[jojo]

Originally Posted by Boomer

May I suggest Erik Larson. I have seen a review that called him “the master of narrative non-fiction.”

Larson somehow weaves a “story” in with his non-fiction topic. His research is meticulous, but he makes non-fiction read like a novel. (He, of course, includes an extensive bibliography of his reference sources.)

The one I read was The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. (pub. date 2003)

Serial killers and true crime are not my thing to read about, but I could not put this book down. Set in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair, Larson tells the true story of a psychopath, but most of the book is about the fair itself and the people who planned it — and the human nature of the crowds who attended.

That is the only Larson I have read, but Mr. Boomer has read almost all of them. His recent read was the newest one by Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. (pub. 2020) When he starts reading a book by Larson, he finishes it fast.

Thunderstruck (pub. 2006) is about Marconi along with the story of what the synopsis calls “a very unlikely murderer.”

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (pub. 1999) is about the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900.

In the Garden of the Beast: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (pub. 2011)

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (pub. 2015)

I included the publication dates because you might be able to find a “gently used” copy at a good price — if you are into book-books. (I have become increasingly into Audible and Kindle but know many others who like a book in their hands.) The Fruitland Park branch of Lake Co. Public Library used to have a nice store, but I have not been in for a while.

You can learn a lot of history from Larson, but there is nothing dry about the way he writes it.

Marian Boomer

The Splendid and the Vile is a favorite for me. Highly recommend. Churchill was masterful creating a sense of fearlessness in Great Britain. Fascinating accounts of wartime in Britain and the Nazi propaganda machine that counter each other's perspectives.