So I have to begin with a confession: I’m most definitely a fan of the much-acclaimed nonfiction writer Simon Winchester. One of my first Winchester reads and still one of his finest (and my favorite) was Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded (2003), his epic description of the eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia, the final explosions of which are still recognized as the loudest sounds ever heard by humans, back in 1883. (The noise was heard over a thousand miles away.) It does a great job of bringing that (literally) earth-shaking event to life, and setting it in the context of the history of Indonesia, as well as the geography and vulcanology of the Pacific’s Ring of Fire. One image he describes has stayed with me: In the months before the final eruption the beaches of Krakatoa actually split apart and spewed lava into the ocean. It’s an amazing book of an amazing event.
Since then Winchester has given his readers a number of excellent works, including A Crack at the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 (2005), Atlantic (2010), and many others. He’s perhaps the King of Fun Facts, but that seems a slight of sorts: Not only does he have a knack for the scintillating detail that makes a story come to life, but he also writes in a literary, approachable style. With books on such expansive topics such as Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World (2021), the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, he tends to grapple with Big Topics, usually with a geographical angle. His latest book is a daring addition to that tendency, about no less than the atmospheric phenomenon we all know as Wind—titled The Breath of the Gods: The History and the Future of the Wind (2025).
It’s one of my favorites of his recent books—not as exhaustive and exhausting as Land or Atlantic. As usual it’s full of Fun Facts, including terrific descriptions of why hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern. From the “singing” sound of wind on sand dunes (which happens at The Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, Colorado) to the derided racial theories of climate, Winchester examines the minutiae of wind from both a physical and a cultural viewpoint. He notes in the beginning the curious phenomenon called The Great Stilling, the diminishment of wind speeds over land in the decades between 1980-2010 (which has abated in some areas). Readers of a scientific bent will love it.