Devil Tidbit I Found

In my rereading, I found on page 44 that Mudgett became Holmes in Springfield, IL, when he took a pharmacy exam and registered under that name. Just struck me. This devil walked the streets we walk.

Devil in the White City #2

Oh, I'm bad. But I'm also busy at school. Wish Laura and I had talked at the beginning of the summer. We'd be on our third book.

So, several of you have read Devil before. I'm rereading it again. Which part do you find the most amazing? The part that at such a time in Chicago's history men could figure out how to build tall buildings in an area that was not suited for them? How men with little architectural experience could figure out such amazing things? How they built these fabulous buildings that were temporary? List your favorite part.

In all honesty, while the bad guy intrigued me, it was the construction of the World's Fair that kept me going. Now, if anybody goes on to other Erik Larson books, I recommend Isaac's Storm and not Thunderstruck, as the latter is INCREDIBLY complicated to follow because it is so technical regarding electricity and, an even further stretch, wireless communication. I think most of you would prefer Isaac's Storm because, while it gets a little complicated in regard to barometric pressure and the weather prediction tools of the day, the storm that hit was amazing in its power and speed.

So, discussion?

Devil in the White City #1

So, all my little readers out there! How do you like it so far? (Unless your name is Laura and you read it in, like, 48 hours!)

I am rereading it now to remind myself all about it. The book is definitely one of my all time favorites. I don't know if it's the fact that it's non-fiction or Erik Larson's writing or what. (As an aside, I really liked his book Isaac's Storm, too. Thunderstruck, though, is a very tough read.)

First of all, do you think the two parallel stories belong together? Which story are you more "in tune" to?

You are cordially invited . . .

They say there are six degrees of separation in relationships. Example: Teri Patterson knows me through both our employment and my children. She also knows my sister, Marsha, through church. I don't think the three of us have ever been in the same room together, but we carry on conversations as though we often are in the same room.

My sister, Monica, went to the same college at the same time as my co-worker, Amy Kluemke.

Another six degrees is my sister's sister-in-law, who I often spend holidays with, knows my friend, Terry Willis, quite well. Small world.

My friend, Laura Everhart worked with me for some time before we put two and two together and realized we were in the same kindergarten class in Auburn, Illinois.

Well, Laura and I were talking about our mutual love of books and hatched this hair-brained scheme to put together an online book club where we can talk about good reads together and compare notes, maybe grasp a little tidbit of knowledge we didn't have before. And, maybe get together a couple times a year, meet each other and bring the six degrees of separation down to one.

So I'm thinking anybody who wants to be part of our little group can invite other friends and create a little circle of people connected to one other in the group. We might be surprised at how many other degrees we find.

So we should open the floor to book discussion. Since I'm currently the boss of our site, I choose . . . one of my all time favorites,The Devil in the White City By Erik Larson.

Sincerely,
Fran Williams