history lesson, some poetry, and some literary or painting references for almost every type, as well as a number of typically-British humourous stories. In fact the author's umbrella-dry humour takes what is a potentially twee subject matter and makes it quite charming, really.

Except for the boring Stratus nebulosus, the plain old rain cloud about which Pretor-Pinney is hard-pressed to find any poetry, or art, or positive things to say. The best he can muster is, "it's never known to make you feel elated." Classic!

In the end, the author has accomplished much more than a Field Guide to Clouds, having really brought cloudspotting up to respectibility, and giving the reader the impression that he (or she) really does "know clouds" well beyond the mere recitation of their given names.

I bought this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. Not being one who has a particularly scientific bent, I found what she was saying fascinating. The author takes something that we so often take for granted and puts a different, breathtaking view on it. I definitely recommend this book!

The prologue in An Ocean of Air recounts Captain Kittinger's extraordinary parachute jump from the edge of space to the desert in New Mexico. The epilogue describes the ascent of a weather balloon in Greenland. Sandwiched between these two accounts, the reader meets the scientists who devoted their time to discovering complexities of the air surrounding us.

The spectrum spans from Galileo (who tried to measure the weight of air when he was in his seventies) to Van Allen, after whom the radiation belts are named. In between, the reader meets several other personalities that come from all walks of life. The common bond tying them all together is that they all worked to understand the atmosphere, had to challenge notions of their day, and ultimately refined our knowledge of the atmosphere.

What is intriguing is that the reader is introduced to the prevailing notion of air, the questions that these scientists posed, the empirical methods they used to satiate their curiosity, and the knowledge they bequeathed to humanity. There are no equations, just details of these scientists' lives that make their quest personal and high-level overview of the prevailing wisdom. Thus readers are invited to shares in the trials, tribulations, and eventual successes that these men experienced.

Air is often thought as "nothing" (an "empty" glass for example). Galileo sought to "weigh" nothingness. In turn he could pose the question that if air has weight, could it really be nothing? Thus the question's underlying assumption challenged the prevailing notion that air is nothing. From the time of the Ancient Greeks, air was thought to be an element (and hence indivisible). Priestley's work (which separate the gases in air) challenged this notion and the theory of "different airs" developed. Walker presents these and many other notions that eventually bring the reader to contemporary theories. No doubt as scientific work progresses, our notion of the atmosphere will evolve.

While Walker is a scientist, her writing style is akin to that of a novelist. The descriptions are vivid, the prose is fluid, the text unassuming - making the book a page-turner (if there ever could be a page-turner science book)!

Armchair Interviews says: Some interesting information.

Gabrielle Walker has a doctorate degree in chemistry, so AN OCEAN OF AIR: WHY THE WIND BLOWS AND OTHER MYSTERIES OF THE ATMOSPHERE comes from an expert who tailors her knowledge to the general public. This makes for a special recommendation for general-interest libraries catering to an audience which likes science presented in a lively, intriguing fashion. Chapters blend history and intriguing facts about the people who uncovered the secrets of weather and the atmosphere with hard science, making for a most accessible, even fun survey perfect for the non-college amateur science reader.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Gabrielle Walker's "An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere" is really more about the scientists who studied the atmosphere than it is about the atmosphere. Walker traces mankind's scientific discoveries about the atmosphere from the seventeenth century discovery that air had weight, through the discovery he air or our atmospherof the various gases that comprise the atmosphere, through Marconi's wireless telegraphy (with no mention of Nikolai Tesla), culminating in Van Allen's discovery of the magnetic belts that surround the earth and protect us from the sun's deadly radiation.

The meat of the book, though, focuses on the scientist's who made these discoveries and how they made them. Walker wrote a short biographical sketch on every featured scientist, and then explained their experiments as they deduced or stumbled into new discoveries about the atmosphere that surrounds us. Unfortunately, this book focuses much more on the scientists than the science itself, and the science of the atmosphere almost gets lost as Walker sees to be more in love with some of the eccentric personalities more than the science of the atmosphere. For example, despite the title, there is only one chapter on the wind and weather -- an explanation of the prevalent winds (trade winds, westerlies, and polar easterlies). She even takes us down an odd detour discussing the sinking of the Titanic and the wireless operators on board her, although this had little if anything to do with the rest of the story. In addition to more actual science, this book also would have benefited from many more diagrams than the couple included in the book.

Despite this, this is an entertaining and well-written book, with understandable explanations of the science of the atmosphere when she finally gets around to explaining the hard science. Her underlying story is that our atmosphere is fragile and vital to our existence in more ways than we realize. Although I did enjoy reading this book, at the end I felt that I had learned a lot more about the history of science than I had about "why the wind blows and other mysteries of our atmosphere."

'Nice that someone with a Cambridge doctorate can relate the history of atmospheric science anecdotally, as a sequence of more or less exciting stories, in a style that can connect with anyone at high-school age who's curious about how it works.

Walker discusses early conjectures about the weight of our air, the first inkling that it's made up of different gases, the wind patterns that blew Columbus across the ocean and the jets above a certain level that propel planes, what the Northern lights are, how telegraph and radio waves travel, the effects of CFCs on the ozone layer, etc. Much complication and controversy about our gradually enlarging grasp of the layers that make for life is absent, but that's only as it should be for curious beginners. This book may well entice many to reach beyond.

Walker also tells of some early missteps by James Lovelock - of special interest to one who arrived late at his Gaia account, long after learning of it via the osmosis of our current, near-universal environmental awareness. And it's as unsurprising to see with what ease he retracted these early gaffes in view of the facts that came to bite him with refutation.

My only misgiving about this book, and it's major, is about the lack of illustrations. I counted three, where another two dozen would have enriched the learning -- especially since this book's pitched at the introductory crowd. `Popular Mechanics' magazine and Leonardo DaVinci before that showed how science gains through illustrations; conversely, that explanations about physics are hobbled in their absence. Take this: "The magnetic field that surrounds our planet looks like an apple cut in half: Its lines of force emerge from the South Pole, bend over the equator, and disappear back into the North Pole ...form[ing] an almost impenetrable magnetic barrier... However, the lines emerging most steeply from the South Pole do not connect with their counterparts in the North. Instead, both poles have a smattering of field lines that point directly up into space." (p 215) It takes some doing to visualize all of this, whereas a single picture would do it quickly and unmistakably. Pictures get around verbal gymnastics and enliven science's nuts and bolts with direct representations of forces, complex machinery, experimental equipment, etc. (Walker's editors also failed her on this in Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It, which doesn't have a single image.) Her next books would be greatly enriched, and she'd enlarge her readership considerably, once her publishers get her together with a good illustrator.)

Our thin atmosphere is vital, literally, and it's encouraging to see Walker suggest that it's silly to think of "escaping" our planet: earth is home, just as we belong in time. That dream is really a nightmare except in the most distant and desperate future. What remains for us is to tend to it - and what better first step than to grasp some of its complexity?
***½

I was not even aware of the Hurricane of 1935 until I saw a recent special on television. I wanted to learn more, and this book filled the bill. Willie Drye laid the groundwork by telling about the residents of the Keys and what life was like then before the storm. He explained how isolated they became with one only road in and out and how the planned-for railroad would improve things immensely. The stories of the veterans who lived in the area to work on those railroads were well told. I found the book riveting and hard to put down until toward the end. Once the book turned to discussing the "blame game" and how the various agencies tried to save face in light of the deaths of so many veterans, it bogged down for me and lost a lot of its verve. Nevertheless, I would recommend STORM OF THE CENTURY as a fact-filled and interesting account of what was a horrific experience for people so ill prepared to survive it.

Starts off a little slow and gets a little boring in the middle, but all-in-all Willie Drye does a great job telling the story of the hurricane and the political nightmare surrounding it. The parallels to this disaster and it's lack of leadership to Katrina and the bumbling leaders involved in it (Nagin/Blanco) are uncanny.

This was an excellent story, meticulously researched by the author and presented as if he were actually there to witness it all. Awesome, suspenseful hurricane tale.

This is the first book I have ever read on a natural disaster. It was a great story. It was rich in history and science, but not too overdone. I'm from the coast that does not have hurricanes and the description of the storm blew my socks off. Great props to the author even if you could tell what his political motivations were.

Reading this book just a few months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast, and the subsequent political fallout that ensued there, is fascinating. Because in the 1935 hurricane that barreled through the Florida Keys with winds up to 200 mph (it's the most powerful hurricane to strike the US) we also have a set of "victims," accusations of governmental neglect, and finger-pointing and fudged reports that came with official investigations.

The 1935 hurricane (storms weren't named back then; this one occurred on Labor Day so is often referred to as the Labor Day hurricane) begins years before it actually formed off the Bahamas, and many miles to the north. The story really commences in Washington, DC, in 1932, when thousands of WW I veterans marched on the capital demanding the bonus money they were promised for fighting in the Great War. They set up camps in Washington, and, mainly because the Depression was affecting much of the population, were not very popular. When FDR became president, he decided to ship the vets off to Florida to help construct the road that was stretching from Florida's mainland across the Keys to Key West. Since 1912 the Florida East Coast Railroad ran tracks to Key West, but no road ran the full distance. (Interestingly, the storm killed the railroad for good along the Keys; the road and most other things were built or rebuilt.)

By early 1935, these veterans began arriving in the Keys and were lodged in work camps. Thus the "victims" were in place. Drye tells what life was like in the camps (much discontent, drunkeness, and violence), and how the men felt they were merely shuttled out of sight and forgotten.

The storm formed off the Bahamas late in August and was first predicted to hit Havana, Cuba. Hurricane tracking techniques were still pretty primitive in 1935, with most of the information coming in from ships at sea. The weather bureau, however, located the storm about 200 miles too far south, and its predictions for the Keys minimized the dangers at first. The first finger-pointing of blame after the tragedy was directed at the weather bureau.

Then the storm hit. It was compact and ferocious, destroying everything in its path. Drye relates first-hand experiences by those caught in it. Some survived, many did not (hundreds died). Many of the survivors - and victims - were the veterans who had not been taken off the Keys as they should have been. Here's where the governmental neglect charges come in. Apparently a train had been readied and was even on its way to take the men out, but delays in ordering it prevented it from getting to the camps in time. In fact, the train itself was blown off the tracks by the tremendous winds and the storm surge.

The first official report on the disaster said no one was to blame, it was just "an act of God." This outraged many people and additional hearings were held, but the results were the same. Drye includes some of the testimony taken during the hearings, and it's not surprising to see the half-truths, outright lies, and protect-my-own-rear-end declarations pile up.

Drye tells this story dramatically, informatively, and well. He refuses to cross over into melodrama where the temptation to do so is great (the first-hand accounts). He includes a few collateral and secondary events (the ordeal of the passenger ship "Dixie" on its way to NYC from Texas that got caught right in the middle of the hurricane, and some things about Ernest Hemingway who was at home in Key West at the time) that add to the interest of the book. And one can't help but draw comparisons to the Katrina disaster of 2005. An excellent book. Highly recommended.

Meteorology is, when closely inspected, a truly odd science. Although it has its share of stuffy scientists, it is also performed on the evening news by people with (sometimes) dubious credentials. This distinguishes it from, say, particle physics which would not draw most people's daily attention like the weather does. It is one of the few sciences that can be easily participated in by nearly everyone. And as Dr. Bluestein shows, if you are armed with an automobile and a little knowledge, you too can get out there and chase tornadoes! This book does an excellent job of showing interested readers what goes into making a tornado, and is a really good historical document on an activity that has become, weirdly, a small but noticeable industry - professional stormchasing. How did it all start? Dr. B. is one of the true pioneers of an odd branch of an odd science, and reading this book will not only acquaint you with that fact but also show you that there is still room in this world of ours for crazy, wild, wonderful things like tornado chasing.

Every spring I have a craving for information about meteorology and severe weather. This book satisfies that craving. It is filled with the author's many beautiful photographs of storm clouds, funnels, tornadoes, etc. What I found most fascinating was the information on the history of storm research and storm chasing. It is impressive to learn how much has been discovered in only the last 50 years or so. It was interesting to realize how little about severe weather was known early in the 20th century, and how the pioneers of meteorological research began their investigations to establish the information we now take for granted during everyday weather newscasts.

The book covers technical meteorological information and concepts and so some parts could be challenging for someone who is not familiar with the science of meteorology. For an easy and engaging primer, I'd recommend the "Golden Guide" book "Weather" by Paul E. Lehr.

If you are really fascinated by storms and storm chasing, I also recommend checking out your local "Skywarn" organization (just search "skywarn" in an internet search engine.) These groups train people to be storm spotters and assist public safety officials to give tornado/severe weather warnings. Even if you aren't interested in being a spotter, attending the free annual spring training class is very interesting because you see lots of actual footage of severe weather, talk to real spotters, and learn lots of practical info about the behavior of storms.

I love this highly explosive book! It is for sure, for the storm lover. I plan on chasing storms after school, and if you do too, this the book for you. Proud to give it five big stars!

Prof. Bluestein is one of the world's premier storm photographers, and the images alone make this book worthwhile. From where I sit, the book tries to combine the imagery with meteorology lessons that a few readers might find useful but many will probably find them pitched at too high a level to be of much value. The book is apparently trying to combine a "coffee table" content with meteorology lessons, an arguably overambitious goal. I was also disappointed that many of the images are printed too small or even in b&w. Otherwise, the image reproduction is excellent.

This book is written so that anyone can (with a little thought) understand the concepts discussed in it. However, this is not to say the book is a bore for the weather enthusiast--quite the contrary, this is the audience it will satisfy most.

I highly recommend this book for any storm enthusiast. In this book, Dr. Bluestein covers a wide range of tornado and severe-weather related topics, as well as some of the history behind how we currently deal with and view weather today. It is not difficult to understand, as it is not an academic text, yet at the same time Dr. Bluestein integrates explanations of core scientific concepts into his chasing tales and weather history narratives. Thus if you only want the book for the sake of tornado pictures and desire little/no scientific content, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Growing up I had heard stories about this storm from my late grandfather, Hugh McLeod, captain of the "Matoa" one of the grounded and destroyed ships. In fact I have the baromoter from the Matoa and it still works perfectly.

This book really put my grandfather's stories in context of the overall storm. While I knew there were many ships sunk and lives lost (although not on his ship), I knew nothing about them. While a casual reader might find the jumping around from day to day and ship to ship a little confusing, for me it really filled in the blanks.

Ironically, four years to the day before this storm, my grandfather's two brothers died when the Marquette & Bessemer #2 went down in Lake Erie.

I loved this book and could not put it down. Not only did Brown provide a human interest story of the people involved but he provided insight into the state of weather prediction of the time. The book was full of interesting information. I could go on but you simply have to read it. I disagree with the reader who suggested he needed a central focus. The storm was the central focus.

This is a great book for someone with an interest in the Great Lakes, meteorology or ship wrecks. It is a detailed chronological account of a monster storm that hasn't been matched in the Great Lakes for nearly a hundred years. It paints a pretty good picture of what it would have been like to have been on a ship during the storm. There are indexed pictures of each of the major ships involved, but I wish there were weather maps to show what was going on - it's hard to follow fronts and cells in your head when the story jumps around between the lakes.

Residents of the Great Lakes region and boaters of all regions will find this book fascinating. The Great Lakes are one of North America's greatest treasures. Their beauty comes not just from their size but from their amazing diversity. From the rocky shores of Lake Superior to Michigan's majestic dunes, to the locks on the St Laurence Seaway these fresh water seas are an endless source of amazing sites and destinations.

From their creation to the present day, the constantly changing weather of the Midwest can change these bodies of water from nearly glass smooth to a source of death and destruction within hours. This is never truer than in the month of November. If you wish a greater understanding of the lakes and their weather this book is for you.

Just as one takes the grocer, and the steel in their car for granted; the lakes are often overlooked by many Americas. Although their commercial use has declined in recent years, these vital waterways provide America with her grain, steel and other bulk commodities. If you enjoy tales of common men facing the uncommon, the stories of the men that made a living on the lakes and survived the Great Storm of 1913 should not be overlooked.

Brown's presentation of the "Big Blow" is the best compilation of information currently available. The central "character" is the storm, and while jumping from one ship to another might seem confusing, that is exactly what the storm was. While Barcus' "Freshwater Fury" is very good, Brown excels in that he not only shows the problems modern historians have in trying to understand the meager records of the day, but also has consulted trained meteorologists in an attempt to give the whole picture. While he does apply some speculation, in most cases he presents it as such.

While this is the best, it's not perfect. A comparison of many authors who have published works on this storm reveals many glaring contradictions, even though all are recognized historians. Brown does better than the others in acknowledging conflicting accounts, and given that many reports and records of the time were designed for sensationalism or covering mistakes, one must expect some variety in the conclusions of the authors. My own preference would be to have all the sources footnoted and compared, but that would have made a tome that few would be able to handle. Because Brown makes a couple of minor errors it still leaves one wondering where the line is between historical fact and reasonable speculation.

I read this book before purchasing it for my library. I think it's worth having there.

Neil Gordon is a great writer.

I don't mean "great" in the Apollonian sense. I mean it in plain terms, the sort of terms he might use. (I.e., Q: Did you like this book? A: Yeah, I thought it was great.)

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is told through a series of emails. This device might sound annoying. Don't let it turn you off. Gordon's story of middle-aged rebels caught in self-spun webs unfolds with both verve and wit. I usually hate epistolary novels. (Not into voyeurism.) There's none of that here.

Instead we get what Tarantino might do plot and character wise were he not so pulp-oriented. The emails that piece-by-piece tell the story of a fugitive exile arrive from a handful of characters. Each has played or will play a part in the main character's fate. Interweaved here are their own stories, which are not without purpose or intrigue.

The narrative has backbone. The pacing is strong. Some of the writing is snappy--though since all of it is in letterform there's a utilitarian feel. No fireworks.

I don't know if any of this will nudge you into reading THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, but I hope so. It's a lot of fun. I haven't said much. The book says a lot. It's worth your time.

Gordon has once again taken on a subject that has been extraordinarily mis-portrayed in our age of one-dimensionalizing mass media, the intellectual journey of white middle class kids from Sixties idealists to Seventies violent revolutionaries, and brought a depth of understanding that is unfathomable to someone who was there and does not understand how someone who was not could so exceptionally re-create the complicated travails some experienced.
Which is simply to say --- hell of a good read, hell of a complex and senstive rendering of all the uniqueness that gripped us all in the Sixties....damn.....

Do not read this if you haven't finished the book. I admit that I do not frequently read books of mystery and intrigue, but I still wish there had been a little less coincidence in the plot and a little more depth and development of character. For example, what made Rebeccah fall in love with Schulberg? Why during his retrospective emails does Daddy still resent Schulberg, when in the end he was key to the best possible ending? I agree with the other reviewers that this book did an excellent job of helping the reader understand the counterculture movements of the 60s and the resentment society still harbors toward them today. I give this book only three stars on its literary merit, but still highly recommend that today's 20 & 30 somethings read it because it is insightful and an easy read. After all, history tends to repeat itself.

This book is hard to put down! It describes an important era in the recent history of our nation--the counterculture movement of the 1960s--in a series of letters written by several different narrators as part of a semi-fictional character's experiences both during and after the 1960s. Sound boring? Its not--its extremely well-written and draws some important parallels between the Vietnam Era and issues of today. Not only has this helped me understand the experience of my parents' generation, but it has also given me some historical perspective with which to view current affairs.

The book occasionally interested me, but the falseness of the format threw me off track right from the start, and after that I had a tough time taking the characters seriously. The main problem is the e-mail format of the book. In order to preserve the book's suspense, I'll use an example from the first few pages. The books starts with an e-mail from a father to his daughter. He attempts to get her support for his upcoming parole hearing. Then the character launches into a marijuana spiel. In real life it might be important for a father to explain his drug use to his daughter, but it would stick to the point. The e-mail in the book suddenly veers into pages of phony hydroponic details about a miracle crop that evidently prunes itself, and blooms early under twenty hours of light per day. Even if the account was realistic, the father would never write pages of dope growing details to his daughter, especially in an e-mail that's intended to improve his chances for parole. The e-mail also includes crude dialogue that no father would send in a message to his teenage daughter. All the characters repeatedly try to justify the fact that they are writing things that nobody would actually write in an e-mail. All of the characters in the book write ten and twenty page e-mails, complete with dialogue and long-winded descriptions of every subject they come across. All of the characters write e-mails that they actually break into chapters. Try to remember the last time someone sent you a fifteen page e-mail that was divided into chapters. I know authors and professors, and more teachers than I can easily count, so I get plenty of literate e-mails, but I stand by my assertion that nobody has ever written e-mails even remotely comparable to the ones in this book. The author is stuck in a dilemma where he wants to get information across that would never be included in an e-mail, and he wants to stick to the e-mail format anyway, so the characters wind up sounding idiotic as they bravely try to rescue the format on an almost continual basis. It was hard for me to get through more than a page or two at a time without having the format damage the credibility of a character. I read tons of books each year. It's been a long time since I've been this frustrated by a gimmick.

If you are fascinated by the sheer destructive power of Mother Nature, you'll love this book. If you live on the East Coast of North America, and ever worried about hurricanes or Nor'easters, this should answer some of your questions. If you live in New Jersey and remember The Great Atlantic Storm of 1962, this is a book you have to buy.

A comprehensive coverage of the small portion of the Atlantic Coast, 180 miles of New Jersey beaches, the authors first impart some knowledge of the causality of Hurricanes and winter storms. They do a great job explaining those vague terms the television weatherpeople throw around, such as the Beaufort scale and wind forces. Then the tales begin to unfold.

Starting with the 1700's, the authors have researched every major storm and hurricane that has brushed into -- or rolled flat -- the New Jersey coast. In addition to anecdotes and quotes from New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York area newspapers, the book is loaded with photos of storms and their aftermath starting from the 1890's. There's an entire chapter on the hurricane of 1944, which wreaked havoc on New York City as well as New Jersey. Another chapter is devoted to the Great Atlantic Storm of 1962. Caused by two major storms colliding and stalling off the New Jersey coast for three days. The storm sent five storm surge high tides ashore -- each one deeper and higher and further than the last -- until Long Beach Island, a barrier island resort, was cut through in four places.

Reading this book was quite entertaining and informative; more than that, it taught me one big lesson: there's no such thing as evacuating TOO SOON when a hurricane is coming.

Is the Halloween Storm of 1991, Nor'easter of 1992 and the Superstorm '93 in it?

If you live in New Jersey--as I do. If you have relatives who live near the Jersey Shore--as I do. If you love meteorology and disaster stories--as I do. Then you will be fascinated by this book. It starts in colonial times and works it's way to the present and even predicts the future. What more could you want?

Well maybe a few more widely differentiated anecdotes--many end up sounding the same.

Maybe, a few more pithy quotes from contemporary newspapers and other media.

Maybe a better explanation of extra-tropical cyclones and how they form. These are the great scourge of the Northeastern coast and make up a majority of this history. You just don't hear as much about Nor'easters because they don't have names.

Maybe a bit more on how the Jersey shore prepares and deals with these monsters of the deep. A frank and wide-ranging discussion on whether our shore-management policies and techniques are futile would not be very popular, but very useful.

The best features of this book intertwine. It's long range history treats the great hurricane of 1821 (the last hurricane whose eye contacted and tracked on shore)which of course is outside of the memory of living society. The book closes with an account of an imaginary hurricane doing much the same in the near future. We need to remember our past to be prepared for the future. What happened once can very well happen again. The 1821 hurricane roughly followed the current route of the Garden State Parkway. I rarely travel that toll road without remembering that we may have a very big payment to make someday.

In March of 1962, my father drove us down to Atlantic City to visit my grandmother and see the damage. It made an indelible impression on me. I cannot drive the Jersey coast without wondering how much of the ugly, new beachfront development will survive a great Jersey storm. Like many other shore lovers, I secretly hope not much of it will.

The most hair-raising tales in this wonderful book are from that 1962 whopper. But these great storms have hit Jersey shores throughout the ages with regularity, with & without warning, everywhere on the coast, changing the coastline & serving important ecological purposes. Even Keansburg, a bayshore town, has been knocked flat.

So enjoy the stories & eye-popping photographs. But don't overlook the other message the authors are conveying: We build castles on the sand.

A semi-coffeetable size book, this is a history of all the major storms that have wreaked havoc along the Jersey shore, with special emphasis on the 1944 hurricane and the 1962 nor'easter, both of which did tremendous damage. The '62 storm lasted 3 days - 6 tides - which seemed relentless. The survey ends with a warning about the future: with all the recent development along the shore and a major storm overdue, a nightmarish disaster is bound to occur sooner or later. (The last time a hurricane made landfall in New Jersey was in 1903 at Brigantine.) Filled with fantastic photographs.