The Great Deluge

Normally it's Isaac or Bailey posting reviews of books, but I'm in the middle of a fantastically compelling book that I just have to recommend. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, and I don't read any contemporary history, but I'm so glad I made an exception for The Great Deluge, by Douglas Brinkley. Covering just one week, from the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast to the Saturday after when the Superdome was finally evacuated, it's a sprawling and well-researched history of shenanigans, heroics, cowardice, greed, incompetence, kindness, and neglect. The author was actually a victim of the storm, and while most definitely not a first-person narrative, his closeness to the material informs his judgments and prose, but not to the book's detriment. By turns heartbreaking and infuriating, I'm finding it impossible to put this book down. (Photo credit: Phil Coale, AP via www.talkingproud.us)