Snow: A History of the World’s Most Fascinating Flake

Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and first-time author Wood delivers an amiable if disjointed look at those “magically varied crystals that we call ‘snow.’ ” Emphasizing that “some people will do almost anything to avoid [snow], while others pine for it,” he weighs the positive and negative sides of winter weather, noting both the boon it provided to transportation in preindustrial America by creating “snow-and-ice surfaces and reliably frozen waterways” across which goods could be easily hauled, and the severe disruption and destruction brought about by storms like the 1888 Great White Hurricane and by more recent monster blizzards. People who share Wood’s passion for his subject prominently feature in his anecdotes, including Wilson Alwyn Bentley, the 19th-century Vermont farmer who captured microscopic images of snowflakes that transformed understandings of snow, and Joel Myers, the self-made founder of AccuWeather. Wood’s examples of how people react to snow are varied in time period, from the 17th century (when snowstorms were often received as signs of God’s anger) to the present (when the more common reaction to a bad forecast is to clear out convenience and grocery stores), but less so geographically, rarely venturing outside the northeastern U.S. This should appeal to those eagerly awaiting the first snowfall of the year, but will likely leave others out in the cold. (Dec.)