Book Review: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Non-fiction, narrative.  I really enjoyed this book!  I ended up finding it as a part of my continuing quest to learn more about Chicago and Illinois history.  It is about William E. Dodd, a professor of history at the University of Chicago, and how he becomes the U.S. ambassador to Germany during the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich.  There are so many WWII stories out there that it can be quite daunting when trying to tackle the subject.  This one is a little different, in that it shows you how an american family living abroad felt when arriving in 1933, and how their opinions adapt and change as things in the country do as well.  Since Dodd took his family with him (wife, son, and daughter) and they wrote letters and diary entries religiously, we get multiple perspectives on the time, place, and changing attitudes.  His daughter Martha was very amorous and had relationships with prominent members of the Nazi party (Diels), socialist radicals, and even a Russian spy.  At first she felt positive about the new changes for the German people, but then she slowly became more aware of what was happening around her, and finally changed her tune.  

     It seems that Dodd was one of the few voices bold enough to see what was coming, and to talk about it, even though he was shunned by other ambassadors and the american public for doing so.  If you are one of those people who say "How didn't people see it coming?" well he certainly did.  This book is well worth a read if you are interested in what Germany was like as an outsider during the building up of the Nazi regime and how Hitler and his inside men were constantly bickering, paranoid, chasing gossip, and vying for control of each other and the country.  This is a great story of a prominent Chicagoan and of the climate in Germany leading up to WWII from the perspective an american family.

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Book Review: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Non-fiction, narrative.  I was a little afraid when I saw the description of this book that it was going to be an all gore account of a serial killer, and it definitely is not.  It does include things that the self-styled H.H. Holmes planned, did, and how things ended up, but it is interspersed with the main story of the city hosting the World Columbian Exposition in 1893, and the men who made it happen, primarily Burnham.  I found out all sorts of fun things I did not know about the fair and the men who made it happen, Olmsted was the grounds planner or "landscape architect" and was furious when people did not treat it as an art form (the man who planned Central Park in NYC), Ferris created his first wheel for the fair, the designer of the Women's Pavilion Sophia Hayden went mad, literally, after so many people told her to muck up her design and throw stuff on it as if it were only a patchwork quilt and not a building.  It was totally worth the read, I highly enjoyed it, one of the better books about the history of Chicago/IL I have read so far, it definitely helps that the author used the narrative non-fiction style to make it feel more like a story.  My only disappointment is that, at least in the eBook version, there are very few pictures in it, a few of the "White City" and one who I believe was supposed to be H.H. Holmes but it was poorly labeled.  I would have liked to have seen images of the people who made these events happen, in addition to the images of their buildings.  I would recommend this to those who like narrative non-fiction, those interested in the history of Chicago,those who love architecture, and those who want to know about H.H. Holmes, considered one of the first known serial killers in the U.S. (he wrote several items, so we have his direct words, creepy man).

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Book Review: Divergent Series by Veronica Roth

Fiction.  This is one of those series that the whole planet read, so I decided to give it a go and I was not disappointed.  This is young-adult fiction but it holds your attention.  It is about a young girl living in a dystopian Chicago world, where classes are divided by their personalities and purposes in life.  It sounds like it should work, but as we know, life is messy and we do not like to be put into molds.  The series is worth the read so I do not want to say too much, I will leave that to other reviewers.  In the end, I think we have a great heroine, it addresses some real life issues in this make believe world, and although I was disappointed by the end of the last book in the series and horribly disappointed by the movie of the first book, I would definitely recommend this series.  If you only saw the movie and did not like it, please read the books, the old adage is true: the books are better than the movies.

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Book Review: City of Scoundrels by Gary Krist

A really interesting read about two weeks in Chicago during the summer of 1919.  It shows how much the city and the country were in flux, with a blimp crash, race riots, corrupt politics, the death of a child, labor unions riots, and more.  If you are interested in the history of Chicago, or any of the above listed issues, I would highly recommend this book.  It is a great work of narrative non-fiction.

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