Tag Archives: books

murder, magic, and madness

Posted on by

This month my book club is reading The Devil in the White City by Eric Larsen. When it was first suggested, I didn’t think I’d like it. A book about the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893? Not so much on bookbabie’s list of must reads. Then again, a book with the subtitle Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America can’t be too boring, can it? Nope, it can’t. I finished it yesterday and it was a great read, wholly deserving of a non-fiction finalist spot in the 2003 National Book Awards, and being chosen as the winner of the 2004 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. The book is centered around two main characters, architect Daniel Burnham who built the fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes a psychopathic serial killer who set up shop near the fair. It reads like great fiction and knowing it’s a true story makes it that much better. A real-life supporting cast of historical characters such as George Ferris, Buffalo Bill, Susan B. Anthony, Clarence Darrow, Frederick Olmsted, and Thomas Edison helps bring life in America at the turn of the century alive.

My one complaint is that there were only a few photographs in the book. When I Googled the fair I came across a wonderful website full of photographs like the one I posted above of the grand, Agricultural Hall. If you haven’t read The Devil in the White City yet, but you plan to, bookmark the The World’s Columbian Exposition site at The Paul V. Glavin Library Digital History Collection so you can see, as well as read, about a fascinating time in our country’s history.

Hmm, I wonder who would be great in the role of Daniel Burnham if they make the movie?????

books to movies

Posted on by

bookbabiestarsmall.jpg

Whenever a book my book club has read is made into a movie we say we should all go see it together, but we never do. Let’s face it, it is rare for a movie adaption of a book to compare favorably to a well written novel. It’s like me taking a bite of gluten-free pizza and expecting it to be as good as the real thing, it’s just not going to happen (and I’m probably better off not even bothering). The Mid-Continent Public Library has a nice list of books-to-movies and two new ones are opening this month. Next with Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore opens April 27th and is based on Philip K. Dick’s The Golden Man, and The Hoax starring Richard Gere and adapted from the book by Clifford Irving opens on April 20th.

By the way, click on the star if you want to make your own Walk of Fame star. I Photoshopped mine afterwards to spruce it up! (Less bright, more contrast…)

the road

Posted on by

the-road.gifI remember laying in bed and watching the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in 2002, a stream of silent tears running down my cheeks. Josh Groban and Charlotte Church were singing The Prayer, while a lone figure skater was gracefully gliding across an ice rink surrounded by thousands of flickering white lights. Halfway through the performance visions of 9/11 suddenly flashed in my mind and I was struck at once by the stark contrast of what mankind is capable of. The Road does the same thing, lays bare the best and worst the human spirit has to offer. Corey over on the The Millions Blog has written a great review of Oprah’s latest book club pick, click on over and check it out.

steinbeck country

Posted on by

Commenting on his hometown of Salinas in Monterey County, California, John Steinbeck once wrote, “I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and ranches in the wilder hills.” Next week, Mr. bookbabie and I are hitting the open road, driving from San Diego to Napa, and along the way we will pass through “Steinbeck Country”. When I was growing up, my mother was an avid reader and we had a wall of books in our family room. It was like having a small library in our house and I used to stand in front of those shelves and pull out books, turning them over in my hands, looking at the covers and reading a sentence or two until I found one that peaked my interest. It was there that I first discovered John Steinbeck’s novels and I read Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, and the Pulitzer Prize winner The Grapes of Wrath, in quick succession.

When John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, The New York Times wrote a scathing editorial questioning the choice of Steinbeck for the prize and stating that there were more deserving writers. The so-called Eastern Literary Establishment often criticized his work because it sold, it appealed to the masses and because the masses were obviously simple-minded, his writing was considered by some to be simplistic and sentimental. I find it ironic that a writer was scorned because he wrote prose that was clean and well crafted, and because he wrote stories that connected deeply with his readers. Being as simple-minded as I am, I probably could not hold my own in a scholarly debate about the relevance of John Steinbeck’s work. My expertise simply comes from the viewpoint of a young girl first delving into the world of the great American novel and finding a writer who didn’t disappoint, a writer who’s work has endured because it eloquently speaks the language of the American landscape and touches the human heart. Now I ask you, what’s so bad about that?

you had me at…

Posted on by

“Cranes keep landing as night falls. Ribbons of them roll down, slack against the sky.”

Those are the first two lines of The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers, this years winner of the National Book Award for fiction. I bought the book after I read them and I wasn’t disappointed, it was a great read.

Other opening lines I like: From Barbara Kingsolver’s, Prodigal Summer; “Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits. But solitude is only a human presumption. Every step is thunder to beetle life underfoot; every choice is a world made new for the chosen.” From Nicole Krauss’s, The History of Love; “When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, LEO GURSKY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT.” From Alice McDermott’s, After This; “Leaving the church, she felt the wind rise, felt the pinprick of pebble and grit against her stockings and her cheeks-the slivered shards of mad sunlight in her eyes.” Ahhh, bookbabie bliss.

If you’d like to test your knowledge of famous opening lines from some classics, Encarta has a great quiz, click here to see how well read you are (or in bookbabie’s case, if your aging brain has any functioning memory cells left!).

If you take the quiz, come back and post your scores and tell us what book you’ve read recently that had you at the first few lines.

is bill gates a crybabie?

Posted on by

baby-crying.gif

Bookbabie came across some rather depressing books stats on Dan Poynter’s website this morning.

Who is Reading Books (and who is not)

One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. Many do not even graduate from high school.

58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

42% of college graduates never read another book.

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57% of new books are not read to completion.

And then this afternoon the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, testified before the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee about the need to improve education and immigration procedures if the United States is to remain competitive in a global economy. Gates cited figures that show the U.S. has a low rate of high school graduation relative to many other countries. To make America more competitive, he urged Congress to begin by setting a goal to have every U.S. child graduate from high school, and to double the number of science, math and technology graduates by 2015.

So come on people, turn off the TV and get thee and thy children down to the nearest bookstore, pronto! Okay, bookbabie is climbing down off her soapbox now and going to read The History of Love, so far she is loving the first person voice of the main character, Leo Gursky.

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” Margaret Fuller