Having lived in Tuscaloosa, AL for four years as a student at the University of Alabama, I had a personal connection to the April 27, 2011 tornado that devastated much of the area. I cried as I read Tuscaloosa Runs This, which is a collection of stories about the town and about the survival during the tornado. Perhaps this is the beauty of writing: it conveys in words what we feel and it conveys real-life possibly better than life itself. ( )