Wind & Weather – The Conversation Continues
By Kathleen Holt
For the past several weeks, the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club has been exploring something that shapes our lives every day, whether we notice it or not: wind and weather.
Here on the High Plains, we know something about both. We measure our days by the forecast, watch the skies for approaching storms, welcome the rain, and sometimes wonder whether the wind will ever stop blowing.
I’m Kathleen Holt, Coordinator of the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.
Our fall 2026 series, Wind & Weather, has reminded us that weather is much more than something we talk about over morning coffee. It has shaped civilizations, inspired literature, tested human endurance, and sometimes changed the course of history.
We began with Lyle Watson's Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind, led by Marit Ehmke of Lane County, Kansas. Watson took us on a remarkable journey through the science, mythology, history, and mystery of the wind, reminding us that something as familiar as the moving air around us can still inspire wonder.
Next, we traveled to Florida, Lauren Groff's collection of short stories, with book leader Marty Fulmer of Goodwell, Oklahoma. Groff offered a very different perspective on the natural world. In her stories, weather is more than a backdrop. It becomes part of the emotional landscape, reflecting the uncertainties, fears, and vulnerabilities of the people who inhabit it.
Our third selection gave readers a choice between two books about tornadoes: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Bonar Menninger's And Hell Followed with It. With Glenda Shepard of Yucca Corners Farm in Stanton County, Kansas, as our book leader, we explored the tornado through both imagination and history. One book carries Dorothy away from Kansas into a magical world; the other recounts the devastating reality of a tornado and the lives it changed.
And finally, Matt Kliewer, who grew up in Cimarron, Kansas, and now lives in Austin, Texas, guided us through David Laskin's The Children's Blizzard. This account of the terrible January 1888 storm on the Great Plains reminded us how quickly weather can turn from ordinary to deadly, and how courage, tragedy, and human decisions become intertwined when nature takes control.
Four selections, five books, and four very different approaches to understanding wind and weather.
But one thing connects them all: the relationship between human beings and the natural world, and the ways we try to understand, predict, survive, and sometimes even celebrate forces beyond our control.
Now it's time to bring our book leaders together for one final conversation.
On Sunday, November 15, from 1 to 3 p.m. Central Time, the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club will present its live Wind & Weather season finale from HPPR in Garden City, Kansas.
HPPR volunteer Valarie Smith will host the broadcast, and I'll serve as moderator as our four book leaders revisit their selections, compare perspectives, and explore the questions these books have raised.
We'll consider what surprised us, what challenged us, and perhaps what these books have changed about the way we look at the skies above the High Plains.
And we hope you'll join us. Whether you've read every book, just one, or simply enjoyed listening to the Radio Readers BookBytes, you're part of this conversation.
Because that's what the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club is all about: bringing readers together, discovering new perspectives, and sharing the pleasure of a good book.
So, mark your calendar for Sunday, November 15, from 1 to 3 p.m. Central, for our live Wind & Weather finale.
I'm Kathleen Holt, inviting you to join the conversation.
Read. Think. Share. Great books. Good conversations.
