Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Devil in the White City (August 2012)
-
This month's book is Erik Larson's Devil in the White City.
In other news, Oblivion podcast is set to record as soon as Joel is free, and I should be set to discuss Murakami about a week or so after that. Almost there! -
Nice choice. This one is part of my backlog of books I bought during Borders' going-out-of-business sale. I guess I'll put Pynchon's Inherent Vice back on the shelf for now.
Oh, and hello, everyone. I'm a friend of Jon's. -
Yaaay, Josh! Welcome.
-
Thanks, Jon!
So far (I'm about halfway into it), I must say I really appreciate the account for little details about life in Chicago during this time. For example, the mention of how so many people were killed by the city's streetcars, or how the city's water supply was full of bacteria and that outbreaks of cholera weren't rare, or the inescapable swarms of flies in the summer because of the putrid air from the stockyards. I was expecting a romantic--perhaps nostalgic--vision of the city, but Larson does a great job of conveying the misery of late 19th century living conditions.
And Jesus, Holmes is simply terrifying. He reminds me of a few people I've known over the years. Kind and charismatic as can be, but lacking something under the surface..."something human," as I think it's worded in the book.
Oh, are we supposed to wait until after the podcast has been posted before we discuss anything? -
Discuss away. No need to wait. What you can do is, if you think the comments may spoil the book for others, just enclose the comments in spoiler tags. [ spoiler ] and [/ spoiler ] without the spaces.
