The rules for the contest are as follows:

1. Contest runs from today through January 11, 2009 at 11PM Pacific Time
2. Winner will be notified via email at 11PM on the day the contest ends have 3 days to respond with a mailing address. If no response is received in that time, a new winner will be picked.
3. Open to the entire world.
4. To qualify you must tell me about a your favorite book (fiction or non-fiction) about a natural disaster. Please include the title, author(s) and a short description.
5. For extra credit you can:
   a) include your blog's URL
   b) blog about the contest and link back here.

Comment #1: Wednesday, December, 10, 2008 at 17:03:27

Darby Lohrding

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Sorry I couldn't help myself, I live in Kansas and when you asked about natural disaster, this is the first one that popped into mind!

Comment #2: hursday, December, 11, 2008 at 09:54:20

Violet

I don't think I have read many books based on natural disasters, or that i don't remember.

But the one i read recently 'Shadow of Colossus' has a countdown right from the start of the book to the day an earthquake is supposed to happen. It is on this day that everything falls into place. And i loved the book. But i don't think it revolves around the earthquake, it's just that the earthquake sets everything right...

Comment #3: Friday, December, 12, 2008 at 01:12:13

Nicole

my favorite disaster book is Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded written by Simon Winchester and it is about the biggest volcanic eruption in history! Winchester describes the eruption through the eyes of its survivors, and the death toll reached nearly 40,000

Comment #4: Friday, December, 12, 2008 at 01:22:02

katelin

this book that i really enjoyed was "Wave of Destruction" which is the story of four famlies and how they dealt with history's deadliest tsunami. It's bey Erich Krauss

Comment #5: Friday, December, 12, 2008 at 23:25:54

Alyce

It was hard to think of one off the top of my head, but last year I read "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 And How It Changed America" by John Barry. I was thinking of writing a story set in that time period and area and wanted to know more about it. The book is about how the river flooded and they were so worried about the levees flooding that they wanted to blast the levees south of New Orleans to spare the city (even though it flooded other communities). Amazing account of how black people were stranded and used as labor during the flood.

I blogged about it here.

Comment #6: Saturday, December, 13, 2008 at 08:46:39

carol

I read "F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century" by Mark Levine. It's about the 1974 outbreak of tornadoes. Makes me glad I live on the East Coast.

Comment #7: Saturday, December, 13, 2008 at 21:17:24

christopher harner

the children's blizzard by david laskin, its all about the blizzard that hit the central us in 1888

Comment #8: Sunday, December, 14, 2008 at 01:07:31

Deborah Wellenstein

"The Towering Inferno" by Arthur Hailey. A high rise hotel catches fire.

Comment #9: Sunday, December, 14, 2008 at 10:44:45

Judith

Sarah's Quilt: A Novel of Sarah Agnes Prine and the Arizona Territories, 1906 by Nancy E. Turner is a sequel to my all-time favorite fiction read, These Is My Words, and it focuses on two natural disasters: a three-year drought in the Arizona Territories and the Great San Francisco earthquake.

Comment #10: Monday, December, 15, 2008 at 20:42:40

David Bertolo

A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems

This is an amazing account of the 1900 hurricane that slammed into Galveston, causing unimaginable death and destruction.

Comment #11: Friday, December, 19, 2008 at 09:51:25

Becca

My favorite natural disaster book is probably The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. It tells the story of the ship the Andrea Gail that was caught out at sea by a huge storm and the story of the people left on shore waiting for them.

Comment #12: Monday, December, 22, 2008 at 12:55:41

Carol Drury

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. It tells the story of the ship the Andrea Gail that was caught out at sea by a huge storm and the story of the people left on shore waiting for them - it was very touching and made me cry just by the struggle of the fisherman and their families as well.

Comment #13: Monday, December, 22, 2008 at 19:05:37

Babalu

The only one I could think of was "Clan of the Cave Bear" about the phasing out of Neanderthal men and the modern men who replaced them. What's more of a natural disaster than the end of a species?

Comment #14: Thursday, December, 25, 2008 at 18:06:09

ky2here

'the real story of the bush dynasty' by kitty kelly.

Comment #15: Monday, December, 29, 2008 at 01:20:51

Valorie

My favorite book about a natural disaster is Pompeii by Robert Harris. As the title says, the book is about the eruption of Vesuvius, though it's filled with a lot of personal drama.

I blogged about this contest here.

Comment #16: Friday, January, 2, 2009 at 20:16:18

Mike S

Rising Tide by John M Barry A Great book about the Mississippi Flood of 1927. Horrific and riveting.

Comment #17: Monday, January, 5, 2009 at 18:19:17

Vicki Wurgler

the only one i can remember is- Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester- its about a volcanic island that blew up

Comment #18: Tuesday, January, 6, 2009 at 21:59:56

dorothy l

The book Buried Alive not sure who the author was. It is the true story about a soccer team that crashes in the mountains of south america and how some of them survived

Comment #19: Wednesday, January, 7, 2009 at 13:44:08

Christine W

I loved Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer about the perils of climing Mt. Everest. Thanks for the chance.

Comment #20: Friday, January, 9, 2009 at 19:52:21

SharonC

I love The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. It was about a real storm which killed a crew on a fishing boat from New England.

Comment #21: Saturday, January, 10, 2009 at 16:14:07

Ed Nemmers

Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa", concerning the 1883 eruption

Comment #22: Saturday, January, 10, 2009 at 23:11:08

TracieA

A Weekend in September by John Edward Weems A great book about the Galveston hurricane. It has some riveting survivors tales. As well goes into some of the more scientific explanations as to the development of this hurricane. The best accounting of this horrible storm I have read so far.

Comment #23: Saturday, January, 10, 2009 at 23:55:54

Jean F

The Andromeda Strain. I love a good plague!And miss Michael Crichton...

Comment #24: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 11:45:47

Auriette

http://auriette.blogspot.com

Ivan's Wake, by the editors and photographers of the Pensacola News Journal. It's a collection of photographs from one of the worst disasters to strike the Pensacola Bay area in the last hundred years. It makes me cry, because I lived through it and it was terrible.

Comment #25: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 13:02:29

ELSIE

I enjoyed the book, HEART LIKE WATER, by Josh Clark. This book is about Hurrican Katrina, which struck New Orleans, LA, in 2005. It is told from the author's perspective, before, during and after the devastating hurricane. Thanks for this chance.

Comment #26: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 13:58:09

Betty C

Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown. On September 1, 1894, two forest fires converged on the town of Hinckley, Minnesota, trapping more than two thousand people. The fire created its own weather, including hurricane-strength winds, bubbles of plasma-like glowing gas, and 200-foot-tall flames.

Comment #27: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 14:31:07

Buddy Garrett

Storm: Stories of Survival from Land and Sea by Clint Wills is chilling stories of survival of natural disasters on land and sea,

Comment #28: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 14:42:04

kathy pease

my son just read Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret in Books

After Jonathan's mother breaks her ankle on a family camping trip, Jonathan and his younger sister are left alone on a deserted island. Then a devastating earthquake hits and siblings must fight for their lives

Comment #29: unday, January, 11, 2009 at 18:04:54

Angie P

"1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina" by Chris Rose. It's about post-Katrina New Orleans and it's a great read. It is a sad book, obviously, but there are a lot of funny parts in it as well.

Comment #30: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 20:01:37

Susanne Troop

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. The story of the Andrea Gail that was caught out at sea by a huge storm.

Comment #31: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 20:17:25

Pamela White

Storm warning : the story of a killer tornado byNancy Mathis is a great read about the devistation from a tornado in Oklahoma City.

Comment #32: Sunday, January, 11, 2009 at 20:35:04

Sharon Davis

Halstead,Murat, Galveston: The Horrors of a Stricken City. I would love to win this book, but, I am not a "computer" person, just nuts about books. I went to college in Galveston and have read as many books as I can find about the 1900 storm. Contrasting it to Ike should be interesting. This particular book was written primarily by interviewing people who lived thru the storm. My grandmother-in-law rode it out on their roof with her parents. Her greatest trauma, at least the one remembered later, was that she lost her drawers and most of her other clothes in the incredible wind and flying debris.

Comment #33: Monday, January, 12, 2009 at 00:08:10

Donna Kozar

"The Towering Inferno" by Arthur Hailey. A high rise hotel fire.

Comment #34: Monday, January, 12, 2009 at 01:28:55

Lily Kwan

I love The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck. It's about Jiya and Kino, two boys living in ancient Japan, and the impact a tsunami has on them and their families.