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Title: Wind

Subtitle: How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land

Author: Jan DeBlieu

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

In the tradition of insightful investigations like Lewis Thomas Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahlers Ninth Symphony, and Sue Hubbells A Country Year, widely respected nature writer Jan DeBlieu offers a compelling look at a natural force that touches our lives every day. With a scientists eye for detail and a poets ear for language, DeBlieu examines one of natures most elemental forces. From a light breeze cooling a hot brow to a gale that blows apart buildings, no other natural phenomenon affects people as directly as wind. DeBlieu explores how wind has aided the rise and fall of empires, the discovery of continents, and the establishment of religions. Wind provides surprising, delightful insights into a force that constantly reshapes who we are and how we live. Suzanne Torens narration lends a voice of quiet, thoughtful authority to a subject youll never view the same again.

Members Reviews:

and other useful or just curiosity fulfilling information is in DeBlieu's well-crafted ...

I have wondered about the winds that shape the dunes, the water, the snowdrifts, and piles of leaves I see as I run. Why are some dunes steep; some leaves scattered; how can the layers of clouds be moving so differently---answers to at least parts of these, directions to where to go to find further information, and other useful or just curiosity fulfilling information is in DeBlieu's well-crafted book.

John Morelock "Run Gently Out There

Good read, although somewhat sentimental and less factual than ...

Good read, although somewhat sentimental and less factual than I was looking for . .. a perfect summer beach read.

Tremendous Breadth Of Coverage

When you first start reading this book, you're not quite sure how Ms DeBlieu is going to develop the topic. She uses a lot of local (Cape Hatteras) analogies and personal accounts, and there's this feeling in the back of your mind, "hmm, is this going to be just another nature book, about sand dunes and sailing ships?" But pretty soon, you're hooked. I've not read better descriptions of the major wind systems, or of the origins of hurricanes. And as she begins to dig into the effects of wind on civilization, you'll find this impossible to put down. The final chapter of wind power is especially remarkable. No, it's not just another nature book, not at all.

Four Stars

Great

A blow-by-blow account

The author, Jan DeBlieu, lives on the Outer Banks and knows wind intimately as anyone who lives there must. But her vision is much broader than local, and her style verges on the poetic, making this much more compelling than a mere local nature memoir. Her observations are acute enough that I could, for example, use her discussion of the effect of topography on wind and vegetation on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, to explain the phenomena one observes at and near tree-line in California's Sierra Nevada to my students afield. At one point she lists the local names for vicious katabatic (downslope) winds around the world, and includes the word "Zonda" without identifying its provenance. The Zonda blows down the fault valley between pre-Andean ranges and the Andes proper in the western part of San Juan Province, Argentina. It is quite capable of driving a susceptible soul stark-raving mad.