Review | Devil in the White City

Author: Erik Larson
Published: October 17, 2002
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 447
Genres: Mystery, Non-Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★
Reading Guide from LitLovers

Synopsis
Burnham had a vision. A vision of Chicago being the center of attention of the whole world. And he got his wish, in more ways than one.

In the late 19th century, Chicago was voted to become the home of the Columbian Exposition World's Fair. There was a lot of work to be done before the fair could open. It was one of the grandest times in US history, filled with wondrous inventions, architecture, and art, but while Chicago was experiencing one of it's greatest moments in history, it was also experiencing one of it's darkest.

Just a few blocks from the fair, Dr. H.H. Holmes built his castle. A castle of death and deception. Women went in and were never heard from or seen again. But no one suspected the charming, young doctor. And the longer he remained undetected, the more confident he grew, and the more fun he had.

Review
This was a wonderfully well written book. It's obvious that a lot of time and research went into the making of it. It was a bit frustrating to read since it's such a long book. It seemed to take even longer since there is so much information that you can easily go into information overload, but having all that information is what made this book good. It brought it to life. Larkson had a very descriptive writing style that made everything easy to imagine. All the missing commas were rather annoying though.

Tuesdays With Morrie

Find Tuesdays With Morrie on Goodreads
Genre/Themes: Non-Fiction
My Rating: ★★★★☆

I was forced to read this book to help my sister who was required to read it for a course. I'm glad she forced me.

The book follows Morrie's progression through ALS until death. Though his body was deteriorating around him, he was a professor until the end. One of his favorite students hearing of Morrie's illness on a TV show got back into touch with his old professor. Every Tuesday, they held a "class" on the meaning of life. The touched on subjects such as money, family, the fear of aging, and so on. Morrie made a lot of comments during his last couple of months that really made me sit back and say, "Wow, I need to think on that." I started making a list partially through the book, but they were too numerous for me to mention them all, so I'll present one:

"The problem, Mitch, is that we don't believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.

"But believe me, when you are dying, you see it is true. We all have the same beginning-birth-and we all have the same end-death. So how different can we be?

"Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you." (During the 11th Tuesday)

It was comments like this that I found very profound and made me think.