An engrossing account of an amazing natural disaster.
Effectively told.I did have some trouble keeping track of characters as they moved through the day, but otherwise, loved it. ( )

A great read! This one is firmly near the top of my favorite nonfiction books of all time.
I wrote a review on my blog: https://chriswolak.com/2020/10/10/sudden-sea-the-great-hurricane-of-1938-by-r-a-... ( )

3.5* rounded up because I appreciated the in depth discussion and maps of the location...familiar to me but now well known. I first heard this book mentioned by Chris Wolack on Book Cougars podcast. It may have been a year ago. I was immediately interested to read more detail about this storm. I recall my parents telling us about it, but they were not personally impacted. I wish I could hear their memories now with this book as a backdrop. Some of the personal stories in the book are well known and I have read elsewhere, however, the author gives much more context. The author includes information about previous monster storms and brings weather prediction up to date (published in 2003). Although I knew there was no prediction of the storm, I had no idea that it was so suddenly upon the coasts of NY, CT, RI and MA with no warning. Includes historic photos, firsthand accounts, archival research. The narrative was not organized in the neatest way, but the attempt to keep the suspense up was there for sure. ( )

An extremely detailed and well researched book, written from a geographical perspective following the course of the hurricane up the coast. Tales of devastation and survival are mixed in well with scientific and factual detail. I enjoy history, anyone's history and I enjoy reading about natural disasters since find them a humbling experience. We like to think as a species we control our environment, no, the earth only needs to sneeze to tell us who's boss.

I would recommend to anyone who enjoys books on disaster and survival. ( )

It was the Perfect Storm. But instead of raging far out in the Atlantic, the Great Hurricane of 1938 left a wake of death and destruction across seven states. It battered J. P. Morgan's Long Island estate, wiped out beach communities from Watch Hill to Newport, flooded the Connecticut Valley, and flattened Vermont's prized maples.Traveling at record speeds, the storm raced up the Atlantic Coast, reaching New York and New England ahead of hurricane warnings and striking with such ferocity that seismographs in Alaska picked up the impact. Winds, clocked at 186 mph, stripped cars of their paint. Walls of water 50 feet high swept homes and entire families out to sea. Sandwiched between the Great Depression and World War II, the storm had a profound impact upon a generation. 'The day of the biggest wind has just passed,' the newswires read the next day, 'and a great part of the most picturesque America, as old as the Pilgrims, has gone beyond recall or replacement.' Drawing upon newspaper accounts, the personal testimony of survivors, forecasters, and archival footage, SUDDEN SEA recounts that terrifying day in gripping detail. Scotti describes the unlikely alignment of meteorological conditions that conspired to bring a tropical cyclone to the Northeast. A masterful storyteller, Scotti follows the trajectory of that awful wind-and recovers for posterity the lost stories of those whose lives, families, and communities were destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938.