Hello everyone! Today I am writing a review on Brantley Hargroves "The Man Who Caught The Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras".
Authors background
Brantley Hargrove is a journalist/part-time storm chaser who lives in Dallas, TX. His book "The Man Who Caught The Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras" was released in April of 2018, and was actually the first book that Hargrove ever wrote and had published.
The review
I first heard about this book in February of 2018 while at Chasercon. Roger Hill had mentioned that he was going to be giving away a book that detailed the life of Tim Samaras. As someone who grew up idolizing Tim Samaras and wanting to be just like him, I, of course, had to get my hands on this book. I ended up purchasing the E-Book, Audiobook, and actual hardcover. So let's get to the actual book review. When I first began reading this book by Brantley Hargrove I was impressed by how well written it was. The 273-page book details the entire life of Tim Samaras from his early years as a teenager who managed an electronics repair shop, to his years as a tornado researcher up until his death. I learned many things while reading this book, and the one thing that stuck out to me the most was the fact that Tim Samaras, who was known as an engineer/researcher never had a college degree. This really surprised me because he was very well known in the engineering and research world and the thought of him being able to accomplish everything that he did in life without a college degree is just astounding. As a kid, I always had a fascination with Tim Samaras's intercept that occurred on June 24th, 2003 in Machester, SD. For those who are unaware, on June 24th, 2003 an F4 tornado completely wiped out the town of Manchester. That same day Tim Samaras recorded the lowest pressure drop ever recorded inside a tornado using his tornado probes. Being able to read about this day in full from Tim's point of view was amazing to me. I also learned by reading this book that Tim Samaras had another son named Matt Winter. I never knew Tim had another son besides his son Paul Samaras. I was so happy to read that there was no animosity towards either Tim or Matt when the rest of Tim's family found out about Matt. Finally, in the last few chapters, Brantley Hargrove goes into extensive detail about the days leading up to and after the death of Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young. This part of the book almost made me tear up. Having known how this book was going to end, I really dreaded getting to the end of the book, I even pushed off reading the book for almost an entire year just because of the ending. But, Brantley Hargrove did such a great job writing this book that I just had to finish it.
Should you buy this book?
In conclusion, yes you need to buy this book if you love severe weather, storm chasing, tornado research, or loved what Tim Samaras did. This book is so well written that it will shock you when you realize that this is Brantley Hargrove's first-ever book. I personally believe that this book did an amazing job of detailing the life of Tim Samaras from his early years as a kid up until his death. This book will keep you hooked and make you not want to put it down at night. Lastly, I believe that this book is a great tribute to the work that Tim Samaras did, and if you want to learn more about Tim Samaras then you need to buy this book. As someone who idolized Tim Samaras and his work, this book was just what I needed in my life. Thank you for reading my first-ever book review. I hope that you enjoyed reading it and I also hope that you decide to pick up Brantley Hargroves "The Man Who Caught The Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras". I will leave links below as to where you can purchase his book.