Product Description
Pearl Starling is forty-five, a hermit with a "colorful past" – a past filled with treachery and desire, death and survival – who makes her living weaving rugs in a North Carolina military town. For years she has been an object of curiosity and scorn, and now she has defied society’s conventions once again: she is pregnant and no one knows who the father is.

In The Secret of Hurricanes, Pearl tells her unborn child about how she has weathered the "hurricanes" in her life – from religiously reading the local newspaper to drawing inspiration from the Kennedys’ abiding strength in the face of tragedy. Traveling the dark roads of her past, Pearl reveals how her need for tenderness led to sexual confusion, a relationship with a much older man, and her part in a murder thirty years ago.

Written in language as precise and artful as poetry, The Secret of Hurricanes is by turns funny and poignant, and full of everyday acts of heartbreak and bravery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A troubled Life!
It seemed that Peral could go through life and deal with so much turmoil. I believe it was because she knew of nothing else. Looking for love in all the wrong places. Her self esteam was so low that she just took what she could get.

What she got was trouble and grief. Looking back on her life, hindsight is 20/20. I can defintely relate to that.

I will recomend this book to many people.

Thanks
Daniel Kellenbarger
Veovus79

A Phoenix in North Carolina
In her book, THE SECRET OF HURRICANES, author Theresa Williams weaves her story together like her protagonist, Pearl Starling, creates the rag rugs she sells.Bits and pieces from broken lives, rich and poor, edgy and sad, cross over and under each other in this tale of innocence and shame.

Pearl is a survivor, huddling in the eye of the hurricanes that batter and rage all around her.From the dingy and loveless trailer that serves as her home from childhood to the present, Pearl rises like a phoenix again and again from circumstances that destroy or wear down her family and neighbors.

We first meet the mysteriously pregnant Pearl as an adult, the town eccentric. The mystery of her pregnancy ("who's the father?") intrigues the whole neighborhood.Set in a gray, characterless community surrounding a North Carolina military base, with the menace of the Vietnam War hovering in the background, the story traces Pearl's budding adolescence and teen years.We see the misery of her home life, the inevitable attraction to the wealthy family that lives on the other side of the highway.We watch her making seemingly self-destructive choices in an attempt to escape a brutal father and helpless mother.Although she scarcely knows it as a child, she is trying to grasp onto life and to find some kind of connection with another human being.Instead, her choices take her farther and farther from the solace she is seeking.Pearl travels a solitary path, parallel to the paths of other lost souls, a way that leads to a life-changing explosion that lives on in community gossip for years.But still our Pearl survives, ultimately telling her tale to the unborn daughter in her womb.Pearl finally knows who she is and is at peace with it.

Williams writes with a dark clarity and flashes of brilliance in her descriptions of Pearl and her town.She has a powerful ability to draw pictures with words ("...I noticed how paint was peeling off the walls, like dead skin" and "That day Daddy's life looked like the bent chair he was sitting in.") She draws in her readers inexorably as we trudge with Pearl along her painful trail.We find ourselves rooting for this lost waif, grubby and forlorn though she is, cheering her moments of boldness and anger, wincing as she dances into yet another hopeless quest for acceptance.We end up admiring this woman who has been through the fires and who has emerged wise and strong to live again and to deliver a new life from the ashes of her own.

This is a book for language connoisseurs, for poets, for mothers and fathers, for readers who like to get their teeth into a good story, for women, for soldiers, for all who have fought against great odds.Ultimately it is a "Rocky" story.Against all odds, our little girl survives.

a pearl of a novel
I'm not much taken with female contemporary writers. They aren't often brave enough for me. So I was excited to come across this very courageous, eloquent, profound coming-of-age novel. The main charcter, Pearl, says, "I know what it's like being young." The most talented writers remember each nuance, as does Williams. But her talent goes beyond writing about youth. I look forward to reading more from this writer, who is able to encapsulate the most profound, internal truths into a simple, poetic insight that will burst through your conventional thought barriers.

Forgiving the Sky
"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it."That was Holden Caulfield in *The Catcher in the Rye* and that's exactly how I feel about The *Secret of Hurricanes.*

After reading the book, I wanted to call Theresa Williams up on the phone and ask her stuff and tell her stuff.It's not that the story itself is so very unusual - reminds me a little of *Them* by Joyce Carol Oates or with her clipped, terse sentences, Williams is somewhat like a female Hemmingway, but after reading this book, as well as a short story by Theresa Williams called "Blue Velvis" published in *The Sun Magazine*, I guarantee that you could hand me a pile of manuscripts, all by different unnamed authors, and after reading them, I could pick out hers as soon as I got to it.She's that unusual.I mean, as my 8th grade English teacher used to say, she has a "voice."

"I like to be able to reach out and feel life's edges," says Pearl, (the main character), and that's what this book does - plumbs the edges.The whole narrative is a dialogue with Pearl's unborn daughter (Pearl just KNOWS her child will be female).

The voice of Pearl Starling, is authentic and unique.Pearl would be dubbed "trailer trash" by many in our society and she knows it, but she doesn't let that kill her soul.She is, as Shakespeare mused, - "a lady more sinned against than sinning."Her narrative isn't a litany of sins against her, however; they're only noted.What she went through changed, shaped and informed her life - but that's all.She hasn't been snuffed out mentally, physically or emotionally.Her pregnancy at the age of 45 is a personal triumph and source of delight for her, and she especially relishes the unsatisfied curiosity of her neighbors as to the identity of the father of her child.

The Pentecostals tried to pry the info out of her in the guise of a witnessing call.Pearl had been involved with them when she was 16 and suddenly alone in the world but for an abusive father and a next-door neighbor, father of three daughters in her age range, who gave her guidance and attention when she needed it.

In Pearl's memory, a woman of the Pentecostals that she already knew, "...put her hand on my back, raised her other hand, tilted her face heavenward.The old man touched my shoulder and prayed in tongues, that obscure language.I stayed, let them beseach, but told myself, `After this, no more of this touching.'I felt no comfort in it.Just a vast emptiness.Like the daytime sky was inside me.Limitless.Blank.`Just leave me,' I was thinking.`Leave me to this vacancy'".

Talking to this unborn daughter, she tells her that "One night, not long ago, I dreamed about your birth.You were a red moon slipped out from some dark corner of the sky.A real piece of sky I could hold.It made me want to forgive the sky.For both its calm betrayal and for its frightful storms.My dream made me want to forgive the sky.A little.`That's right,' I said, `Drink it in.Your life.The air.Use your own mouth to tell the world what you want.' "

Why does she need to forgive the sky, you may wonder?Read the book and find out.

Emotional devastation and a shattered childhood
At first glance, this novel is full of lyricism, of powerful images, memories and the intimate landscape of abandonment as Pearl Starling, a forty-five-year-old woman, a now-pregnant eccentric, relates her solitary life. She receives some small comfort by withholding the name of the father from the town, allowing them their own assumptions.

Pearl ruminates over the losses of the Kennedy family, identifying with the family's consuming grief, offering a hint of the sorrow that she has carried through the years, albeit of a much darker nature. This sorrow is the defining emotion of Pearl's life. As a young girl, Pearl is loved distantly by her mother and ignored by her alcoholic, womanizing father, the emotions of the three Starlings confined to their small trailer in Waterville, North Carolina; Pearl still lives in that trailer, alone.

Reaching puberty, the young Pearl aches for affection, without comprehension of appropriate boundaries. Her developing body seeks this attention from the opposite sex, older boys from a military base near town and a neighbor as old as her father. Not understanding the complications of sexuality, Pearl has no emotional compass, no one to guide her out-of-bounds yearnings, drawn to the most dangerous men who use her as they see fit.

There is a difference between exploring memories, putting such horrors finally at rest and moving into the present. Revisiting the past as an exercise of memory can be a dangerous endeavor when boundaries are an issue. Pearl is unable to break free of her crippling experiences and the attendant guilt, in a futile search for emotional satiety that doesn't exist.

Throughout, Pearl is telling the story to her unborn child, whom she believes will be a daughter. Through the protagonist the author speaks of hope, but her actions are those of loss and repetition. The quality of Pearl's motherhood will be determined by the vocabulary she chooses. Luan Gaines/2003. ... Read more

Product Description
Julie Tanaka's husband takes a job for a boatyard in Trinidad, delivering a yacht to California. The boat goes down, his body is washed up on the beach with pounds of cocaine and the DEA sends Bill Broxton to investigate. Julie is in Trinidad, living on board her own boat, when a process server representing the boatyard confronts her. They want to seize her sixty-foot sailboat for bills her husband had supposedly not paid, but she doesn't believe them and sneaks the boat out of the country. Unknown to Julie, the owner of the boatyard has secreted hundreds of thousands of dollars of cocaine and cash in Julie's boat, fiberglassing it into the hull and between the bulkheads. He wants the boat back with Julie dead and the only thing standing in his way is Bill Broxton. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Fast-Paced, Action-Packed Sailing Adventure
DEA agent Bill Broxton is in Trinidad, investigating the mysterious explosion onboard a sailboat off the coast of California. The boat sank and the skipper, Hideo Tanaka, went down with the ship, however mucho cocaine was discovered so the DEA is interested. Broxton goes back to the Caribbean, where the boat set sail from and confronts the skipper's wife and daughter, Julie and Meiko Tanaka.

Julie Tanaka lives aboard a sailboat in the yacht club in Trinidad, her daughter is visiting on a break from medical school. They are clueless about the drugs and angry at Broxton for even bringing it up, right on the heels of them learning about their tragic loss. To make matters worse for the women, a local shipyard wants to confiscate their sailboat home, because they say Hideo was in debt to them for boat repairs. Julie doesn't believe this and besides, she wouldn't give up her boat anyway, so in the middle of the night the women leave Trinidad.

However, what the women don't know is that when the boat was in the shipyard, where Hideo supposedly accumulated those bills, some bad guys hid a lot of cocaine aboard. Was Hideo in on the dastardly cocaine hiding? Did he know about the cocaine that was hidden on the boat he died on? Or was he an unknowing dupe? These are questions Broxton wants answered, but the women flee the country before he can learn the truth.

And he has problems of his own. The drug smugglers have framed him for murder and he has to go into hiding. The bad guys are after him, the local cops too. Eventually he teams up with a marijuana smuggler named T-Bone, which is a bit ironic, and together they take off after the damsels in distress. And the women are in distress, as the evil, drug smuggling killers are after them.

Okay. there you have the beginning of this super thriller. I really liked the Julie and Meiko characters and Broxton is well written too, but what really made the book for me was the action-packed scenes that take place onboard a couple sailboats as they head toward that Hurricane. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the Hurricane. Well, I'm mentioning it now. You know the characters, good and bad, are in for some serious trouble. All you have to do is look at the cover and you'd know that.

A Good Book with Characters I Cared About
Sometimes I like to read a thriller that takes place in the city, in a place I'm familiar with, because it's easier to identify with the characters, good and bad. But sometimes I like to be taken away to an exotic place, a place where everything is new to me and that's what happens here in "Hurricane," a thriller that takes place in the Caribbean. I liked the atmosphere of the book the characters and the sailing action.

Bill Broxton is a DEA agent who made his debut in "Scorpion" is back and he's investigating the death of Hideo Tanaka, a Japanese American, off the coast of California. His American wife Julie and their daughter Meiko are living on a sailboat in the Caribbean, waiting for Hideo to come back from his boat delivery job, but instead they get news of his death, but before the women get time to grieve, a boatyard wants to confiscate their sailing home because of Hideo's unpaid bills. And it turns out that not only did he apparently owe money, but that he might have been involved with a drug cartel and also that maybe he wasn't just delivering a boat to the States, but drugs as well.

Julie and Meiko flee in their sailboat, thinking the boatyard wants the boat for the unpaid bills that were not really owed, but actually the drug cartel has hidden lots of cocaine on board and they want it back. Broxton and a very likable drug smuggler take off after the women to try and save them, but unknown to them all a Hurricane is on the way.

This was an exciting read and as I said above, it took me away from the world I live in. I liked the characters of Julie and Meiko very much and I liked DEA agent Bill Broxton too, but I liked the smuggler T-Bone best of all. And that's what really did it for me with this book, characters I cared about.

Heroes and Villains, a Scoundrel and a Hurricane, and More
This book has is all, women on the run from some very bad guys, a good guy cop who is a little odd, but a good romantic lead and a lovable scoundrel who teams up with the cop to track down the bad guys before they harm the women. The action takes place in the Caribbean, the woman are fleeing on a sailboat from bad guy drug smugglers and the cop and the scoundrel are on hot on the sails of the smugglers and they are all headed toward St. Martin. Hurricane Darlene is headed that way too. So can the heroes save the day before the bad guys do in the women or before the hurricane does in them all? Well that that's what this excellent five star book is all about. Pick it up and read about it for yourself.

Fast and Exciting
Hideo Tanaka is working for a Trinidadian shipyard when the boat he is delivering from the Caribbean to California blows up of the Southern California coast. When the authorities investigate they find that the boat was being used to smuggle drugs into the United States. Suspecting that this is just the tip of the iceberg, the DEA sends Bill Broxton to Trinidad, where he discovers Tanaka's American born wife Julie and her step-daughter Meiko living on a sailboat in the yacht club there. Julie and Meiko are novice sailors, in fact they don't know much about sailing at all.

Right after Broxton questions the two women a local lawyer tries to serve papers to Julie. He claims the boat has been confiscated because of shipyard bills owed. Julie and Meiko don't believe him and they leave the country during the darkness of night, however what they don't know is that the owner of the shipyard is behind the cocaine smuggling and he sends some very bad people out after them.

Meanwhile Broxton has been framed for murder and getting caught and jailed in Trinidad is the last thing he wants, so he too sneaks out of the country, both running from the law and chasing after the bad guys who are after the good girls. I hope that's not too confusing for you, it makes a lot more sense when you're reading it, which I did in two sittings. You should check this book out, I think you'll like it.

Sailboats, Drama and Action on the High Seas
Julie Tanaka is married to an older Japanese man named Hideo and they live on a sailboat in Trinidad in the Caribbean. Her daughter Meiko is visiting from California when the police come by the marina and tell Julie that Hideo had been killed delivering a sailboat when the boat blew up.

Bill Broxton is a DEA agent and he believes Hideo Tanaka was delivering drugs along with the sailboat and that rival drug smugglers murdered him along with the crew on the drug running sailboat.

Unknown to Julie the drug smugglers her husband had been working for have hidden a large supply of their illegal cargo aboard her boat. The drug lords try to legally seize the boat, claiming bad debts, but Julie and Meiko smuggle the boat out of the country in the middle of the night. It's not long before the smugglers are hot on their trail and in short order Broxton is chasing after the smugglers, and their all charging head long into a hurricane.

This is a tightly plotted, tense, action-packed thriller that I can't recommend highly enough. ... Read more

Product Description
Hurricane Calculus covers the full range of first year college calculus, from the concept of limits to the often complex partial derivatives and multiple integrals.It tells you in plain, simple terms what the basic calculus concepts are, provides you with step-by-step problem solving guidelines, and shows you plent of completely worked out examples.

Hurricane Calculus may be the most readable book ever written on the subject.There's very little of the mathematical jargon that often causes confusion.The book is full of examples drawn from actual real world applications.Its easy-going style is aimed directly at the reader who may be new to calculus or needs clarification. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

calculus made understandable
I like the algebra review before diving into calculus. It's amazing how much we forget, so that was a big help.

I'm a Math Teacher and I LOVE this book!!
I'm a math teacher who occasionally has to teach a Calculus class. (If you don't use it every day you soon forget it.)This book is my bible for refreshing my skills, and providing useful terminology and explainations written in English (not Math-eaze) that non-Math people can understand.Yes it does have errors in it, but this aside it's an indespensible supplement to all the dry, boring, textbooks that have error free examples but very confusing text.

Nice explanations, but errors galore
It's a shame, hopefully the authors will revise this book. I would use this combined with another RELIABLE text book, or just purchase "Calculus Made Easy".

revised opinion!
I wrote a review after I had gone through a few chapters, and I said there were "some" math errors... there are at least 50 critical math errors, including errors in the tables of trig integrals you're told tomemorize. Don't buy this edition!

A complete and utter disappointment
There is no excuse for the amount of errors in this book.Teaching/Learning from it is impossible because many of the examples, explanations, and answers in the back are dead wrong.I strongly urge anystudent seeking calculus help to use a real textbook. ... Read more

Product Description

Eighteen-year-old Hilda, known as "the girl in the gold bikini" when she swam at her country club in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, abruptly leaves the gilded life to take up residence in room 304 of the Hotel Marvelous--as a prostitute. There she becomes Hilda Hurricane, an erotic force of nature no man can resist. The exception is reporter-narrator Roberto Drummond, who attempts to unravel the mystery of why the girl in the gold bikini would forego a comfortable life to join the world's oldest profession. While some in Belo Horizonte cheer Hilda's liberated lifestyle, others seek to have her moved outside the city limits, and a would-be saint cannot seem to finish the exorcism he began outside the Hotel Marvelous. Set against the social and political upheaval of the 1960s, Hilda's story seduces even as Drummond becomes aware of more ominous forces approaching Belo Horizonte.

Hilda Hurricane was both a critical and a commercial success in Brazil, with more than 200,000 copies sold. (The DVD of the television adaptation has sold more than a million copies.) Admirers of Kurt Vonnegut will revel in Drummond's similarly sharp satire and playful digressions, particularly about left-wing politics, which blur the boundary between fiction and autobiography. Yet the real genius of the author's interventions may be that they never slow the story long enough to lose sight of this mysterious beauty swept up in the turmoil of the times.

Product Description
Forget the blizzard of 1978. New England’s storm of the century was the hurricane of 1938. Sometimes called the "Long Island Express" because it rolled through there on the first day of autumn, the hurricane tore northward straight through the heart of New England, wreaking death and destruction with virtually no warning.

The storm registered peak sustained winds of 121 miles per hour, and one gust registered 186 at the Blue Hills Observatory outside Boston. Seawater killed plant life 20 miles inland, and ocean salt sprayed windows in Montpelier, Vermont. An estimated 275 million trees were uprooted or damaged. About 20,000 miles of power and telephone lines were knocked down. Along the shore, 7,000 cottages and 2,000 other houses were destroyed, and the human death toll was estimated at 680. More had died in previous U.S. storms, but given the concentration of population and development on Long Island and in New England, the hurricane of 1938 was the costliest natural disaster in American history to that time.

With this gripping narrative by Aram Goudsouzian, Commonwealth Editions inaugurates a new series, New England Remembers, dedicated to the great events and people that have shaped what we know and love as New England. Like The Hurricane of 1938 and The Big Dig (see facing page), each book in the series will be written by a historian or a writer intimately familiar with the subject. Each book will have a uniform design featuring about 15 archival images. Forthcoming titles include Sacco and Vanzetti, The Cocoanut Grove Fire, James Michael Curley, and Lizzie Borden. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Heavy on stories, light on science
This is a very worthwhile book from the human standpoint.It contains a wide variety of stories from those who were actually there, but could have used more facts.I still wonder, for instance, what caused an Atlantic hurricane to suddenly turn and attain a forward speed of 60 mph. ... Read more

Product Description
Now in paperback on the second anniversary of Katrina, one of the few books to offer the perspectives of African Americans on the Gulf Goast tragedy.

Available for the first time in paperback after selling out its hardcover print run and being frequently named among the best of the Katrina books, After the Storm offers "angry, learned, focused, readable, [and] essential" writing, according to Library Journal, in which contributors face what Ebony magazine calls "questions about poverty, housing, governmental decision-making, crime, community development and political participation, which were raised in the aftermath of the storm."

Featuring the work of leading African American intellectuals, including Derrick Bell, Charles Ogletree, Michael Eric Dyson, Cheryl Harris, Devon Carbado, Adolph Reed, Sheryll Cashin, and Clement Alexander Price, After the Storm suggests "precisely what we must do if we are to both save the planet and create the great towns and cities that we can proudly bequeath to future generations" (Socialist Review). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not just about Katrina, ths book is a thoughtful analysis of race relations in 21st century America
I loved this book, a collection of short essays that discuss the meaning of race and class in the aftermath of Katrina. I study American Studies at University and have become engrossed in African America, and Katrina is the defining event of recent times for race relations and "the color line".

This book does not simply argue that the U.S is some racist hell and point blame at the federal government, rather it eloquently outlines the arguments both for and against the theory that race caused the situation in New Orleans post-hurricane devastation.

Some writers conclude that racism had everything to do with it, others point out that the blame game itself and the lack of black America's responsibility for its own destiny were to blame. Some blame Mayor Nagin and the new middle class black America for not doing enough, others point to the legacy of slavery and the inability of New Orleans to save itself. Some argue that as all the low lying areas of the city were cheaper places to live and thus liable to storm surge, its a legacy of poverty that caused such disaster for the 98% African-American areas of New Orleans East, St.Bernard and the Lower Ninth Ward.

Whatever your view, remember that all these writers are black and all arguments are put forward in an intelligent and thought provoking manner.

Recommended not just for those wishing to understand Katrina, but anyone who wants to look at race relations in America and the sociological and psychological legacy of the old south. An excellent read i recommend to anyone.

A Survivor of the Storm
I lived in New Orleans 18 years and have relocated since Katrina. My fellow law professors have done an excellent job exposing the reality of New Orleans before and after the storm. I recommend this collection of thoughtful essays to anyone who wants a candid look at how race is relevant even when it shouldn't be. All Americans should be outraged and continue to seek justice for our fellow citizens. ... Read more

Product Description
The ultimate inside story of the Katrina tragedy—from the cofounder of the LSU Hurricane Center

After warning for years about the looming threat of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, Ivor van Heerden was one of the highest-profile media experts during the Katrina disaster. Over the following eighteen months, he was even more prominent as he challenged the official version of those events and campaigned for an engineering plan that would protect all of southeastern Louisiana, once and for all. In The Storm, van Heerden lays out in full detail the stunning incompetence among the bureaucrats, the politicians, and the Army Corps of Engineers that culminated in the catastrophe that crippled, perhaps forever, a great American city. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

"The Storm"
The author explains the truth behind the chaos and destruction that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.The severity of a storm like this was predicted well in advance, yet local and state leaders failed to heed the call.Impelling.

The book Prof. Ivorwas fired for...
I am not going to write in any detail about this book, as previous reviews have already done so. The book is reader-friendly for those, like me, without the academic ken.

But there is another story to this book which recommends it: Dr. Ivor van Heerden was fired from his position at LSU because he DARED to speak the truth--before Katrina came, during Katrina, and after Katrina. Over 1000 people died needlessly in the Gulf States. And for a man, who for as long as I can remember, has begged, literally begged attention for what he knew, and every one of his colleagues knew was going to happen, [and WILL happen again]: that a hurricane strong enough would sink this city, UNLESS...

Think about that for a moment.

This man KNEW, within an absolute probability, that a Katrina could have devastating implications for New Orleans; and yet the powers that be refused to listen. They laughed at him. And people died. And they are still dying. And there is misery peeking around every corner of our optimism, because we know that despite Katrina, the cries of this excellent man continue to falldeaf upon the ears that could actuate change in this region and prevent the next catastrophe.

Dr. Ivor, I suspect, is like me these days. My heart is a graveyard, dugover the mess that was Katrina.

This book is enthralling. You will pound your fists in anger and frustration. You will ask, why. Why? Why!!!!

Shame on LSU.

Dr. Ivor, you have been our champion and WE know this. I doubt there is a soul in NOLA who does not love you.

Shame on LSU. Shame.

Great book!
I had read several books about Katrina but this book finally gave me the best understanding of what went wrong.I still plan to keep reading the books that Katrina spawned.Buy this paperback for your library!

Book review and Amazon Service
The book (The Storm) is an excellent, well written and informative review of what went wrong in New Orleans following Katrina.Amazon's service in processing my order was excellent as usual!

Unvarnished Truth
I picked this book up in the Tulane bookstore where my daughter and I stopped the day we finished our assigned tasks for the week we were there to work on rebuilding.She "needed" a Tulane t-shirt and I browsed for something to read on the airplane home.I read it straight through on the way back to California.

The myths of Katrina persist.Some of our group still believe some of them.Even with the first hand experience and stories of those who were there.This book allows me to speak with authority about what went wrong... and what went right.

We are an arrogant bunch, we Americans.Our collective elevator attitude needs to come down a couple of floors.It's what put New Orleans at risk and drowned that city.It's what IS putting my city at risk (assessed by the Army Corps of Engineers to be at a higher risk than New Orleans before Katrina is probability of levee failure and in total devastation...happy, no?).It's what has put our economy and thus our basic survival at risk.

This book outlines how we got there in startling graphic detail.

And how all of that was known and purposely ignored well in advance of Katrina. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Great adventure novel
Well written, easy to read, action packed. Read Colin Angus "Beyond the Horizon" first then Julies as Julie details their Atlantic crossing in an amazing action packed novel. It's a five out of five on the wow scale.

Highly recommended
A great story, and an interesting counterpoint and companion to Colin's "Beyond the Horizon", kind of like Don Starkell's "Paddle to the Arctic" and Victoria Jason's "Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak" (except that here the protagonists actually like each other a lot) ... :-)

Godo, author, "The Carbon Charter"

Not your average travelogue
Julie writes about her decision to become the first woman to rowe across the Atlantic ocean, the preparations involved and her choice of a rowing partner, who ultimately ends up being her adventurer fiance.
The thoroughly researched information about the ocean's flora and fauna and their run ins with various creatures along the way is most interesting.
Julie's brisk style made me read this book from cover to cover almost without stopping, and I would have loved to read onabout the next step of their journey, the cycling from Costa Rica to Vancouver.
I appreciated her honesty about the hardships of life on a rowboat, and the doubts and fears she encountered along the journey.

Spirited adventure story
I read lots of global travel/adventure stories and this one rates very high!Julie's writing is very fluid and captivates from the opening pages.She expertly weaves the story of how she quit her secure day job to set out on an expedition with her fiance - in a tiny rowboat, battling hurricanes as they pull on oars and slowly make their way across the Atlantic ocean. I especially liked the descriptions of what it felt like to be alone on the seas, surrounded by the beauty of nature and marine life, and her observant descriptions of how the oceans are being influenced by climate change. ... Read more

Product Description
Fifty years after Isaac's Storm, a riveting story of the first Hurricane Hunters, and the one crew who paid the ultimate price. In September 1955, Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham and a crew of eight flew out of Guantanamo Bay into the eye of Hurricane Janet swirling in the Caribbean: a routine weather reconnaissance mission from which they never returned. In the wake of World War II, the Air Force and the Navy had discovered a new civilian arena where daring pilots could test their courage and skill. These Hurricane Hunters flew into raging storms to gauge their strength and predict their paths. Without computer, global positioning, or satellite support, they relied on rudimentary radar systems to locate the hurricane's eye and estimated the drift of their aircraft by looking at windblown waves below. Drawing from Navy documents and interviews with members of the squadron and relatives of the crew, Stormchasers reconstructs the ill-fated mission of Windham's crew from preflight checks to the chilling moment of their final transmission. 16 pages of b/w photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

THE BIG BLOW, HURRICANE JANET & THE STORMCHASERS
An excellent read. He has researched the subject well. His writing style seems to be very descriptive and presented well. I think he could have added a couple of maps. I went to the internet and researched the path of hurricane Janet and damage done by her.

"There are bold pilots and there are old pilots,but there are no bold,old pilots."
This book has a lot more to it than suggested by its dust jacket. Rather than just a number of experiences by a few of the crews who fly into hurricanes to learn more about them;it traces the history of the individuals and their planes, as well as the theories that have been used since the end of WWII,to try and get a handle on these powerful natural occurrances,which wreck such havoc;particularly on the south-east and Gulf coasts of the US.
From this book,you will become acquainted with the theories involved,the models used and the great difficulties encountered in trying to understand and thus predict the path,strength and resulting damages of hurricanes.
There is only thing certain,and that is that ecah year,there will be a string of events,but try as they may,the forcasters will havetheir hands full. The expertize continues to improve,but the "science" of hurricanes is far from perfect.
The book will help one to much better understand the reports we will be getting from The National Hurricane Service this coming summer and fall. It appears we are in for another wild time of it.
We really gain a good insight into the power of these systems and the punishment inflicted on the planes and crews who fly into them. In spite the power it is unbelievable that only one plane and its crew ever paid the Supreme Sacrifice.
The book is an excellent read for anyone interested in understanding "Hurricane Season". I think the most amazing thing that I learned from this book is that those great forces involved with these hurricanes can cause tremendous stresses on the earth's crust,resulting in accompanying earthquakes.

Final Mission
In late September 1955, a tropical depression in the Caribbean became the 10th hurricane of the season--Janet. The Naval Air Station in Jacksonville followed standard procedure, sending out hurricane hunters from Gauantanamo Bay, Cuba, on what should have been a routine reconnaisance mission. But Lt. Cmdr. Grover Windham and his crew of eight never returned from their flight into the eye of the storm. What happened?

Toomey recounts the possible scenarios as he reconsiders the drama, but he also uses the tragedy to discuss the relatively
primitive state of weather prediction at the time.

There wasno Doppler radar, no satellite imaging,no global-positioning systems. The twin-engine Neptune plane was outfitted witht he cutting-edge technology of the day---butu meterologists used pencil and paper to make graphs, and pilots still looked at the waves below to estimate their position.

Crew Five really didn't know what it would find with Hurricane Janet. It's final radio transmission at 8:30 a.m. ended, "Beginning penetration."

In the face of daunting odds and tremendous danger....
David Toomey's well researched book has an astounding wealth of information that is both stunning in detail and fascinating in every aspect. This book drew my attention because of my own obsession with hurricanes, having been through several in North Carolina,(to include Fran, Bonnie,and Floyd ). During Floyd we were in the eye of the storm at night and went out and looked up into a clear, silent sky and watched as suddenly a hurricane hunter flew overhead, the only sound at all.
David Toomey details the thoughts that went into the changing views of weatheras a philosophy and the evolution into the science of meteorology. This transformation from philosophy to science is interesting. Weather phenomena was thought to be only a local event and the idea that weather traveled from one area to another was not even imagined. The idea of weather patterns was a foreign concept as well. Toomey details this transformation which spans the continents, including battles of very differing ideas. The leap in the quantity of scientific data and reliability of it's use from the the 1950's to present time is amazing.
This scientific evolution was also a big push in the development of computers, originally called a "calculating clock"(in 1623), then "stepped reckoner" (1673), and then a giant leap to the "Difference Engine" in the 1830's. This subject in and of itself would have been a great subject.
Throughout all of this history of meteorology, the key aspect of this book centers on the people that flew into the hurricanes to obtain the data that would revolutionize hurricane forecasting. Their lives are opened and the picture that is viewed is of normal, everyday men. They saw their mission in life and pursued it, even in the face of daunting odds and tremendous danger. David Toomey has written a book that covers the world of hurricanes from the science to the very human and intimate aspects that surround them and has done so in a way that both educates and captivates your attention.

Stormchasers
This glimpse into 1940's and 50's Navy airmen's exploration of hurricanes is fascinating reading, from a scientific and a human perspective. I've never read nonfiction that captured my imagination and attention so well.It's amazing to me that this story hadn't been told before.How did we come this far into the space age without knowing that people have been flying into hurricanes to study them since the 1940's?And why did those particular people believe they could, without sophisticated instruments, fly into hurricanes and come out again?This book provides suspense while informing the reader of historic events surrounding the world of weather forecasting.I look forward to reading what David Toomey writes next. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (17)

....
It's a book. I got it for a class. I'm not into these books but it seems interesting so far. i came in perfect condition....yeah

Thoughts from a college student
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming,written by Chris Mooney, is an aggregation of varying perspectives on the connection or lack thereof between global warming and intensifying hurricanes around the world and the fine detail and intricacy of how it's all tied into policy and politicians.Chris Mooney takes the reader on a time travel of hurricane research from 1743 when Benjamin Franklin collectively defined what a storm consists of all the way to current day which is defined by high technology hurricane research (p.15).Along this technology journey scientists have not only discovered amplitude information about hurricanes but also how hurricanes are connected to other meteorological phenomena.Mooney tells of various scientists who have conducted research in attempts to both prove and disprove how global warming is or is not causing an increase in intensity and frequency of hurricanes.
An interesting aspect that Mooney includes in his book is the interconnectedness of the hurricane battle with policy.Research by scientists is funded when the government sees a need for that research to be done.The government sees a need for research when the people are demanding it and citizens demand it when a topic is receiving a lot of media attention.Therefore, the government, and accordint to Mooney particularly the Busch administration, was carefully controlling which aspects of the hurricane-global warming research were released into the media.Also, Mooney gives the example of Landsea who left the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) because they were so controlling of what its scientists could say to the media (p. 134-135).Additionally, where a research institution receives its funds plays a large role in the general reputation it wants to hold on a topic such as global warming.Mooney says the IPCC was funded for a while by the very large oil company, ExxonMobil, and therefore would want to release more anti-hurricane-global warming research.It sends the message that everyone should be very cautious of present biases in the information received because of the number of ways it may be steered to fit the needs of those producing it.
Chris Mooney did a great job providing a variety of perspectives concerning the hurricane-global warming debate, a strategy which strengthens the merit of his book.He made sure to include scientists/researchers, politicians from both ends of the spectrum, the media, and research institutions.He was sure to give research examples from those who support the link between global warming and stronger hurricanes, from those who do not, and those who don't fall strongly either way.Consistently throughout the book he speaks of scientists like Gray who are against a global warming-hurricane link and those like Emanuel, Holland and Knutson who believe in a global warming-hurricane link.At the very end of the book, Mooney lets his opinion shine through his writing by giving examples of stronger research that shows a true link between global warming and hurricanes.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the specific examples and stories of hurricanes that have happened.When a city, people, and personal stories are attached to a hurricane, it becomes more real instead of just wind speeds and pressure measurements.This aspect of the books makes it more relatable to a wide audience.Despite one's political background or one's worldview of the connection between global warming and hurricanes, everyone cares about other people and the devastation they face from a natural disaster like hurricanes.No matter what is causing it, hurricanes cause millions of dollars in damage and affects thousands of lives every year.Mooney definitely sends this underlying message in his book; there is a great need for hurricane research for the better we understand and can predict them, the more prepared we can be for the damage they are capable of producing on land.

Hurricanes and Politics Should Not Mix
Chris Mooney presents a fascinating inside look into the politics and personalities behind hurricane science and scientists.With the possibility that global warming can increase the destructive power of hurricanes, a formerly non-controversial topic became highly politicized in a short amount of time.Predictably, scientists were in two basic camps: one believed global warming makes hurricanes worse, and one believed that global warming (which may not be occurring) does not make hurricanes worse.

Although Mooney keeps the pace moving along, by the time you finish this book, you may know more about hurricanes than you bargained for.At times, the book is almost too detailed for its own good, but if you know at least a little basic meteorology, you should be able to handle all the atmospheric science thrown into the book.Good book on a fascinating subject.

Good, But Not Outstanding
This is a good book, but not quite as good as the other reviewers suggest.I suspect that how much you like this book depends, in part, on how much you agree with the author's views.Put simply, although the book purports to be an objective overview of the interaction between science and politics, Mr. Mooney makes it clear which side he thinks is right.Those skeptical of global warming tend to be marginalized as out of touch, cranks, or biased by "special interests."This detracts from the book in a significant way because it casts doubt on the accuracy of the analysis.Indeed, in several places, the author seems to go out of his way to downplay data that undercuts the "global warming is making hurricanes worse" thesis that he endorses.

Having said that, the book is still very readable and full of information about hurricanes and the history of their study.Whenever the author is not talking about global climate change, his account of the science and the scientists is engaging and clear.

In sum, worth reading if you have any interest in hurricanes, but take his discussions of the state of global warming science with a large grain of salt.

Science and Journalism

This is an exceptionally well done example of scientific journalism.
It presents abalanced review of both sides of the global warming ->
hurricanes issue while recognizing that the consensus of scientific opinion is that global warming is a real phenomenon. ... Read more

Product Description
3m, 1f / Comedy / InteriorThe routines of daily life get blown apart when two brothers take in a plucky young houseguest. While India is running away from her relatively normal family, Chaz is struggling to find normalcy in the one he already has. Is it possible to be your brother's keeper and have a life too? The play premiered at Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville."All hail a new, energetic and often very funny voice in the American theater." - Cleveland Plain Dealer"Mensch...is a force of nature. Her tidily crafted, two-act play involves four well-drawn, very different characters. Within this mostly light-hearted play about change and maturity, she weaves threads of mystery and serious issues of family responsibility." - Louisville Courier-Journal ... Read more

Product Description
Each book in the True Horse Stories focuses on a contemporary horse from a different part of the world, and each animal is, in his or her own way, a hero.

PBJ Decks Smokin Gun (Gunner) is an American Paint Horse, one of the many of Heather Lott Goodwin's herd, and a valuable show animal that won the World Championship Paint Horse title. When Hurricane Katrina passed over the Goodwin property, it took with it the fences, the cattle, and several horses. Heather and her family lived in their horse trailer for six weeks and considered themselves lucky to have safe, comfortable shelter. After the storm, they searched for the animals and recovered many of them. But three months passed before they located Gunner, a hundred miles away. They were told he was in terrible shape and should be put down. Nevertheless, Heather drove on washed-out roads to bring him home, starving, dehydrated, and blind in one eye. With the help of a vet and her mother, she nursed him back to health. Amazingly, nine months later, he was well enough to compete again in the World Championship Paint Horse Show. Gunner's story is a testament to love and to determination. ... Read more

Product Description

"Don't ever think that this can't happen to you. You are going to read this and it's going to sound like we created this scenario, but this is a real scenario that happened."

--Pam, Memorial Medical Center

"Everything that was battery operated eventually died. There were no monitors...we tried to take care of people in the most humane way possible."

--Lois, Lindy Boggs Medical Center

Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina takes you inside six New Orleans hospitals-cut off from help for days by flooding-where nurses cared for patients around the clock. In this book, nurses from Hurricane Katrina share what they did, how they coped, what they lost, and what they are doing now in a city and health care infrastructure still rebuilding, still in jeopardy.

In their own words, the nurses tell what happened in each hospital just before, during, and after the storm. Danna and Cordray provide an intimate portrait of the experience of Katrina, which they and their colleagues endured.

Just a few of the heroic nurses you'll find inside:

The book also discusses how to plan and prepare for future disasters, with a closing chapter documenting the "lessons learned" from Katrina, including day-to-day health care delivery in a city of crisis. This groundbreaking work serves as a testament to nurses' professionalism, perseverance, and unwavering dedication.

Customer Reviews (1)

Compelling tales from Katrina
The book offers experiences of several nurses during and after hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.This cautionary tale is compelling and instructive.Everyone, and certainly every nurse, should read and take notes. ... Read more

Product Description
New Look! Relaunched with new jackets and 8 pages of new text!

Here is a dramatic and compelling guide to nature's most dangerous and destructive forces. Stunning full-color photographs, models and illustrations offer a unique "eyewitness" view of catastrophic weather conditions.See into the eye of a spiraling cyclone, hailstones the size of tennis balls, a spectacular lightning ball, the devastating effects of the El Nino phenomenon, and how a gentle mountain stream can become a raging torrent within a few minutes.Learn the techniques developed through the centuries to forecast weather, about the chicken that was stripped of its feathers by a tornado, about Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod, and why human activity can cause weather patterns to change.Discover what causes giant waves capable of engulfing entire cities, the disastrous consequences of drought, how plants and animals have adapted to withstand extreme conditions, the weather patterns beyond Earth, and much, much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The good book for my soon
I bought this book for my soon (9 years hold) and he is enthusiastic about the book.

Extreme Weather
I am an adult but have read about 35-40 DK Eyewitness books in the past 15 months. I'm catching up with a lot of the science I never learned in school, and the illustrations and simple style that is easy for young readers to understand while not talking down to adults like me are invaluable in building my knowledge of these subject areas.

I have a perverse interest in tornadoes, so I looked forward to reading this book. However, I think a better title for this book would have been "Extreme Weather". Of the 60-some pages of material in this book, only 4 each are devoted to the subjects of hurricanes and tornadoes. The remainder of the book is devoted to weather basics (also covered excellently in the book in this series called "Weather") and other severe and extreme weather conditions.

Despite this somewhat misleading title, I highly recommend this book and all of the DK Eyewitness books that I've read. A somewhat newer book in the series, "Natural Disasters", covers some of the same material plus non-weather-related calamities such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and disease epidemics. "Natural Disasters" was published recently enough to include coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

Great book for young weather enthusiast!
My twins, age 4 1/2, love this book. Interesting history of weather phenomena, and some really great pictures!

SO EXCITING
I"M INTERESTED ABOUT HRRICANES AND TORNADOES TOO
THIS DK BOOK WAS JUST SO EXCITING

[...]

I Love Eyewitness Books!I want them in Spanish too!
This is a great addition to the Eyewitness Series.Kids will go nuts over all the information on tornados and hurricanes.It's right up disaster alley. ... Read more

Product Description
Using the dramatic backdrop of the 1900 Galveston hurricane, Houston area author Janice Thompson crafts a tale of tragedy and triumph with her latest novel, HURRICANE. On September 8th, 1900, a Category Four hurricane hit tiny Galveston island.6000+ people were killed in one night and thousands more left homeless.In HURRICANE, Thompson has placed fictional characters into this very real setting - and the outcome is a fast-paced read with an underlying message of hope. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Captivating.Great blend of fact and fiction.
I read this while staying on South Padre Island in Texas.Reading this novel while on an island made the story more emotional and engaging.The emotion, struggle, loss, and survival was well told.Shortly after I read this novel, South Padre was hit by Hurricane Dolly.Seeing the impact on South Padre (while nothing like Galveston 1900) made the story more impactful.Well done Janice A. Thompson. Well done.

A good story but poor history...
Each of the main characters in Ms. Thompson's novel face an internal conflict that reflects an external struggle as their world is upturned by the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.For those only slightly familiar with Galveston and the 1900 Storm, Hurricane, will be a slightly predictable journey of faith with easily recognizable humanly flawed characters.

Those who know the Galveston of 1900 well, and have detailed knowledge of the events of the Storm, should not bother with the book. Despite warnings that characters are invented and fact easily gives way to fiction, the author only tangentially writes a recognizable Galveston. Stereotyping abounds with regard to Galveston's immigration, and historical errors are common, especially related to the timeline of events for September 8.(One glaring example is Brent being frantically awoken in the Tremont hotel at 4 a.m. to be told that water is up to the diner and it is too high to send a carriage around. Yet six hours later The Strand, four blocks closer to the Bay than the hotel, has remained safe from flooding.) The author also inadvertently allows some characters to speak of late 20th century knowledge about hurricanes, their patterns and traits.

If you enjoy reading the allegory of Storms in our lives, and following characters as they struggle and lean on their faith to see them through, then you might enjoy this novel. Please understand that the Galveston and the events of the 1900 Storm as they are depicted here are largely fictional and not a true representation of the city and the Storm.

A windy tale
Normally when you hear a Texan is telling a windy tale it means something entirely different. Janice uses a work of fiction to tell the very real story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane that has been labeled "The Great Storm." You can't help but identify with these characters and the story will keep you enthralled. I first read this book when it came out, but as the hurricane season is here again, found myself picking it back up. If the people of New Orleans had read this book before Katrina came roaring ashore there wouldn't have been nearly as many people caught upin it.

[...]

You Will Be Blown Away!
Sometimes our humble beginnings-the ones we can't wait to get away from-are the ones we're inevitably drawn back to. So is the case for successful newspaperman Brent Murphy when he becomes disenchanted with the fast pace of New York City and returns to his hometown Island of Galveston. His return coincides with an event of catastrophic proportions, the 1900 Galveston hurricane.

Mrs. Thompson, a native Texan, has crafted an engrossing tale of tragedy, sadness, courage, and most importantly, hope. Experience one of this country's most talked about storms through the eyes of these well-developed characters.You will cheer for their bravery and cry over their loss. A wonderful tribute to the victims of the 1900 Galveston hurricane. A great read. Highly recommend.

Historically accurate and exciting story
I'm a survivor of Hurricane Camille of 1969, that tore through Gulfport, MS in 1969 and the worst storm to hit the US Mainland. So I couldn't wait to read Thompson's Hurricane.Instantly I was drawn into her fictional story of the historical and devastating storm of 1900, that hit the island of Galveston, Texas.Thompson vividly portrays the catastrophic and devastating effects on human life and property in sharp contrast to hope, survival and faith.I read this book this past weekend, while in Mobile, AL with the threat of tropical storm Arlene in the background, so it was perfect reading material.

Drama and well developed characters tell the unfolding story of death and triumph as the storm moves into the gulf with such impact, that lives on the island are changed forever.I could almost taste the salt water, feel the roaring wind and slashing rain, so accurately described by Thompson, a native Texan.Though 6,000 people lost their lives in this terrible hurricane, many found strength and compassion to help their fellow islanders, and selfishly give of themselves, even in their own despair.This well crafted, minute by minute story, will pull at your heartstrings and make you say a prayer for every storm that enters your life.I highly reccommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
The ultimate guide to the ultimate storms, Hurricane Watch is a fascinating blend of science and history from one of the world's foremost meteorologists and an award-winning science journalist.This in-depth look at these awe-inspiring acts of nature covers everything from the earliest efforts by seafarers at predicting storms to the way satellite imaging is revolutionizing hurricane forecasting.It reveals the latest information on hurricanes: their effects on ocean waves, the causes of the variable wind speeds in different parts of the storm, and the origins of the super-cooled shafts of water that vent at high altitudes.Hurricane Watch is a compelling history of man's relationship with the deadliest storms on earth.

Includes:

- The story of the nineteenth-century Cuban Jesuit whose success at predicting the great cyclones was considered almost mystical.

- A new look at Isaac Cline, whose infamous failure to predict the Galveston Hurricane left him obsessed with the devastating effects of storm surge.

- The story of the Hurricane Hunters, including the first man ever to deliberately fly into a hurricane.

- A complete account of how computer modeling has changed hurricane tracking.

- A history of Project Stormfury: the only significant, organized effort to reduce the damaging strength of severe hurricanes.

- A unique firsthand account of Hurricane Andrew by both authors, who were at the National Hurricane Center when Andrew struck.

- A listing of the deadliest storms in history.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Hurricane Watch:
The thrilling hurricanes put me on needles and pins.I felt like I was there when it went through.I would recommend this book to all readers of storms.Thank you.

Karen Kay Ullom

Wealth of information and still readable!
Dr. Bob Sheets is a previous director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Jack Williams helped found the USA TODAY Weather Page.Together these two well respected men combine their unique talents, introspection , scientific facts with intriguing anecdotal tales. The resultmaywell beone of the ultimate books about hurricanes from their formationto the evolution of man's ability to understand and predict their path and power. They blend thelines of scientific fact andhuman experience yielding an accessible guide to a more in-depth understanding of hurricanes.The book covers the early days of meteorology, when it was perceived as almost a mythical ability to the more current up to the moment technological advances at the forefront of climatology and prediction.Also included are tables listing the deadliest hurricanes, strongest hurricanes and costliest storms. The Saffir-Simpson scale is explained and laid out along with a table detailing the strike possibilities by region.There is a section that deals with the computer models utilized by the National Hurricane Center, both the statistical and dynamic forecast models, from CLIPERto SHIPS, from GFDL to NOGAPS.Each model is detailed andit's purpose and focus are explained.
Finally there is the most important section, on how to prepare for a hurricane, from things to do before you buy or build your home, preparing ahead of time for hurricane season and what to do from the time a watch is issued, the hurricane arrives andafter the hurricane has passed.This book is a wealth of information for those whose lives may depend upon an understanding of hurricane predictions andthe ability to prepare themselves and their families for the possible onslaught of the hurricane season.

Prophetic
This book is like a Colombo murder mystery.You know "who did it," it's just will he or she be caught in time.The answer to the question, in this case, is "no."

Dr Sheet's book is a very thorough commentary on the history and study of hurricanes.He provides the reader with an interesting background narrative of hurricanes and their destructiveness that dates from the early experiences of Spanish explorers and early European settlers in the Caribbean, the east and southeast coasts of the US and Canada.He also discusses the typhoon or cyclone in the Pacific and the odd phenomenon that dictates that when there are more of these, there are fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic.He also covers the North Atlantic Oscillation and El Niño, though to a lesser degree than Brian Fagan did in one of his weather/climate discussions. Of far greater historical interest-to me anyway-is his discussion of the various personalities involved in researching hurricanes.It's surprising how much solid study was conducted as early as the 19th century.

The author also describes the big name hurricanes.Probably the best is his own experience of Hurricane Andrew in Florida.The story is riveting, especially when, having lived through a very precarious situation himself, he expresses concern over the very real possibility that the storm might move on into the Gulf of Mexico and hit New Orleans.The book was written in the late 1990s, but he is able to thoroughly describe the potential destruction should a hurricane hit the city in full force. As we know, Andrew did not move into the New Orleans area, but Katrina did. The outcome was much as the author had predicted.With so much foresight, it makes one wonder why authorities could have been so lax in taking precautions.It was, in fact, much as many had already said, a case of "not if, but when."

The answer seems to reside in that peculiar sense of probability that dictates that "if it didn't happen in my grandfather's time, and it didn't happen in my father's time, it won't happen mine."Human experience of climate is actually the experience of weather, a relatively short-term phenomenon.While the human life span seems quite long compared to other types of animal, it's infinitesimally short compared to the age of the earth, which is the time frame of climate.It's this grander scale of climatic change that makes the discussions over global warming so contentious, and the appropriate actions to be taken the subject of feud.Everyone has his or her own opinion, and the fact is that we really don't know.The author makes this point when he discusses the possibility that there will be more frequent and more destructive storms with the advent of global warming.Here too, they don't know, but the author is inclined to doubt it.That there will be storms as destructive as Andrew he accepts; that they will be more costly he agrees.But he feels that the latter will be due more to the increasing population of the areas subject to these storms and the unpreparedness of new comers in the face of a phenomenon with which they have no experience.

What is amazing to me is that the areas subject to a force of nature as fierce as a hurricane continue to grow in population and that building continues to be substandard, at least under the circumstances, but then the San Andreas fault system is heavily settled with buildings far too fragile to survive another 1906-style earthquake and the fertile flanks of Vesuvius lure farmers to them irrespective of its reputation for death and destruction.The human capacity to ignore what "might" happen looms ever optimistic.

"Hurricane watch"
"Hurricane Watch Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth" was an excellent book. It had many great facts on hurricanes in it. It gave me more understanding on hurricanes and how they start. This book is very helpful if you are studying meteorology. This book is written by Dr. Bob Sheets former director of the National Hurricane Center. He was in charge of predicting the tracks of hurricanes and sending out warnings to the people of the communities where the hurricane will hit. The book goes through the history on predicting hurricanes. It starts with Christopher Columbus and ends with hurricane Andrew. Since it is a sort of old book some of the "New technology" in the book is out dated. Also it does not have anything about the strong hurricanes of today. I recommend this book for anybody who likes to learn about the history of hurricanes. The book had facts on the history of hurricanes. The book was interesting in many places but had some boring spots. Also the book talked about people flying planes into hurricanes for reconnaissance. It had the history of the reconnaissance planes starting from World War 2 to now. The book was a fairly long book. The end of the book had appendices that had facts from hurricanes in the past. It also has a list of all of the hurricanes from 2001 to 2006. In some parts of the book I could not put it down but in other parts it was boring. The book had many great pictures. Some pictures were about what happened after they hit and others were about radar and what the hurricanes looked like from above. If you like meteorology and hurricanes this book is for you. Also if you need to do some research on hurricanes I would recommend this book to you.

Lots of good information!
I was in the middle of reading this book when Hurricane Katrina started heading toward us here in Louisiana. While everyone else was talking about the hurricane and its projected path, I was able to understand exactly what the forecasters were talking about. This book explains the dynamics of a hurricane very well - how, where and why they form, and an explanation of the weather phenomena that forecasters (and forecasting models) use to project its path.

One thing this book has made me realize is that weather is an imperfect science. It seems many people think forecasters are pointless because they're often wrong, but what they don't realize is that there is a LOT we don't know about weather. And we're a lot better off knowing what we know today! It is also strange to continue reading this after Katrina, because there is mention of intense, deadly hurricanes throughout history - and Katrina has really set a new precedent (Rewrite? Heck, I'd buy a 2nd edition!). This is a book that calls for a re-reading anyway. It is so jam-packed with interesting information. There are many explanations of weather phenomena that I had to read several times over because I'm not a scientifically-minded person. This book explains things very well - but I find that with weather-talk, it helps to have diagrams. Unfortunately, this book has very few (in fact, looking through, I can only find one diagram).

This book has excellent appendices! --> A list of hurricane names (2001-06), retired hurricane names. The hurricane probabilities chart is particularly fascinating - it lists names of Atlantic/Gulf coast cities and the probabilities of a hurricane/major hurricane hitting within a given year (Miami/Ft Lauderdale appear to be the two most vulnerable areas). Strongest hurricanes, most deadly hurricanes, most expensive hurricanes (including what past hurricanes would cost today). A glossary of forecasting models. A separate glossary of hurricane terminology. All excellent additions to this book!!

If you are reading this review, it means you're interested in hurricane books. And if that's the case, you NEED to read this one! - especially if you don't know much about the dynamics of hurricanes. (and if you live on either the Atlantic or Gulf coast) ... Read more

Product Description
The Hurricane was the RAF's first monoplane fighter and saw significant combat during the fight over France and the Battle of Britain. One of its principal opponents in 1940 was the Bf 110 twin-engined, two-seat heavy fighter. Following the invasion of France, these fighters clashed regularly as the RAF's Hurricanes attacked German bomber formations defended by Bf 110. Although the Hurricane had the upper hand when it came to maneuverability, the Bf 110 outclassed it in terms of fire power, with its mix of machine guns and cannon. This is the story of the dramatic battles in the skies over France and the Channel as Britain desperately tried to hold back the German onslaught from her shores. ... Read more

Product Description
Reed Timmer, a star of the top rated Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel is one of the most successful and most extreme storm chasers in the world. His is a job that requires science and bravado, knowledge and instinct just to survive, never mind excel. Now, in Into the Storm, he takes readers inside the terrifying and awe-inspiring world of big weather.

Published to coincide with the fourth season's premiere, Into the Storm is Timmer's dramatic account of his extraordinary profession. Featuring stories of the three-hundred-plus extreme tornados, hurricanes, or blizzards that Timmer has watched ring-side over the last decade-storms that include the killer F5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, in May 1999; the unprecedented, devastating storm surge of Hurricane Katrina; and the little-studied but enormously powerful storm systems in places like Canada and Argentina. As a Ph.D. candidate in meteorology, Timmer is after more than just an adrenaline rush-his stories feature fascinating insights into the science of storms, and how the data he is collecting will could possibly save lives. With a firsthand perspective on the storm-chasing community, Timmer also takes readers inside this world, examining his controversial obsession and the ethical debates it sparks.
Featuring the same you-are-there immediacy that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Timmer's web site tornadovideos.net, every month, Into the Storm is one wild-and informative-ride. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Exciting book, that fills in a lot of gaps
I love the T.V. show "Stormchasers," and this book helped fill in a lot of gaps that the t.v. show doesn't have time to answer or might appear boring to the average watcher.I loved learning the details of Reed's life that got him to this point.I wish the book had explained the history of some of his other relationships a bit more, like with Joel.It introduces Joel as just a guy that helps Reed get to a tornado over the phone one day, but I wanted to know how they meet, etc., since the t.v. show puts a lot of emphasis on their relationship.

Overall, this is a very exciting book that is hard to put down.I wish there was less apologizing and justifying of Reed's actions in the book, but I guess that's been a large part of his stormchasing life so far.The fact that the entire community doesn't view Reed as a necessity for what everyone is trying to accomplish amazes me.Sure, he's a bit crazy and loud, but look at what he's accomplished in the past 10 years.And he's not just some person who gets off to tornadoes.I think the fact that he's devoted his entire life to stormchasing, including his education, and the fact he puts almost all of his money back into the adventure should automatically grant him some leeway with the community.I just hope I don't read a Steve Irwin type of headline one day about Reed.

If you like the t.v. show, you'll love Reed's book.I can't wait for more details in another book.

I was almost afraid to buy this book.
I am a fan of Storm Chasers on Discovery but not a fan of most of the behaviors on that show. Reed was one of those whose loud enthusiasm would get on my nerves at times. This book showed me another side of Reed Timmer. The book showed a young man who was still incredibly passionate about his love for meteorology in general, tornado chasing in particular but also self-aware and insightful about his own behaviors and how they come across.

The book essentially starts with his incoming freshman experience at UO with occasional side trips to his childhood development on through to his Ph.D. and current goals. As Reed recalls stages in his meteorological education we are taught meteorology in small understandable and very interesting segments. Fortunately for us, Reed did leave out the detailed physics and math involved in his education. I never realized how intensive getting that kind of degree was.

Reed's journey through school also involved tornado and hurricane chases: booms and busts. Always with great descriptive detail and admitting when he screwed up, showing an angst and concern for those accompanying him which has not been a side seen on TV.

Those who see Timmer as merely an excitement junkie looking for a fix will be in for a surprise. Clearly, he has an incredible singleminded focus on chasing tornadoes but that focus also includes an equal passion for the chasing the science to understand tornadoes.

Engaging, entertaining, educational and well written: This was a book I could not put down. I wish it was longer. Hopefully there will be more, especially as Reed experiments and develops assorted out of the box methods for data collection and scientific study of the beasts he is chasing.

Thrilling!What a Page Turner!
As good as any thriller on the stands today!From the moment I picked it up I could not put it down.It shows all the trials and tribulations of storm chasing and I didn't even have to get wet!Reed really is passionate about this and is willing to risk his life to save others.I am such a fan of the Discovery Channel show and really this book brought it to a whole new level.He is trying to research some robust science and push the envelope to the extreme.I want to sign up for the Extreme Tornado Tour now!YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK!WHAT A THRILL RIDE!

GREAT!
This book is so cool! It`s almost like in real life! It`s like when you`re reading, he 'comes' out of the book to take you in with him!

Intense!
I Love this book! It is filled with the same action and intensity that is felt while watching Timmer's television series "Storm Chasers". At times I feel as if I am right there, riding along on the chase, without really realizing that I was being educated on weather too. I recommend this book for everyone, young and old, and hope you enjoy it as much as i have!

Into the Storm: Violent Tornadoes, Killer Hurricanes, and Death-defying Adventures in Extreme Weather ... Read more

Product Description
After a nomadic childhood, Charles Siringo signed on as a teenage cowboy for the noted Texas cattle king, Shanghai Pierce, and began a life that embraced all the hard work, excitement, and adventure readers today associate with the cowboy era. He "rid the Chisholm trail," driving 2,500 heads of cattle from Austin to Kansas; knew Tascosa--now a historic monument--when it was home to raucous saloons, red light districts, and a fair share of violence; and led a posse of cowboys in pursuit of Billy the Kid and his gang.

First published in 1885, Siringo's chronicle of his life as a itchy-footed boy, cowhand, range detective, and adventurer was one the first classics about the Old West and helped to romanticize the West and its myth of the American cowboy. Will Rogers declared, "That was the Cowboy's Bible when I was growing up." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

What Western Movies were based on.
This book and others by the author and his memories were what our Western Movies were based on.It is a true history of our country, told by the one who lived it. Should be required reading for all students.It tells how people lived in the 1800's. I really enjoyed it, as did my teenage grandchildren.

Action/Adventure:YES Compelling:NO
Although his interesting childhood kept you glued to the first quarter of the book, the rest is just a basic cowboy's life written with little or no techniques to keep you compelled to read every word. It is interesting to read, however, since he was a true to life cowboy. If I had to do over, I'd saved my money.

What was it like to be a cowboy on cattle drives?
This book has the answers.Exciting stories, concise writing (too concise sometimes).Siringo is honest about his faults.He obviously tries to capitlize on his tangential involvement with Billy the Kid (whom he knew and admired).Ever wished you could have a beer with a real Texas cowboy who was there when the cattle drives started?Well, here's your chance.

Give this guy your money!
A long, stupid and boring story that you MUST read and memorize at college for quiz tests. I still wonder how studying this most unimportant account of a most unimportant guy is going to help me become a better Mechanical Engineer.

Cowboy memoir classic. . .
At the age of 28, when he wrote his memoir, Charles Siringo had already been a cowboy for 15 years. Born in 1855 on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Siringo worked in one job after another across the Midwest and Southwest, ranging from St. Louis to New Mexico. Still a teenager, he settled on cowboying at the time of the great cattle drives and was apparently very good at it, though no luckier than most at making a living from it. He worked for many years for the LX ranch in the Texas Panhandle, for a while rounding up cattle that had drifted away or were stolen. This occupation put him in New Mexico at the time of Billy the Kid, who was four years his junior. He never met Billy but knew men who did, and his imagination seems to have been fired by the stories they told about the pursuit and eventual shooting of this young outlaw. Though by his own account Siringo never shot a man himself, he was a dead aim with a six-shooter.

His memoir was written, as he admits in his preface, to make money "and lots of it." It's not great literature, beginning with his earliest childhood memories and recounting the events of his life with no particular sense of compelling storytelling. It's just one darn thing after another. But a reader with some patience will be rewarded in the latter part of the book as his adventures begin adding up to something like a real narrative - working for the LX as a range detective - and he begins emerging as more of a coherent protagonist in his own story.

And it's not all about the work of cowboying, herding and rounding up cattle, and taking them to market. There are some close scrapes and some fearless derring-do. And there are also matters of the heart, as the young cowboy falls in love with a string of sweethearts he meets along the way, finally marrying one he meets in Kansas and ending his career as a cowboy. I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Wild West, cowboys, ranching in the days of the open ranges, and social history of the late 19th century. [The 1950 edition is worth having for the wonderful introduction by Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie.] ... Read more