Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fire and America’s New Age of Disaster

MSNBC correspondent Soboroff (Separated) provides an emotional and intrepid account of the Los Angeles wildfires of January 2025. Having grown up in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of L.A., the author recalls covering the Palisades Fire live as it “carbonized” his “childhood memories,” including the home he was born into, which appeared to have “taken a direct hit from a ballistic missile.” Alongside his own experiences, which are told through detailed on- and off-air observations and frenzied family group chats, the book includes other perspectives: NOAA meteorologists warning about the region’s tinderbox conditions, firefighters risking their lives to battle the blaze, California governor Gavin Newsom desperately trying to find a cellphone signal to call President Biden, Donald Trump “fanning the flames of misinformation” on Truth Social, and residents of Altadena fleeing the encroaching Eaton Fire. Soboroff’s personal observations make for the most affecting moments as he confronts horrific scenes—like children fleeing his former preschool or a favorite restaurant going up in flames—that personalize the sheer scale of the destruction. Unfortunately, the at times awkward balance between memoir and objective reporting edges out any larger analysis of “the confluence of deteriorating infrastructure, changes in the way we live, climate change, and misinformation and disinformation” that caused the disaster. Still, for survivors especially, it’s a cathartically heartbreaking account of the unique horror of watching one’s community reduced to ash. (Jan.)