The author profiles real tornadoes and severe weather patterns over six thousand miles of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, known as Tornado Alley.

Madeleine L'Engle bids us, in her own words, to "sit at sacrament" with her "across a strange and distant table." It is a paschal event, a meal of rememberence. Where her own hurt is cruciform, we are the more alive. When she admits arrogance in Gethsemane, we, too, remember glutting on unleavened loaves. But as she herself declares: "Never was a feast finer than this. Come, eat and drink, unfreeze and live." --Calvin Miller, author of The Singer Trilogy

"A vivid account of love and forgiveness in a marriage." —Kirkus Reviews This riveting story of a woman whose marriage is poisoned by drug addiction reveals the devastating effect of her husband's slide into cocaine abuse, his flirtations with suicide, and the couple's difficult journey through a recovery process that saves them both.

Essays

11-year-old Stella has returned home to Shetland to spend the summer with her Grandpa, but it's nothing like she remembers. Grandpa is lost in his grief for Gran, the island is bleak and Stella feels trapped, until she encounters an old woman, Tamar, who can spin rainbows and call hurricanes. With the help of Nimbus, a feisty young storm cloud, Stella begins to learn the craft of weather weaving. But when her cloud brain-fogs Grandpa and The Haken (a sea witch) starts to close in, she realises that magic comes with big responsibilities. It will take all her heart and courage to face the coming storm...

The human barometer -- Of seasons and cycles -- The sun and the moon -- When the wind blows -- Stormy weather -- Having a heatwave -- Winter chills -- Artificial environments.