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 : a novel
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments--the second book of the internationally celebrated MaddAddam trilogy, set in the visionary world of Oryx and Crake, is at once a moving tale of lasting friendship and a landmark...
Things that happened before the earthquake
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...
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 : 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...
Random sh*t flying through the air
Ford, Jackson
Paper Book
"The stakes couldn't be higher ... The suspense, the danger, and the rocket-fueled pace are all turned up to 11."―Kirkus   "Furious, frenetic, fun, and "f**k you" -- Robert Brockway on The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind ...
Crooked hallelujah
Ford, Kelli Jo
Ebook
"A masterful debut" that follows four generations of Cherokee women across four decades--from the Plimpton Prize-winning author (Sarah Jessica Parker). It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal...
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...
Lights, camera, bones
Haines, Carolyn
Paper Book
The latest novel in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as "Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. Delaney Detective Agency gets a taste of the spotlight when they are called to a case...
The Amish wedding promise
Hilton, Laura V.
Paper Book
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...
House of bone and rain : a barrio noir
Iglesias, Gabino
Paper Book
In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME, a group of five teenage boys in Puerto Rico seek vengeance after one of their mothers is murdered; a Latinx STAND BY ME with a haunted, obsidianly dark heart.  ...
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...
Death on Tuckernuck
Mathews, Francine
Paper Book
As a Category 3 hurricane bears down on New England, a luxury yacht grounds a deserted barrier island off the western end of Nantucket. When the Coast Guard responds, they find two people shot in the boat's cabin, one of whom dies soon after. Nantucket Police Detective Meredith Folger is called in...
Ashfall
Mullin, Mike.
Paper Book
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....
Pandas' earthquake escape
Perry, Phyllis Jean.
Ebook
On May 12, 2008, XiXi, a giant panda, escaped from the destroyed Wolong Panda Reserve when a 7.9 earthquake rocked Northern China. After the quake, mother and cub run from the wreckage. Confused and afraid, they get lost! How will they survive outside their reserve? Will they find food? Will they...
Zane and the hurricane : a story of Katrina
Philbrick, W. R.
Audiobook
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 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,...
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
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...
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
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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