The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

Gruesome. Scary. Devastingly awful. That's what I thought of the bleak scene painted in Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road, as I read it in a two-night marathon. I couldn't put it down. The world as we know it has ended, and yet what has caused the end is never told. The land is covered with ash, in many places, the trees are burnt, the tires of cars melted, bubbled into softened pavement. Corpses sunken, beyond recognition lie along the road, in empty, decrepit houses. And a father and a son, both also never named, travel this road trying to survive despite long periods of starvation, lack of water, of shelter from the snow and wind. More grievous, more threatening are the tribes of "bad guys" as the son calls them who scavenge, steal, rape young boys and women, and then kill all they encounter to eat--that's the "bad guys" version of surviving. Beyond all hope, the boy and his father endure until the very end. What a read. An unusual read, to be sure. But considering I could not put it down, perhaps it was because of that pull of love amidst the destruction and waste that would have devastated most that kept me reading on.

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

When I started this book, I was thrilled that I'd be going to Chicago for my sister's wedding, right to the heart of where the story takes place. Only, when I was there, I kept trying to figure out where oh where was the World's Fair and the time-consuming structures that had been erected over a century ago, where had it been located? Later, nearly at the end of the book I find out that very little of the landscape or architecture survived beyond that year in 1893. Much of it was destroyed in riots, none of the buildings really meant to last. All the effort for a single year. Unbelievable. Behind the design and the construction is architect Daniel Burnham who oversaw the building of the fair. George Washington Gale Ferris, too, left his mark, little known until his namesake left an indelible mark on every fair and festival thereafter with his Ferris wheel. The Ferris Wheel was almost a losing bid among the others who attempted to outdo the Eiffel Tower, if you can believe it. And the creepiest of creeps, Herman W. Mudgett, lived just a few miles away, committing murder after murder in a building he'd designed himself, complete with hidden doors and gas pipes exposed, vats, and kilns big enough for bodies. It's the shadow of this evil that darkens the otherwise white city, so named because all the buildings erected for the fair were painted white. Larson does an admirable job tying these story lines together, and bringing in bits and pieces of history, a history that includes Susan B. Anthony, Buffalo Bill, and even the sinking of The Titanic. A must read, if you believe me.