Summer Reading

I started this post on an airplane somewhere over Tennessee.  { And I still can't wrap my head around the fact that that's possible.  Or the fact that I just used two consecutive "thats" in a sentence.  Is that even grammatically permissible?  I digress.  I hate when my brain changes tracks like that.  Back to the matter at hand. }
I had my computer up because I'd just finished a really good book, I have a 30-day wifi pass on Delta { hooray! }, and I'd already read this month's Sky magazine.  But about the book I just finished.  SO GOOD.  Not my usual style, either.  I bought it on a whim at The Book Stop while looking for the sequel to The Hunger Games.

The Devil In The White City is an account of the 1893 Columbian Exposition { World's Fair } in Chicago.  See, I told you it doesn't sound like my kind of book.  But one of the reviews on the back made by buy it: "so good, you'll find yourself asking how you could not know this already."  And they were right.

The Fair celebrated the anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America.  It was a feat of engineering and a testament to a city { and a nation } that pulled together in the midst of an economic crisis and insurmountable odds.  Faced with the task to "out-Eiffel Eiffel" and the tower he'd built at the previous World's Fair in Paris, Daniel Burnham assembled the brightest minds and thousands of workmen to transform an area of Chicago into a white wonderland.

At every turn, the book gives coincidental backstory on a surprising number of things we're familiar with today.  I had no idea that the Fair gave us Columbus Day, shredded wheat, Cracker Jacks, the Ferris Wheel and Juicy Fruit.  And you come across Helen Keller, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Elias Disney {Walt and Roy's dad } in the process.

But in the midst of the construction of the "White City", as the Fair was known, a more sinister force was at work.  The massive influx of people allowed men like H.H. Holmes a surge of potential victims.  If you like "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", this is a little like that { though far less graphic }.

I read at least half of this book thinking that it was a novel.  That's when I found the categorization on the back cover { history } and dug deeper.  Everything in the book that appears in quotation marks is an actual quote from a letter, telegram, memoir or court document.  It's a history book that reads like a novel.  You won't be able to put it down!

Next up on my list is the second book in The Hunger Games { Catching Fire }, followed by One Day and The Paris Wife.  But at the rate I'm going these days, and some upcoming travel, I sure could use some recommendations.

What's on your reading list for the summer?

PS - Devil in the White City is being made into a movie for release next year... with Leonardo DiCaprio starring as Daniel Burnham!