Degrees of Affection

After listening to Murphy's The Great Fire, I had to try out the other audiobook on offer - this one - despite the fact I've yet to read the book. I'll have to find it and read it, see how they compare. At first, I thought this would deal with the Children's Blizzard, which I'd read a book about a couple years ago. This book, however, deals with a storm before the one I knew and I learned quite a bit from this audiobook.

While once again I found myself adrift without maps and pictures, there was a lot simply about the society and the weather. My word, the weather! What a horrid storm, actually two storms combined to be even worse, that did seem to have a malevolent spirit intent on attacking everyone it could. After slamming NYC on March 12, 1888, the storm actually blew back and hit again! So after people thought the worse was over and came out, they were unprepared for another round; I think the storm actually gained strength as well but I'm not sure. As with The Great Fire, the reader learns about the storm on a personal level as you follow several people through their actions and the outcomes as they faced the storm's wrath. Men, women, and children all had to face the fury and sadly, some were less fortunate then others.

But the book deals with more then just the storm itself, it discusses the aftermath. Buried electric lines, the subway, and today's National Weather Service all came out of this disaster. Once again, Taylor Mali does a good job narrating, though the sound quality was even more notable in this audiobook. You could actually hear the pages being turned at times!

While this is a very decent audiobook, I think just as with The Great Fire, the book is probably better with pictures, maps, etc. Another one probably best read simultaneously with the book.