Wind: How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land
About this audiobook
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.
About the author
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.
