The 52 Book Club: 2026 Challenge discussion

9 -- Featuring A Natural Disaster

A natural disaster is a destructive event caused by natural forces, such as earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, avalanches, tsunamis, etc. Natural disasters aren’t human-driven driven but they do often have a harmful impact on a society or the surrounding community.

Books fitting this prompt may be fiction or non-fiction. It may be set in our world, a fantasy world, or an alternate universe. The book may be primarily focused on events surrounding the natural disaster, or the natural disaster may be a secondary plot point.

A natural disaster may or may not appear in the cover art or title.



Here is our Goodreads List for this prompt

Rasmus Dahlberg - Solstorm -Jordskælv - Stormflod


Capital Disasters: How London Has Survived Fire, Flood, Disease, Riot and War

Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded

So many great ideas for this one but I'm going with:

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster

I am considering a reread of On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (flood)

It seems like quite a few of the Little House books had floods or droughts.

Books I've read and recommend:
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (flood)
Flood Friday by Lois Lenski (flood)
A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith (hurricane, freeze)
A Salty Piece of Land by Buffett, Jimmy Paperback by Jimmy Buffett (hurricane)
Fire Storm: A Novel by Robb White (forest fire)
The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate (hurricane)
Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano (earthquake)

Planning on this fantasy book about a drought
Minor Mage

When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal

Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved American by Timothy Egan

Tania wrote: "I am considering a reread of On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (flood)

It seems like quite a few of the Little House books had floods or droughts.

The Long Winter is also about a cataclysmic series of blizzards that the Ingalls family manages to survive.


Books I've read and..."

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin includes a discussion of how natural disasters can impact evolution of individual species.

Many years ago I was fortunate to be able to visit the Galapagos so reading this will bring back happy memories.

The four winds

Blizzard/Avalanche
One by One by Ruth Ware

Alone by Megan Freeman

I think I,m going to 'cheat' on this one and read The Volcano Lover, by Susan Sontag!

I am reading All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall for this propmt.

The Hounding - has a drought

I might go with one of the "I Survived!" books that my nephew used to really like.

Lindsey wrote: "9 -- Featuring A Natural Disaster

A natural disaster is a destructive event caused by natural forces, such as earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, a..."

The Intruder

Just finished Alone by Megan E Freeman for this prompt.

I was thinking for this topic the book “Miss winter in the library with a knife”

I am going to read Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

i read Young Men and Fire about a lightening fire and the smoke jumpers who tried to fight it.

I read The Storm by Rachel Hawkins for this prompt.

I really enjoyed it! I love the small-town scandal vibes. The hurricanes were used as multi-generational backdrop.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read an ARC of Ruins by Lily Brooks-Dalton

Completed:Split by Jacqueline Druga

Love Ms. Druga. She is the absolute queen of natural disaster books and the perseverance of humans. This one is the motherlode as it contains all the below.

* Earthquakes
* Swarm of rats
* Limnic eruption
* Swarm of birds
* Water spout
* Tsunamis
* Shifting of techtonic plates
* Underwater volcano
* Ring of Fire volcanoes
* Glaciers/Antartica melting

I'm planning to read The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

Just finished Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Right, I forgot I can include this book if I haven't already:

When Worlds Quake: The Quest to Understand the Interior of Earth and Beyond



This book offers a lot of examples of various earthquake and volcanic disasters, while talking about the science behind them.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Beautiful, and just became one of my top 5 of her books!!

The Love Haters

I read an ARC of Ruins by Lily Brooks-Dalton.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

I’ve just finished listening to Pompeii by Robert Harris.

And Now Back, to You by B.K. Borison

I'm currently reading Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England and there is a mention of heavy rains and floods, that caused bad crops, famine and plagues throughout medieval Europe.

Mythos by Stephen Fry - Finished 2/25/26
Mentions a flood (twice!)

I ended up using In the Midnight Rain by Barbara O'Neal (view spoiler)[tornado (hide spoiler)]

The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? by David Bentley Hart --- 2004 tsunami

I read Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt - one of the main characters is a wildland firefighter fighting an active fire during part of the story.

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins

Read The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon

Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson was great!

Krakatoa by Simon Winchester, The Odyssey by Homer, and The Fall of Númenor by JRR Tolkien

The Intruder - Freida McFadden

Tara Stringellow's Memphis makes multiple mentions about flooding.

The Magic School Bus Presents: Volcanoes & Earthquakes: A Nonfiction Companion to the Original Magic School Bus Series