In The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America Larson takes on the city of Chicago and two men: one an architect and one a killer.
The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C.Burnham organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths.
The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds, a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.
We'll divide the book into roughly four parts and discuss them each weekend of June:Getting startedAnd we'll party on the last weekend of the month at Essencia Island.
What we said about the book
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Part I ~ Frozen Music
Part II ~ An Awful Fight
Part III ~ In the White City
Part IV ~ Cruelty Revealed
11 comments:
Hi Bonnie. It's Mary from The 40 Something Club. I just found you all. I read "The Devil in the White City," and it's one of my favorite books. If you goggle the Chicago fair you can find some awesome pictures. We have recently moved back to the Oprah boards. They are working much better. It would be so great to see all the old clubs back where we started. Plz drop by and say hi. I couldn't figure out how to book on your site. Sorry. Does anyone know what happened to The 50's club? Hope to talk to you all soon.
Mary
Hi, Mary. I would come rescue you from Oprah, if I knew how, but I can neither sign in under my old name nor make a new name because my email "is already in use."
If you come back by here, however, I am inviting you to STAY and become a book buddy with us. I have moved the information on how to "Be a Book Buddy" to the top of the sidebar.
Please think about joining our discussions. I'm glad you found us, and I will also gladly teach you whatever you need to know to be one of us.
Hi Bonnie. I'd love to join you. I'm sorry that you can't log onto the O board. It's fun to be back where we started. I've tried to e-mail you twice but it comes back with a mail failure. Don't know what else to do.
mary
Type my email address very carefully, noticing that emerging dot paradigm at yahoo dot com has a DOT between the first two words: emerging.paradigm
Then use the @ symbol.
Then type yahoo.com
Just downloaded the Audible book and have started "reading" with you. Sound interesting.
Hey ya'll!
Just to let you know where I've been. My father-in-law passed away and we had to go to NH. The day after we got back, my sisters were in a car accident (they are okay) while my parents were out of town and I had to go stay with them.
I'm half way through Windfalls and I'm going to go post my answers to the discussion questions for the second part when I'm done with this comment.
I placed a hold on The Devil in the White City but I'm 7th on the list and there are only 13 copies so I don't know when I'll get the book.
Neco
Hey Bonnie,
It worked! I found you! I will answer your emails tomorrow. Thank you for them. Question...if I just want to post to you and it doesn't relate to a book, can I start a new post or do like i did here. I posted here since I saw Mary here. I will spend some time here tomorrow to figure things out more. Or later if I have time after dishes! Looks like fun! Much better than Oprah!
Lori (Lj)
Hello to anyone that may know me!
I am Lori. I hosted 2nd Time Around in Oprah when it was fun. I will be going by Lj here as there seem to be Lori's where ever I go!
PS...Marg...are you there? I miss you much!
Hello to anyone that doesn't know me also!
Lj
Zorro,
Glad you have the audio book already. My branch of the library is closed on Mondays, but I expect to pick up my copy of the book tomorrow.
Neco,
Sorry to hear about your father-in-law. Glad your sisters are okay. Thanks for continuing to post your notes and thoughts about a book, even though it's after our usual discussion period. That's quite okay. There's no time limit on when you can add something about a book we've read. Thanks for adding the labels so your remarks will be available right along with all the rest.
Lori (Lj),
Welcome, book buddy! I'm glad you figured out how to do this much. You can post anything you like, any time. When the subject is off topic (in other words, not about a book we're discussing), put OT in the label line below the box that opens for you to type the post in. That way, everybuddy will know what to expect.
I just got the book at the library today, and I'm excited to read it. Windfalls sounds really good but my library didn't have it, and I had already exceeded my book buying budget!
Hey LJ!
Nice to see ya here! It's me, BG/Book Girl/Jennifer. lol I've had a blogger account for years that's why I'm Neco here.
Bonnie
Thanks for your kind words. I'll continue to finish up the discussion questions for Windfalls as I finish the book. I've still got The Camel Bookmobile to read too. lol
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