The first book that I
read written by Erik Larson was In the
Garden of the Beast. From the minute that I started this book, I was hooked
on it and how the author wrote it. I have come to admire and appreciate Larson
as a writer. What I like about his books is the way he has crafted them. There
are actually two parallel narratives going on at the same time.
In
the Garden of the Beast, the story centers on the first American
Ambassador to Germany and the other story is the rise of Hitler and the horrors
that he inflicted.
Devil
and the White City centers around a serial killer during the
Chicago World’s Fair. The writer takes the reader through the World’s Fair and
how it has come to Chicago and the major people responsible for the Fair.
Thunderstruck
follows a man who killed his wife as he tries to escape aboard a ship to
America. The parallel narrative is about the invention of the radio by Marconi
and how it played its part in this story.
Isaac’s
Storm is about the great hurricane of 1900 in Galveston,
Texas, which completely destroyed the town and killed over 6,000 people. The
other story is about the meteorologist who failed to understand fully what was
happening and failed to alert the people of this devastating story storm.
Larson’s books are not
just interesting, well-crafted stories, but they are also filled with
historical names, facts and moments. That is the way that I love my books to be
– hearty, factual, filled with “the meat” and not just filled with fluff. Larson delivers everything that I want in a
book.
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