Rain

A natural history of rain, told through a compelling, lyrical blend of science, cultural history, and human drama
It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report and the cause of catastrophic floods; and the source of all the world's water. Yet this is the first [...]
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A natural history of rain, told through a compelling, lyrical blend of science, cultural history, and human drama
It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report and the cause of catastrophic floods; and the source of all the world's water. Yet this is the first book to tell the story of rain.
Science journalist Cynthia Barnett's "Rain "begins four billion years ago with the torrents that filled the oceans to transform a fiery planet into a living one. It explains the science of it--the physics of a rainbow, the true shape of a raindrop--while weaving in the human history, from ancient rain gods and divining rods to modern flood walls and geoengineering.
"Rain "is not only a journey through history but also a travelogue, taking readers to Scotland to tell the story of the mackintosh raincoat and its eccentric inventor and to India where villagers extract the scent of monsoon rains and turn it into perfume.
"Rain "is also a love story. For centuries, people have tried to summon it, the likes of Thomas Jefferson were obsessed with it, and, in these pages, Cynthia Barnett makes it almost palpable. She sees rain, from the increasingly severe storms that unleash it to the life-giving freshwater it provides, as a unifying force in our divided culture. Too much and not nearly enough, rain is a conversation we share, and this is a book for everyone who has ever experienced it.