Open Books Challenge 2026: About or Set During a Natural Disaster

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are some ideas that fit the 2026 category "About or set during a natural disaster."

Happy Reading!

Updated December 31, 2025
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The year of the flood
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, the preservation of all species, the tending of the Earth, and the cultivation of bees and organic crops on flat rooftops - has long predicted the Waterless Flood. Now it has occured,...
Things that happened before the earthquake
Barzini, Chiara
Paper Book
Welcome to LA? Nineties' Hollywood gets an Italian makeover in this poignant and ruefully funny coming-of-age novel featuring a teenage girl who's on shaky ground--in more ways than one. Mere weeks after the 1992 riots that laid waste to Los Angeles, Eugenia, a typical Italian...
Flood
Baxter, Stephen
Paper Book
From Terry Pratchett's co-author on the Long Earth books comes the ultimate disaster novel - the world is drowning and there is nowhere left on earth to go. Next year. Sea levels begin to rise. The change is far more rapid than any climate change predictions; metres a year....
When the sky glows
Beckerman, Nell Cross
Paper Book
Uncover the science behind the beautiful and vast array of natural events that make the sky glow all over the world in this enlightening nonfiction picture book. Sunrises and lightning storms, rainbows and volcanoes, meteors and eclipses--these beautiful, awe-inspiring events...
I am a tornado
Beckmeyer, Drew
Paper Book
An emotionally unaware tornado carves a path of destruction until it picks up a very empathetic cow in this quirky and sweet picture book about compassion and navigating negative emotions. Tornado is on a rampage. It tosses cars and knocks over barns. Tornado is also angry, only...
The tin roof blowdown : a Dave Robicheaux novel
Burke, James Lee
Paper Book
Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux returns in an adventure as timely as real life. Detective Robicheaux, driven by a keen sense of right versus wrong in the fight against crime following Hurricane Katrina, has his own demons of alcoholism and rage to contend with as well.
All the water in the world : a novel
Caffall, Eiren
Paper Book
In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York's Museum of Natural History in a flooded future. "Gripping...tense, de­­­lightful and rich with resonance." --Scientific American "Captivating...The...
What storm, what thunder
Chancy, Myriam J. A.
Paper Book
American Book Award Winner Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist A NPR, Boston Globe, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Library Journal Best Book of the Year "Stunning." --Margaret Atwood At the end of a...
The last train to Key West
Cleeton, Chanel
Paper Book
Instant New York Times bestseller One of Bustle's Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020 "The perfect riveting summer read!"-BookBub In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels...
Speak to me of home
Cummins, Jeanine
CD
What does it mean to call a place home? From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeanine Cummins comes a deeply felt multigenerational family story On her wedding day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1968, Rafaela Acuña y Daubón has mild misgivings, but she marries...
Naked came the Florida man
Dorsey, Tim
Paper Book
"Can it still be hurricane season? Must be, because here come Serge A. Storms and his perpetually stoned bro, Coleman, in Tim Dorsey's gonzo crime caper." -The New York Times Book Review The "compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny" (Boston Globe) Tim Dorsey returns...
Don't blow your top!
Dyckman, Ame
Paper Book
Everybody gets angry sometimes, even a little volcano. But with some rock-steady advice, Little Volcano finds a way to process their steamy emotions. Spend a day in paradise with Little Volcano and Big Volcano. Everything is beautiful and calm until an out-of-control bird drops a coconut...
Notorious sorcerer
Evans, Davinia
Paper Book
'Notorious Sorcerer is a firework of a fantasy novel: vibrant, explosive, deliciously dangerous and impossibly fun. A must-read debut' Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne Welcome to Bezim, where tribes of sword-slinging bravi race through the night, and...
Floodgates
Evans, Mary Anna.
Paper Book
2011 - Mississippi Author Award Winner "Evans has written a fascinating tale linking the history of New Orleans' levee system to the present and weaving into the story aspects of the city's widely diverse cultures." --Booklist STARRED review Centuries of tragedy shadow New Orleans:...
Random sh*t flying through the air
Ford, Jackson
Paper Book
'LIKE ALIAS MEETS X-MEN . . . I LOVED IT!' Maria Lewis on The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind Full of imagination, wit and random sh*t flying through the air, this insane new Frost Files adventure will blow your tiny mind. Teagan...
Crooked hallelujah
Ford, Kelli Jo
Paper Book
"A book that you want to share with everyone you know and one that you are desperate to keep in your own possession. A masterful debut and a new and thrilling voice for readers across the globe." --Sarah Jessica Parker, on Instagram It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen...
A summoning of demons
Glass, Cate
Paper Book
Cate Glass's A Summoning of Demons marks the thrilling conclusion for the Chimera team, a ragtag crew who use their forbidden magic for the good of the kingdom. Catagna has been shaken to its core. The philosophists insist that a disastrous earthquake has...
Camino winds
Grisham, John
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The perfect crime scene . . . in the type of wild but smart caper that Grisham's readers love."--Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing     Just as Bruce Cable's Bay Books is preparing for the return of...
The volcano challenge
Grylls, Bear
Paper Book
The seventh in the exciting new 12-book collectible series for young readers from survival expert and Chief Scout BEAR GRYLLS
The Amish wedding promise
Hilton, Laura V.
Paper Book
The displacements
Holsinger, Bruce W.
Paper Book
An adrenaline-fueled story of lives upended and transformed by an unprecedented catastrophe To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their...
House of bone and rain
Iglesias, Gabino
Paper Book
For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe's grandmother's refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We're...
The living
de la Pe?, Matt.
Paper Book
Newbery Award-winning author Matt de la Pe#65533;a's The Living is "a rare thing: a plot-driven YA with characters worthy of a John Green novel." [Entertainment Weekly, A-] Shy took the summer job to make some money. In a few months on a luxury cruise liner,...
Outrun the moon
Lee, Stacey
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl comes an unforgettable story of determination set against a backdrop of devastating tragedy, perfect for fans of Code Name Verity. Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Young Adult<...
Beach haven
Lowe, T. I.
Paper Book
From the bestselling author ofLulu's CaféFree-spirited Opal Gilbert seems to have everything she needs to keep living a happy life in Sunset Cove as she refurbishes vintage furniture to sell at her funky ocean-side boutique, Bless This Mess. Until Lincoln Cole, a new-to-town ex...
The valley and the flood
Mahoney, Rebecca
Paper Book
"A tense and beautiful tale about the monsters we make and the memories that haunt us." --Kate Alice Marshall, author of I Am Still Alive and Rules for Vanishing Rose Colter is almost home, but she can't go back there yet. When her car breaks down in the Nevada...
Elmer and the flood
McKee, David.
Paper Book
Rain or no rain, Elmer is going for a walk. After being cooped up in a cave with his herd, he longs for a bit of fresh air and some peace and quiet. But peace and quiet is going to have to wait - when Elmer goes outside, he discovers the rain has caused a flood. Can brave Elmer work out a way to...
Hurricane season
Melchor, Fernanda
Paper Book
Inspired by a real event of the murder of a woman in rural Mexico, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with superstitions and violence-violence that poisons everything around. The Witch is dead. After a group of children playing in the murky waters of the irrigation...
Ashfall
Mullin, Mike.
Paper Book
Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our...
The million death quake : the science of predicting Earth's deadliest natural disaster
Musson, Roger.
Paper Book
For centuries, Californians and the Japanese have known that they were at risk of catastrophic earthquakes, and prepared accordingly. But when a violent 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti in 2010, hardly anyone knew the island nation was even at risk for disaster, and, tragically, no one was prepared....
A better man
Penny, Louise
Paper Book
A #1 New York Times Bestselling AuthorA Chief Inspector Gamache NovelChief Inspector Armand Gamache is back as head of the homicide department, just as flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil, a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter....
Zane and the hurricane : a story of Katrina
Philbrick, W. R.
Paper Book
Newbery Honor author Rodman Philbrick presents a gripping yet poignant novel about a 12-year-old boy and his dog who become trapped in New Orleans during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.Zane Dupree is a charismatic 12-year-old boy of mixed race visiting a relative in New Orleans when Hurricane...
Disappearing Earth
Phillips, Julia
Paper Book
One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year National Book Award Finalist Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions...
The Academy
Poyer, David
Paper Book
With high ethical stakes and a suspenseful past-and-present narrative, The Academy is David Poyer's capstone novel in the Dan Lenson series. In his final tour of duty after a remarkable career at sea, Dan Lenson is appointed Superintendent of the US Naval Academy at...
The Phoenix Crown : a novel
Quinn, Kate
Paper Book
From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles. San Francisco, 1906. In a city...
Tornado rescue
Rajan, Rekha S.
Paper Book
The Disaster Squad is ready to save the day in this action-packed early chapter book series perfect for fans of the Magic Tree House series, or for kids who aren't quite ready to read I Survived! Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line,...
Ninth Ward
Rhodes, Jewell Parker.
Paper Book
From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a heartbreaking and uplifting tale of survival in the face of Hurricane Katrina. Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy...
A rainbow above us
Sala, Sharon
Paper Book
Welcome back to USA Today bestselling author Sharon Sala's world of Blessings, Georgia-a tight-knit small town where the secrets of southern girls sometimes have surprising consequences, you never forget your first love, and the magnolia-scented breeze always feels like home. Hurricane...
No one does it like you
Shepard, Katie
Paper Book
College sweethearts reunite to restore more than just an old inn in this new romance by Katie Shepard, author of Sweeten the Deal. When's the best time to tell your ex that you want them back? Probably not in the middle of a Category 3 hurricane. But when...
Tall water
Sindu, SJ
Paper Book
From Stonewall Honor-winning writer SJ Sindu, author of Shakti, and celebrated illustrator Dion MBD comes a powerful coming-of-age teen graphic novel that follows one girl's journey to Sri Lanka to reconnect with her long-lost mother during the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004....
Rushing waters
Steel, Danielle
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Danielle Steel fearlessly tackles a catastrophe and its aftermath with characters who are joined together by accident, then share their vulnerabilities, regrets, losses, and hopes.   Hurricane Ophelia is bearing down on New York City. And...
Things from the flood
Stl?enhag, Simon
Paper Book
The Loop is closed. Life is returning to normal when the pastoral countryside is suddenly flooded by dark water from the huge abandoned underground facility. Rumors spread in classrooms and schoolyards, stories about the flood and how it has brought something with it. One thing is clear: the past is...
Dead in the water
Swanson, Denise
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Denise Swanson returns to the beloved town of Scumble River and its quirky townsfolk with Dead in the Water. First in a newly revamped cozy mystery series, Dead in the Water is a gripping mystery that won't let you go until you've turned the last page. ...
Half broke horses : a true-life novel
Walls, Jeannette.
Paper Book
From the author of The Glass Castle and Hang the Moon--"Walls vividly depicts her astonishing, resilient grandmother with a lightness of touch that is plainspoken yet heartfelt" (Chicago Tribune). Half Broke Horses has transfixed readers everywhere. "Those...
Krakatoa : the day the world exploded, August 27, 1883
Winchester, Simon.
Paper Book
On August 27, 1883, the volcano-island of Krakatoa erupted with such force that it was completely destroyed. The explosion could be heard from thousands of miles away, and triggered an immense tsunami that killed nearly 40,000 people. And that was just the beginning. In this New York Times...
The lost book of Adana Moreau : a novel
Zapata, Michael
Paper Book
*Winner of the inaugural DAG Prize for Literature* *Winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction* *A Heartland Booksellers Award Nominee* *An NPR Best Book of the Year* *A BookPage Best Book of the Year* *A Library Journal...

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