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Keri's review

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

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/259028.The_Devil_in_the_White_City_Murder_Magic_and_Madness_at_the_Fair_that_Changed_America?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1173214679m/259028.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/259028.The_Devil_in_the_White_City_Murder_Magic_and_Madness_at_the_Fair_that_Changed_America?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5869.Erik_Larson">Erik Larson</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18381008?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars My rating system is based on a complicated scoring method that takes the number of times I put a book down and divides them by the hours/minutes passed before picking it up again. Okay, so maybe it’s not that involved, but I do take how quickly I read and the number of times I choose to read over watching TV into account. With that said, I read The Devil in the White City in a month. I consider this commendable. It did, however, take a good deal of discipline and a few long stretches of read time on Saturday mornings. 
 
 All in all I would recommend this book to history and non-history buffs alike. If you’ve ever utilized the Dewey decimal system, enjoyed a bowl of shredded wheat or wondered how Pabst won it’s blue ribbon you may find The Devil in the White City interesting, informative and a true asset when quizzing friends with useless yet interesting and informative facts. Personally I never truly grasped the concept of a world’s fair. I live in the New York/New Jersey area and have passed relics of the 1964 New York World’s Fair on the Long Island Expressway (or LIE for you natives) numerous times without much thought. The Devil in the White City brought me back to a time before the Internet when people came together to learn about what was going on in the world. It made me wish that we weren’t so virtually connected and that we came out from behind our computers, newspapers and magazines more often to connect with the world outside our own. In addition to providing a cool historical overview of the Chicago World’s Fair, The Devil in the White City also chronicles, in alternating chapters, the life of Dr. H.H. Holmes, the first American serial killer who used the fair as a lure for his young female victims. 
 
 My only issue with the book and likely the reason it wasn’t a breeze getting through was the lack of character development, which I understand is a result of the book’s historical classification. It would likely have been found in the fiction section should Larson have decided to tell me how Daniel Burnham felt the morning of the grand opening or why Dr. H.H. Holmes felt no guilt at the countless number of women he murdered. Personally, I would have been okay if Larson had decided to take a few more creative liberties, but then again I admire the research and dedication that went into making The Devil in the White City a truly historical account. 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/375977?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Keri's review
rating:
recommended for: History and non-history buffs alike.

My rating system is based on a complicated scoring method that takes the number of times I put a book down and divides them by the hours/minutes passed before picking it up again. Okay, so maybe it’s not that involved, but I do take how quickly I read and the number of times I choose to read over watching TV into account. With that said, I read The Devil in the White City in a month. I consider this commendable. It did, however, take a good deal of discipline and a few long stretches of read time on Saturday mornings.

All in all I would recommend this book to history and non-history buffs alike. If you’ve ever utilized the Dewey decimal system, enjoyed a bowl of shredded wheat or wondered how Pabst won it’s blue ribbon you may find The Devil in the White City interesting, informative and a true asset when quizzing friends with useless yet interesting and informative facts. Personally I never truly grasped the concept of a world’s fair. I live in the New York/New Jersey area...more My rating system is based on a complicated scoring method that takes the number of times I put a book down and divides them by the hours/minutes passed before picking it up again. Okay, so maybe it’s not that involved, but I do take how quickly I read and the number of times I choose to read over watching TV into account. With that said, I read The Devil in the White City in a month. I consider this commendable. It did, however, take a good deal of discipline and a few long stretches of read time on Saturday mornings.

All in all I would recommend this book to history and non-history buffs alike. If you’ve ever utilized the Dewey decimal system, enjoyed a bowl of shredded wheat or wondered how Pabst won it’s blue ribbon you may find The Devil in the White City interesting, informative and a true asset when quizzing friends with useless yet interesting and informative facts. Personally I never truly grasped the concept of a world’s fair. I live in the New York/New Jersey area and have passed relics of the 1964 New York World’s Fair on the Long Island Expressway (or LIE for you natives) numerous times without much thought. The Devil in the White City brought me back to a time before the Internet when people came together to learn about what was going on in the world. It made me wish that we weren’t so virtually connected and that we came out from behind our computers, newspapers and magazines more often to connect with the world outside our own. In addition to providing a cool historical overview of the Chicago World’s Fair, The Devil in the White City also chronicles, in alternating chapters, the life of Dr. H.H. Holmes, the first American serial killer who used the fair as a lure for his young female victims.

My only issue with the book and likely the reason it wasn’t a breeze getting through was the lack of character development, which I understand is a result of the book’s historical classification. It would likely have been found in the fiction section should Larson have decided to tell me how Daniel Burnham felt the morning of the grand opening or why Dr. H.H. Holmes felt no guilt at the countless number of women he murdered. Personally, I would have been okay if Larson had decided to take a few more creative liberties, but then again I admire the research and dedication that went into making The Devil in the White City a truly historical account.
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