Rain is an experience for all the senses. We see it and hear it, and while we aren’t actually smelling the rain, we can smell the earthy scent of the wet soil, and everything (except pets) seems to smell fresher and cleaner after a rain.

We can feel the rain on our skin and taste it on our tongues. We may experience joy or sadness when it rains. Sometimes we’re just plain mad or bored because our plans have been thwarted by pesky drops of water falling from the sky.

I love to read on rainy days, and I always enjoy reading passages about rain. Authors can make us feel things we wouldn’t normally feel by sprinkling in a few drops of rain or a torrential downpour. Tim O’Brien’s descriptions about the rain in Vietnam in his book, The Things We Carried will stay with me forever. Our books this month will have a connection to rain. It may be in the title or in a powerful passage. Grab a cup of tea, a warm blanket, and a cozy seat and dig into one of our rainy-day recommendations.

Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie – Nori Kamiza is a little girl in Japan. Her mother is a married Japanese aristocrat, and her father was an African American soldier. After her mother abandons her, Nori is raised in secret by her grandparents. They give her stinging chemical baths to try to lighten her skin, so her mixed parentage will be less noticeable. She suffers in silence seemingly resigned to her fate until she meets her older half-brother who becomes her only ally.

History of the Rain by Niall Williams – Bedbound in her attic room during a storm, Ruth is searching for information about her father’s tormented life. She wants to write down his story before she dies. Her research through the countless volumes of books he cherished leads her to her to her great-grandfather whose religious piety set the rigid standards members of the Swain family have struggled to uphold for generations.

The Art of Racing in the Rain: by Garth Stein – a beautiful book about life seen through the eyes of a loyal companion, Enzo the dog.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami – Kafka Tamura is a teen on the run when he encounters the much older Nakata who seems to need and want his assistance. As their destinies intertwine, the world becomes surreal. In this powerful passage, Murakami describes Kafka bathing in the rain,

“Along with the pain [he’s referring to the stinging of the raindrops as they pelt his bare skin] there’s a feeling of closeness, like for once in my life the world’s treating me fairly. I feel elated, as if all of a sudden, I’ve been set free. I face the sky, hands held wide apart, open my mouth wide, and gulp down the falling rain.”

Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose by Nikki Giovanni – Giovanni weaves the theme of rain through her works while chronicling her experiences as a Black woman. She speaks of literal and figurative storms with honesty and eloquence.

The Rain in Portugal – by Billy Collins – Enjoy this book of poetry from the former Poet Laureate of the United States.

The Things We Carried by Tim O’Brien – O’Brien writes about his experiences as a soldier during the Vietnam War. He describes the beauty of the countryside and the destruction of war made worse by days and weeks of unrelenting rain and mud. It’s a powerful reminder of what our soldiers experience when we send them off to war.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy – I fell in love with the works of Thomas Hardy in high school and college.

Set in Victorian England, this is the story of Bathsheba Everdene and the three men competing for her affections, Gabriel, a sheep farmer, Frank, a reckless sergeant, and William, a prosperous and mature bachelor. She must decide if she is willing to give up her independence and marry. If she does, should she marry for love or security and social standing?

Hardy describes Gabriel Oak struggling in the rain to protect his farm during a storm,

“The rain stretched obliquely through the dull atmosphere in liquid spines, unbroken in continuity between their beginnings in the clouds and their points in him.”

Father of the Rain by Lily King – Daley straddles the line between her idealistic liberal mother and her whiskey-soaked conservative father. After her parents get a divorce, Daley struggles to maintain her connection with both parents. Her father continues his downward spiral into alcoholism until he finally hits bottom. Now an adult, Daley must come to his rescue. Will she be able to reach him? King explores the trauma of divorce and alcoholism using rain as a metaphor.

The Scent of Rain and Lightening by Nancy Pickard – Twenty-three years ago during a stormy night in Kansas, Jody Lindor’s father is murdered, and her mother disappears. The police arrest Billy Crosby, and he is convicted by a jury of his peers. Jody grows up on her grandparents farm trying to put that rainy night behind her, but Collin Crosby won’t stop trying to prove his father’s innocence. When Billy is released Jody, Collin, and Billy must come to terms with living in a small town where people still believe Billy is a murderer.