Book Review: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson (976.413 Lar)

It has been 120 years since Galveston was devastated by one of the deadliest hurricanes in our nation’s history. On the day that I started reading this book, another hurricane was bearing down on the Gulf Coast with incredible intensity, bringing to mind all the horrors of the after-effects of the destruction caused by the tidal surge that inundated lands along the Texas coast with the Galveston hurricane. I have always been fascinated by weather, especially storms, so this book was hard to put down. The story is presented from the point of view of Isaac Cline, head of the U.S. Weather Bureau in Galveston at the time of the hurricane. A combination of politics, misguided loyalties and vanity caused the people in charge of predicting weather to fail to provide the warning to the public so desperately needed before the storm hit. The descriptions of the days following the hurricane are horrific: soldiers sent to help survivors after the storm were horrified to see bodies piled up everywhere; boats could barely keep clear of the floating bodies of dead men, women and children. Throughout Galveston, people stepped from their homes to find corpses piled up at their doorsteps. No one could escape the stench of rotting flesh from people and animals alike. Attempts to bury hundreds of bodies at sea, weighted down with whatever could be found, was thwarted by the tide which brought the bodies right back into Galveston. The descriptions of the post-hurricane scenes were so powerful that I could not sleep the night I read them. We can be thankful that current storm prediction centers have the ability to warn us of impending destruction — if only we will heed the warnings. I highly recommend this book, another fascinating book by author Erik Larson.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Devil in the White City, also by Erik Larson.]

[ publisher’s official Isaac’s Storm web page ] | [ official Erik Larson web site ]

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: The Hurricane Heist

The Hurricane Heist
[DVD Hurricane]

This film starts off with an action-packed flashback to Hurricane Andrew, and doesn’t let up on the action for more than a few moments from that point onward. Co-written by a team of writers, and directed by Rob Cohen (creator of the Fast & The Furious film series), this film is a caper wrapped in a disaster story.

Will (Toby Kebbell) and Breeze (Ryan Kwanten) are two brothers who lived through the trauma of Hurricane Andrew that killed their father back in 1992. Will has gone on to become a meteorologist, working in the field in a specially-designed vehicle to track and study storm cells. Breeze has become a mechanical engineer. when a new 2018 Hurricane “Tammy” threatens their hometown, Will is eager to study it, and Breeze is lackadaisical and willing to evacuate like the rest of the town’s populace. Meanwhile, Casey (Maggie Grace) is a federal officer working at the nearby Federal Mint facility that is responsible for shredding over $600,000,000 in old bills that have been gathered at the site — only the shredder has broken down.

Turns out…that’s part of a big-time heist scheme designed to allow a team of bad guys to come into the mint and steal the money under the cover of the town’s hurricane evacuation. Casey, who’s left the facility to get Breeze (as a contracted repairman) tumbles to the scheme and escapes the bad guys, then teams up with Will to try to figure out how to rescue Breeze (and the other mint staff) and foil the heist. All while one of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history is raging around them.

The acting is terrific across the board in this film. I wasn’t familiar at all with either of the actors playing the brothers, and knew Maggie Grace only from the TV series LOST. Ben Cross and Ralph Ineson, as two of the “bad guys” were both recognizable, but otherwise it was a cast of “unknowns”, which was refreshing.

The stunt-work and physical effects work were intensive, as was the CGI. For me the level of believability for The Hurricane Heist was pretty much nil, but that didn’t bother me — this was a film where you turn your logical brain off and just get carried along by the plot/action. It was a lot of fun.

I particularly enjoyed watching the special features on this disc. Among them, there are interviews with director Rob Cohen, who share some unflinchingly honest comments about the state of Hollywood movie-making today.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!