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 Eleanor, 1939-
Paper Book
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood,The Year of the Floodis a brilliant visionary imagining of the future that calls to mind her classic novelThe Handmaid’s Tale. Adam One, the kindly leader of God’s Gardeners — a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion...
Things that happened before the earthquake. [online electronic book]
Barzini, Chiara
Ebook
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
Starred Review. Four hostages freed after five years of captivity by a Spanish extremist group vow to keep in touch. But with the oceans steadily rising and governments, corporations, and determined individuals battling for a solution, the hostages find themselves caught in currents of intrigue and...
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 stormchasers : a novel.
Blum, Jenna
Paper Book
Twins are forced to confront a violent secret from their past in Jenna Blum's first novel since her runaway bestseller, Those Who Save Us How far would you go to protect a sibling-and at what cost to yourself? In Those Who Save Us, Jenna...
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.
What storm, what thunder.
Chancy, Myriam J. A., 1970-
Paper Book
American Book Award Winner Finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature A NPR, Boston Globe, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Library Journal Best Book of the Year At the...
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 : a novel
Cummins, Jeanine
Paper Book
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...
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...
Floodgates. [online electronic book]
Evans, Mary Anna
Ebook
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...
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...
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 displacements
Holsinger, Bruce W.
Paper Book
"Hypnotic." - New York Times "Cinematic." - USA Today "I gripped the covers of this book as though it might be blown from my hands. . .powerful." - Ron Charles, The Washington Post "A full-throttle page turner."- Miranda Cowley Heller, #1...
The living. [online electronic book]
Pena, Matt de la.
Ebook
Newbery Award-winning author Matt de la Peña's The Living is "a rare thing: a plot-driven YA with characters worthy of a John Green novel." [Entertainment Weekly, A-]    Shy takes the summer job to make some money. A few months on a luxury cruise...
Batter up Wombat
Lester, Helen.
Paper Book
This was a brand-new baseball season, and the Champs were ready to go in their spiffy clean uniforms. Nevermind that the previous year they finished last in the North American Mammal League, this season would be different. But when a Wombat wanders onto the field opening game day, the Champs...
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...
Floodpath. [online electronic book]
Martin, Emily B.
Ebook
The epic fantasy adventure begun in Sunshield races to its thrilling conclusion in this imaginative finale in which the fate of four extraordinary young people--and their nations--will be decided. When their hopes for ending Moquoia's brutal system of bondage are crushed,...
Hurricane season.
Melchor, Fernanda, 1982-
Paper Book
The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse--by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals--propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each...
Ashfall. [online electronic book]
Mullin, Mike
Ebook
Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don't realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano, so large that the caldera can only be seen by plane or satellite. And by some scientific measurements, it could be overdue for an eruption. For Alex,...
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....
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...
A girl named Lovely : one child's miraculous survival and my journey to the heart of Haiti
Porter, Catherine
Paper Book
An insightful and uplifting memoir about a young Haitian girl in post-earthquake Haiti, and the profound, life-changing effect she had on one journalist's life. In January 2010, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people and paralyzing 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 bustling with newly...
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...
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...
My volcano.
Stintzi, John Elizabeth.
Paper Book
One morning a jogger in Central Park notices a mass of stone in the centre of the reservoir, that three weeks later will have grown into an active stratovolcano nearly two and a half miles tall. This inexplicable event seems to coincide with an escalation of strange phenomena happening around the...
Half broke horses : a true-life novel.
Walls, Jeannette
Paper Book
Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" (Entertainment Weekly). Now she brings us the story of her grandmother -- told in a voice so authentic and compelling that the book is destined to become an instant classic. "Those old cows...
One deadly eye
White, Randy Wayne
Paper Book
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER* From New York Times bestselling author Randy Wayne White, after the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida's Gulf Coast in a century, Doc Ford must stop a gang of thieves--and worse--during the twelve hours of chaos that follow the passing...
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...

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