by Erik Larson
Takes off when the hurricane hits, a little dull until then. Best writing occurs when he is relating the height of the storm.
The first “intimation” of the true extent of the disaster, Benjamin recalled, “came when the body of a child floated into the station.”Doesn't that send a chill down your spine? The true story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane is told in the dramatic, gripping style I am coming to love. Erik Larsen's ...
I dunno. I felt like there was something missing about this book, but I can't really put my finger on what it was.
Strangely enough, I began reading "Isaac's Storm" and "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it changed America" at the same time. Spurred no doubt by the rather feeble hurricane Irene that hit the east coast in August 2011, I got interested in reading about hurricanes and how t...
SPOILER FREE!!!This is a book focused on the science of weather. If that subject does not intersts you, do not rad this book. You must be interested in this science. It is a book of non-fiction; don't expect a book that will relate a harrowing tale of the hurricane that destroyed Galveston in Septem...
This book tells the story of the massive hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas in 1900, killing an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people. It's also a really interesting look at the beginnings of the weather bureau (which, many incarnations later became NOAA, the government body that predicts our wea...
What happened during the 1900 Galveston hurricane is told mostly through the U.S. Weather Bureau's weatherman in Galveston at the time, Isaac Cline. The intent is to show how the weather service was at fault for the terrible death toll in Galveston. The highest levels of the service so controlling t...
I really liked The Devil in the White City, but this one is just tooooo boring to keep going. I couldn't even get 1/3 of the way through it. It would be interesting if he could stay focused on the events in Galveston, but he's all over the place with boring bureaucratic history and stuff from hund...
At the turn of the twentieth century, one of the worst storms in recorded history bore down on Galveston, Texas, nearly wiping it off the face of the map. Weather forecasting was still a very inexact science, and the inhabitants hardly knew that it was coming, with just a few people in Cuba knowing ...
Fascinating and informative. Larson tells the story well. Prior to reading this I knew nothing about the Galveston hurricane. Even when it's still too close in time and distance, to read about the devastation of New Orleans or Haiti, I can read about a century-old disaster with more equanimity.The...
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