Maybe when I started keeping track of what I read is when I decided to challenge myself. I wanted to have something to write about a book, something other than the plot. When a book speaks to you, the plot becomes a little less important.
In 2003 I decided I wanted to keep a written record of the books I read. I mainly did this because I couldn’t remember everything I wanted to-- about the books I had taken the time to read. A few years later, Steve gave me a little journal called “Books to Check Out”. There was a section called “favorite books/passages.” I had never thought about copying down my favorite passages. I often underlined my favorite parts, but the books didn’t always belong to me so writing in them wouldn’t have done me any good. Now I have a “review” journal and a few “quote” journals. The quotes are almost always longer than my reviews.
Here’s my first review:
A Dry Spell by Susie Malony
Completed in the wee hours of June 23, 2003
A banker named Karen Grange writes to a rainmaker named Tom Keatley.
The town of Goodlands, North Dakota has had a drought for four years. Karen hates having to foreclose on the people of her community. She has finally found a place where she fits.
Vida Whalley takes revenge and plants a seed of fear into the people by secretly causing bad things to happen. She becomes possessed by a woman whom the author leaves us clueless about. We only know her name and that she lived on the property about 100 years prior to Karen Grange.
The spirit is punishing the town and Tom must fight it in order to bring the rain. The spirit kills Vida and tries to kill Karen. After she nearly dies, and they are both struck by lightening, Karen and Tom fall in love.
I liked the book. The author should have told us more about the spirit and why it is so angry.
Here’s the first book I copied quotations from and the book review that goes with it:
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage, 2004)
“His genius was betrayed by lofty and indomitable traits of character which could not yield or compromise. And so his life was a tragedy of inconsequence” (pg. 174).
“Why should the wealth of the country be stored in the banks and elevators while the idle workman wanders homeless about the streets and the idle loafers who hoard the gold only to spend it in riotous living are rolling about in fine carriages from which they look out on peaceful meeting and call them riots?” (pg. 315)
“To me every trip to a library or archive is like a small detective story. There are always little moments on such trips when the past flares to life, like a match in the darkness” (pg. 396)
The Review:
June 27, 2006
I don’t normally read nonfiction or historical fiction, but I enjoyed this book. I agree with the reviews from Esquire because I am asking myself, “Why didn’t I already know this historical information?’
I learned quite a bit about architecture and the history of American Architecture. I learned that Frederick Law Olmstead had some very strong views about landscape architecture and designed central park.
John Welborn Root and Danial Hudson Burnham started an architectural firm in Chicago and made some great changes. Root came up with a way to solve the problem of Chicago’s lack of bedrock by inventing the floating foundation.
The White City sounds like it would have been awesome see. I learned a lot about what was going on in 1893.
The Murderer H.H. Holmes seems to be a pretty terrible guy, much like any serial killer. The science of how he might be thinking, and how he plans and gets away with his crimes is interesting.
It would be cool to be a profiler and try to figure out how these people think.
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