The Perfect Storm

If You Like… The Perfect Storm…
Try These Authors/Titles

perfectstorm Are you a fan of Sebastian Junger’s 1997 bestseller The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea? You’re not alone — Junger’s classic non-fiction book held a position on the New York Times Bestsellers list for quite a long time, was turned into a successful movie starring George Clooney, and is still a popular favorite for book discussion groups after over 10 years! The Perfect Storm is a gritty, engaging look at “the perfect storm” — a tempest that may happen only once in a century–a nor’easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the “Andrea Gail,” a commercial fishing boat tragically headed toward the storm’s hellish center. A number of authors in recent years have compiled detailed looks at “Man vs. Nature” topics, similar to Junger’s volume

The authors listed below write works in a similar style to Junger’s, although some of them may write works that are similar to The Perfect Storm in only broad strokes. This list focuses primarily on books published in the last 20-or-so years. We recommend reading the jacket blurbs on any of these authors’ works before you commit to an entire book. The titles below are hotlinked to their holdings in our catalog, so that you may check on the availability of these books at the various branches of the Lincoln City Libraries.

Blizzard! The Storm That Changed America by Jim Murphy [j551.555 Mur]
Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson [976.413 Lar]
Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman [Fiction – Ruckman]
Pride of the Sea: Courage, Disaster, and a Fight for Survival by Tom Waldron

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson [940.545 Kur]
The Hungry Ocean: A Swardboat Captain’s Journey by Linda Greenlaw [639.277 Gre]
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech [Fiction – jCreech]
White Squall: The Last Voyage of the Albatross by Richard E. Langford

Williwaw! by Tom Bodett [Fiction – jBodett]
Endurance: Shackelton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing [919.89 Lan]
Killer ‘Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 by Robert Mykle [551.552 Myk]
A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester [979.46 Win]
At the Mercy of the Sea by John Kretschmer

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer [796.522 Kra]
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer [917.98 Kra]
The Last Season by Eric Blehm [B M818b]
Fatal Forecast: The Incredible True Story of Disaster and Survival at Sea by Michael J. Tougias

The Brendan Voyage by Timothy Severin [910.41 Sev]