The most recommended books about tropical cyclones

It’s cruel to recommend a book with Whisper in the title because this romance hits like a hurricane. Lovers of angst will appreciate the depth of this book.

In one swoop, McKay crushes all that’s cherished until only wreckage and devastation remain. At times, I marvel at the main character’s redemption arc because it hardly seems likely. For a while, I wondered if McKay would be one of those authors who didn’t give her readers a happily ever after, but she seems to have as much love for Neve and Audrey as they do for each other. 

Talk about a book hangover. This book will wreck you, but in a good way. I walked around dazed for days. I recommend taking two Kallmakers and washing them down with a Beers. Call me in the morning.

If you like your sleuthing seaside—with mermaids!—I recommend These Wicked Waters. Our main character, Annie, reluctantly spends her summer working at her mother’s new island resort, but things get super mysterious when the staff starts disappearing and she learns about the island’s curse. Cursed islands give me immediate grabby hands. With nods to The Odyssey, the sirens in this story are not your friendly, musical-loving mermaids. And the hurricane at the end will have you on the edge of your seat. 

I didn’t expect to like this book so much!

Caveat, I’ve studied Soviet history and my husband is Ukrainian, so when I saw Kissing Tolstoy was heavily drenched in Eastern European commentary—the hero being a Russian Literature Professor—I worried the author would miss a lot of the nuance. But she didn’t!

Now, you don’t need my background to like this book, but I did laugh out loud at some of the aptly put cultural quirks. Kissing Tolstoy is a wonderful mix of inner-city edge, meets intellectual romance.

A real treat if you’re looking for something fun and with depth!

I loved this book because I’ve sailed across the ocean a few times and have experienced hurricanes and rain storms. Honestly, I have faced death while traveling many times.

This book is a faith-based story that I couldn’t put down. The twists and turns are unexpected, and the writing is superb. 

This underrated novel is interesting because it extrapolates the story of climate change to a new level, where mankind believes it has developed a technological solution to the problem, but the question becomes how real a solution is this? It brings into focus whether the technical solutions our scientists may come up with to control the weather and reverse climate change, will indeed work or not. Petra Sands joins Climate Change, Incorporated, a multinational that has developed a device to regulate the climate that it positions between the sun and the earth. Initially, everything goes according to plan with this technological solution to the evils of climate change, but then things start to unravel…

This rollicking history of hurricanes takes us from the sixteenth century (and before actually) to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Schwartz is a dogged researcher who has mastered the science of hurricanes and explains them well. He also has a great eye for social history and makes his points by telling anecdotes and stories. He tips his hat to the French master of longue durée history, Fernand Braudel, and Sea of Storms highlights long-term continuities in hurricanes and their destructive paths.

He shows that although the region known as the Caribbean stretches across North, Central, and South America, varying greatly in terms of languages, history, environment, and more, the annual threat of hurricanes brings it together and provides an excellent advantage point for its study.

Where Are You From? boasts breathtakingly gorgeous text and expansive illustrations. I love this book because it first draws attention to how our world wants to simplify a person’s story. The book then counters with the beautiful reality that we are complex. As the child of immigrants, I could relate to this little girl seeking answers to the narrow question people keep asking her. She turns to Abuelo, who refuses to answer in ways that might categorize her. Instead, his poetic words sweep her up in a triumphant story rooted in deep ties to generations past and ongoing connections with place. Ultimately, this story transforms that feeling of not belonging into a celebration of who you are. What a joy!

Las Madres is a story that centers around a horrible tragedy and two devastating hurricanes in Puerto Rico. But for me, what it captured so perfectly was the familiar experience of being a part of an impermeable collective, where even the deepest grievances and secrets do not need to be shared to be felt, where love is fierce and unyielding, and where nothing happens without the community being involved.

Photo albums of my early childhood are filled with photos of me and a sea of cousins, mostly at the beach where I grew up. I think our moms took turns keeping an eye on us, but for the most part, I remember running around barefoot, showering en masse, fighting for a fair share of the food on the table – basically one hair-brushing shy of feral. In a community like ours, no one and everyone was keeping an eye on… show more.

Sheila Turnage’s brilliant, snappy writing makes this gem of a mystery one of my all-time favorites. There’s a lot going on in Tupelo Landing where Mo LoBeau washed ashore as a baby after a hurricane. Now being raised by the Colonial and Lana who run the best (and only) Café in town, Mo and her BFF Dale try to solve a murder in which her loved ones may be implicated. Loads of funny and fun in this series. Sidenote: I was elated when a School Library Journal reviewer said this about my novel Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl “. . .delightful details create a similar air to recent quirky classics such as Sheila Turnage’s Three Times Lucky.…”.  Swoon!!!!

Mibs (the main character) isn’t homeschooled yet, but she is about to be homeschooled with her older siblings. The characters felt like ones I would meet in my homeschool or church life. They felt comfortable.

But more than that, this book is just fun. I love the story and the characters so much, as well as the struggle to find what makes a person unique. The family bonds in Savvy are strong, and Mibs develops deep friendships with characters of all ages. It’s a special story, and one of my favorites. I am not doing it justice by half.