Siroccos, Santa Anas, chinooks, monsoons … the wind has as many names as moods. Few other forces have so universally shaped the lands and waters of the earth and the patterns of exploration, settlement, and civilization. Few other phenomena have exerted such a profound influence on the history and psyche of humankind. In Wind, Jan DeBlieu brings a poet’s voice and a scientist’s eye to this remarkable natural force, showing how the bumping of a few molecules can lead to the creation of religions, the discovery of continents, and the destruction of empires. She talks to survivors of a deadly tornado in Iowa, tries hang gliding over North Carolina’s Outer Banks, climbs sand dunes in Oregon and slickrock formations in Utah—everywhere exploring the effects, subtle and brutal, comforting and terrifying, of the wind.
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“Watching the wind ruffle the water, turn tree branches into whips, or capsize a sailboat, she uses her powers of observation and lyrical writing to beautifully communicate what she sees…DeBlieu traces the ways wind shapes our reality, the earth’s land and water, plants and animals, exploring everything in dramatic, immediate, and lucid prose…Read Wind and you’ll never again take an exhilarating kite-flying day for granted.” — Amazon.com, editorial review
“Watching the wind ruffle the water, turn tree branches into whips, or capsize a sailboat, she uses her powers of observation and lyrical writing to beautifully communicate what she sees…DeBlieu traces the ways wind shapes our reality, the earth’s land and water, plants and animals, exploring everything in dramatic, immediate, and lucid prose…Read Wind and you’ll never again take an exhilarating kite-flying day for granted.”
“DeBlieu…has a poetic touch that adds a special grace to her prose when she turns to a subject in nature.”
“[Woods’] melodic voice seems to smile while describing the influences of wind on life forms, geography, and our planet’s environment. The narrator’s cheerfully pedantic delivery suits a book in which science is mixed with the author’s own life experiences.”
“This is nature writing at its most expansive and rewarding.”
“DeBlieu’s graceful writing animates this unseen force of nature.”
“The wind will never be the same for [listeners] after finishing this book, its presence now heightened and explicated. DeBlieu has achieved the Big Two: enlightenment and high entertainment.”
“One of the best nonfiction books I can remember.”
" she tries for a mcfee/lopez kind of awe inspiring reflection on nature, but comes up a bit short. she discusses physical laws and the effects of wind on various cultures. "
Jan DeBlieu is the author of Hatteras Journal (1987) and Meant to Be Wild (1991), which was a Nature Book Club main selection and was chosen by the Library Journal as one of the three best natural history books of the year. She has also written for the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, Audobon, and Orion, and her essay on the wind, “Onto the Dragon’s Mouth,” was featured in the inaugural volume of American Nature Writing. She currently resides in Manteo, North Carolina.
Mary Woods began her career in Washington, DC, where she performed at Ford’s Theater, the Folger Theater, Round House, and Washington Stage Guild. She spent several seasons at New Playwrights’ Theater developing new American plays. She is a veteran narrator of Talking Books for the Library of Congress, and received the Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award for fiction in 1996. Formerly a radio news director, she now hosts a daily local affairs interview program on Catholic Radio, for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. She lives in Albuquerque, where she continues to act on stage and in film. She received her BA at the Catholic University of America in Fine Arts and Drama.
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