The Wave: Review and Giveaway

By:  Susan Casey
Publisher:  DoubleDay

From Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Devil’s Teeth, an astonishing book about colossal, ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out.

For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dis­missed these stories—waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet’s waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea—including several that approached 100 feet.

As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. These are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the ocean’s most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton, who, with a group of friends in Hawaii, figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of peo­ple as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport, a 100­foot wave.

In this mesmerizing account, the exploits of Hamilton and his fellow surfers are juxtaposed against scientists’ urgent efforts to understand the destructive powers of waves—from the tsunami that wiped out 250,000 people in the Pacific in 2004 to the 1,740-foot-wave that recently leveled part of the Alaskan coast.

Like Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, The Wave brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious.

This book is AWESOME!!  If you like the ocean or surfing or boats or anything like that you'll find this book fascinating.  The pictures in this book are amazing.  I don't know what else to say about it other than run out and get this book and read it.  Susan Casey must be one cool chick, seriously I want to go hang out with her she must be full of stories.

Thanks to the fabulous people at Doubleday I have two copies of this book to give away.  Publisher giveaway rules apply.  Must have a US address and no PO Boxes please.  Just leave a comment below with your email address if you would like to be entered.  If you would like an additional entry you can tweet about it or post on Facebook, leave the link in a separate comment.  I'll randomly pick winners on 10/18.