The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner

What a read! Faulkner is a total headache...if you let him be, but brilliant at the same time. This book has been on my shelf a long, long time, and although somewhere back in the gene pool we are related (this correlated to me liking his stuff, how??), it has never been something that I was easily drawn to. Notoriously difficult. I still can't believe this is Katie's favorite author. I must admit, I'm a Faulkner virgin. Thus, I had nothing else to compare this to, nor really knew what I was getting myself in for. I sought guidance alot online when the storyline was too convoluted for me. I do, however, highly recommend it -- if nothing else, just to appreciate Faulkner's signature style.

This is the story of the Compson family, a dying member of aristocracy in the South. On the surface, it is about 3 brothers and how their sister, Caddie, affects each one of them. It's about family : good, bad and ugly and how each of us are affected by the clan that we come from. It's told from different points of view, each with a differing style.

I've included a bit here that I stole from someone else to give you a jist:

The opening section, told from Benjy’s point of view, was particularly difficult. Because of Benjy’s mental illness, he doesn’t understand the difference between past and present. So all of the stories he tells about his family that occur in the past are told as if they are currently happening. To add to that confusion, the scenes we see through Benjy’s eyes are not told linerally – they are told out of order, and only after many careful readings of the section was I able to put all the pieces in to their correct place. Quentin’s section, however, was almost more difficult to read, seeing as how I expected him to be able to narrate much more smoothly. But his constant neroticism kept muddling up his narration, although I found the scene when he and Caddie discuss killing themselves to be absolutely wonderfully crafted. After these two highly difficult sections, it was a relief to get to Jason’s section and the final portion, narrated by an omniscient 3rd person. True, Jasons whining was really extreme, but at least he complained in a normal, easy to understand fashion.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Erik Larson

I am always a sucker for a good historical non-fiction, so this book ranked right up there for me. I was not only able to fly through it (thanks to some long flights), but I was captivated with the story and all that I was learning. This book includes two parallel stories that took at the same time: during the World's Fair in Chicago, IL, 1893. First story being about the extraordinary events that took place surrounding Chicago winning the bid for the World Expo and all of the unusually difficult odds that were beat to pull this fair together. I can't say that I knew much about this historical event before, but now I totally have an appreciation for the thrust this Fair gave mankind into the 20th century. Can we say Ferris Wheel? Shredded Wheat? PBR? The second story was about a psychopathic doctor who built a torture palace and murdered many (mostly) women during the time the Fair was in town. Each woman's murder being a remarkable feat.

Both stories are so well written, so meticulously researched, that both are to the point of being otherwise unbelievable. I truly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it for anyone knowing very little about the World's Fair in Chicago.

"Cities began to see it as a prize to be coveted, mainly for the stature it would confer, stature being a powerful lure in this age when pride of place ranked second only to pride of blood." Part 1, Page 16