The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the fair that changed America by Erik Larson

Summary: Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. 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. 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. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he 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 satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

Review: One thing I really liked about this story is that it is, for the most part, a historical account. The author uses real people and real situations to set the scene and then just fills in the details with his imagination. It reads a little slower, as typical with something that is so in-depth, and I did get a little bored with some of the long descriptions of people or events. But for the most part, I read enjoyed the mix of true crime, fiction and a little bit of history.

7 out of 10 stars

Read this book if you like:  historical fiction

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Summary: Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

Review:  This book took a little while to pick up the pace, but was a good story overall. You can tell that the author has either lived in Ethiopia or did his research well- he did a great job of setting the scene and ensuring that the reader understood the culture and history of the main setting. I think that this book would resonate more with readers who are of African descent or have been to the continent.

That being said, I enjoyed the story. The characters are well developed and Verghese weaves an interesting plot. There is a lot of medical information and he does bring up a lot of social issues. This book is one that you can put down- it’s a good read but not gripping.

7 out of 10 stars

Read this book if you liked: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Slumdog Millionaire

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Summary: The novel is told from the perspective of three characters: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.

Review:  When I was younger I really enjoyed the TV show “I’ll fly away”, about the relationships between a black maid and the white family for whom she works. This book reminded me of that show- honest and poignant. I thought that the characters were very well developed and the plot was well organized and moved at a brisk pace.

I read somewhere that Kathryn Stockett spent three years researching for this book. This is evident in the many historical references.

This is a great beach read- a book that pulls you in but won’t leave you feeling down or wanting more at the end.

9 out of 10 stars

Read this book if you liked: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

Book Summary: Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?"

Review: This book reads like a novel but has themes of a sermon. It’s a very interesting book to read and brings up some very deep spiritual issues. I’m not sure if it actually is a true account as claimed or if it is true fiction. In any case, the story itself is pretty out there. You’ll need to keep an open mind going into it and focus more on the theological issues and not so much the physical representation of God.

I thought the book brought up some really great points and, as a Christian, felt that I was able to take something away from it. However, I do not generally consider myself an evangelical Christian and am not as comfortable with some of the views represented in the book as some others might be. I think that if you both consider yourself a Christian and are willing to look at our basic beliefs in a different light OR you if you have base knowledge of Christianity and are interested in learning about some more radical Christian ideals then this book is a good read.

I would not suggest this book to people who are new Christians or people looking to learn more about Christianity as a whole. I personally feel that, while this book brings up some great points and can be very inspiration for some people, it’s not for everyone. I feel that it tackles some big issues and handles grief pretty well.. but I’m not sure I agree with everything in this book.

5 out of 10 stars

Read this book if you liked: No recommendations at this time

Anthropology of an American Girl: A Novel

Book Summary: Self-published in 2003, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s Anthropology of an American Girl touched a nerve among readers, who identified with the sexual and intellectual awakening of its heroine, a young woman on the brink of adulthood. A moving depiction of the transformative power of first love, Hamann’s first novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school years in East Hampton, New York, in the 1970s through her early adulthood in the moneyed, high-pressured Manhattan of the 1980s.

Centering on Evie’s fragile relationship with her family and her thwarted love affair with Harrison Rourke, a professional boxer, the novel is both a love story and an exploration of the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world. As Evie surrenders to the dazzling emotional highs of love and the crippling loneliness of heartbreak, she strives to reconcile her identity with the constraints that all relationships—whether those familial or romantic, uplifting to the spirit or quietly detrimental—inherently place on us. Though she stumbles and strains against social conventions, Evie remains a strong yet sensitive observer of the world around her, often finding beauty and meaning in unexpected places.

Review:  Very seldom will you find me putting down a book before it is finished. This was one of those times. I hate to be a quitter, but this book was terrible! I got about halfway through before I couldn’t take it any longer.

I’m not sure how this novel became such a hit, as it is lacking the basic elements that make a book great. It doesn’t really seem to have any kind of plot- the storyline wanders and it’s hard to keep up with the ever-changing characters, as none of them are really written in-depth. The main character, Evie, seems to be a selfish, narcissistic girl who does not have any traits that I can identify with. In fact, I started to despise her after a few chapters.

Evie is the only character who really has any substance and I felt that the book was just one big whiny monologue. I was actually looking for excuses NOT to read so that I could avoid having to open this book.

0 out of 10 stars

Read if you like:  falling asleep with your face in a book

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Book Summary: “It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

Review:  This was an interesting book, albeit a little too long. I really enjoy authors with imagination who can make the unbelievable suddenly seem plausible. Technically this book would fall under a science fiction category- it does, after all, deal with vampires and futuristic civilizations. I wouldn’t, however, discount the novel because of the basic premise. I actually didn’t know what this book was about before I checked it out form the library; only that it had gotten some great reviews.

Justin Cronin does a wonderful job of setting the scene, setting up his characters and then scaring your pants off.  He took a great idea for a story and made it come alive. The book is pretty hefty at 784 pages- and I admit I got a little bored towards the very end. I think if he would’ve kept it around 600 pages, my attention would have held through the entire book.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to the next two in the series. I would recommend starting this book on a lazy Saturday morning because you will probably have a hard time putting it down at first. The second half of the book is not quite as fast paced as the first.

7 out of 10 stars

Read if you liked: “The Stand” by Stephen King, “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston (movie version: “Outbreak”)

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Book Summary: On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

Review:  This book hooked me in from the beginning and concludes with a surprising twist. I’m a huge fan of true crime and this story read like a bizarre yet believable headline along the lines of Elizabeth Smart or Jaycee Dugard. I also think that Chevy Stevens has a gift of pulling you into Annie’s story.

The novel does get a little graphic in parts and can leave you a tad bit depressed. I personally liked the fact that the main character is human and the ending does not leave everything tied up in a neat bow- I felt like I was recovering and adjusting along with Annie, which in my opinion makes a good story great. However, you will need to pick up a lighter novel after this one.

8 out of 10 stars

Read if you like(d): True Crime novels, “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Seabold