"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

*** out of ****

This is a brilliant non fiction book about the Chicago world fair in 1893...'92? Wow, I just finished the book and I can't even remember the year the fair took place in. Well, that should show you how well I retain information. ^_^ Anyway, whenever the fair was, that's when the book takes place. It alternately chronicles the construction and running of the fair and the exploits of H. H. Holmes, a notorius serial killer.

Most of the time I don't particularly like historical non fiction, but my dad lent me the book so I decided to give it a shot. I was more than pleasantly surprised. I find most historical non fiction dry and boring, but Larson is anything but boring. There were a couple segments that seemed to drag on, but most of the time Larson keeps you completely sucked in. Larson spends less than half the book on killer Holmes, making the book more about the fascinating aspects of the construction of the fair than sensationalistic true crime, which I thought was really nice, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

One of the things I loved most about the book was the way Larson would sneak in passages about famous historical figures. He'll write a paragraph or two about when they visited the fair, or something they said, before revealing their identity. It never failed to make me smile. ^_^ More nice touches were the excerpts from letters written by people figured prominantly into the book, menus from society dinners, and even a list of ailments that the hospital at the fair treated patients for. More interesting factoids were all the various things that were invented especially for the fair, like Pabst Blue Ribbon beer! XD

Well worth the read!