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The Amazon Store at MillionDollarPetPix.com ( In association with Amazon.com )Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History - There Have Always Been Harrowing StormsMuch national attention was paid to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, and rightly so, but as Erik Larson so vividly illustrates in this book, there have always been harrowing storms. There has just not been, until recent years, the capability for extensive media coverage to keep everyone informed. In ISAAC'S STORM, Mr. Larson weaves a tense historical account of the approach of "the deadliest hurricane in history" to the then teeming city of Galveston, TX. The author also brings insight into the struggles of a fledgling national weather bureau, but the real heart of the book is the page-turning narrative of ordinary people dealing with the unbelievable effects of a monster storm. Rating:  - Term PaperI first read The Devil in the White City so decided to try Isaac's Storm. While The Devil in the White City had a storyline and inter-woven characters, Isaac's Storm read more like a term paper. I guess I was hoping to find more of a plot in there somewhere (beyond character introduction and the account of the storm). To me, it seemed to drag on a bit with constant name-dropping from Larson's extensive research. If you're looking to read up on the Galveston hurricane, it's a great book and sets you right in the middle of things. I was hoping for something more, however. Rating: - The politics is revealingI really enjoyed the suspensefully written, detailed narrative of the event itself, but what this book also has that others often don't get into is the ways in which American science and policies always seem to get warped by our own parochial perspectives. A major irony in this book is that American meteorologists couldn't give Cuban meteorologists their due and benefit from what the Cubans knew. So our weirdness around Cuba and our need to feel somehow superior to the Latin parts of the Americas goes way back. God forbid the Cubans should know more about hurricanes (whose path they all live in) than bureaucratic American scientists, even a hundred years ago. Rating:  - Amazing book; see the History Channel Documentary too!Okay, when I first bought this book, I began reading it and was disinterested, as was my mother, by the meteorological information. We'd both been reading historical nonfiction recently and were turned away by impersonal accounts and/or jargon we didn't understand. Truth be told, we didn't bother to pass the first chapter. I am SO GLAD I gave it another chance!!! I saw the documentary of the same name on the History Channel, and bought that DVD, and then actually read the book - let me tell you, it is as compelling as any dramatic book I've ever read, and the stories are all true - So if you start this book and become disenchanted at the first chapter or two, please hang in there, because it is an amazing literary feat to create such a true and compelling account of such an event, and Erik Larson did just that. I am forever a fan of his. (I also highly recommend "The Great Deluge" by Douglas Brinkley...amazing!) Rating: - Good book... This books takes you right into the lives of the people of Galvanston. Great descriptions of the actual events at the time. A little less science and history of meteorology would have suited me but some may like the information.
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