Books Set in Europe, Lisbon, Portugal

The Day of Atonement, by David Lisa (2014)

This novel takes place in 1755, the year of the Great Lisbon Earthquake.  The Inquisition is still alive and well and going after the New Christians.  Ten years earlier, 13-year-old Sebastião Raposa was whisked out of Lisbon, but his parents were killed by the Inquisition.  When Sebastião Raposa returns, he poses as the Englishman Sebastian Foxx, and vows to seek vengeance on those who harmed his parents.

Sebastian also wants to help Charles Settwell, an English trader who smuggled him out of Portugal.  Settwell has now fallen on hard times with the English after having converted to Catholicism.  Sebastian, upon learning of Settwell's circumstances vows to avenge Settwell, as well.

The novel is full of twists and turns.  Who is actually the villain, and who is to be trusted.  A satisfying historical novel.

Read: December 16, 2024

3 Stars

Benjamin Weaver Series:

    A Conspiracy of Paper; August 28, 2003

    A Spectacle of Corruption; June 28, 2010

    The Day of Atonement; December 16, 2024

    

    

Books Set in North America; United States

Deliberate Cruelty: Trumann Capote, The Millionaire's Wife and the Murder of the Century, by Roseanne Montillo (2022)

 

Deliberate Cruelty is about the rise and fall of Ann Woodward and Truman Capote, two prominent figures in New York society.  Their paths occasionally crossed, and Capote was “deliberately cruel” in his writings of Ann.

 

Ann Woodward (née Evangeline Lucille Crowell; 1915 – 1975) grew up in poverty in Kansas, but she had big dreams.  She changed her name and set off for New York, where she became a model, actress and nightclub dancer.  It was as a nightclub dancer that she met William Woodward, Sr.  They likely carried on an affair until the father introduced her to William Woodward, Jr.  The son was smitten, possibly as an act of rebellion against his tight-laced and monied family.

 

When Ann and William, Jr., married, Ann became the socialite she had dreamed of becoming.  Life was not all she expected, however.  Soon William, Jr., tired of her and the two began having very public fights.  One night in 1955, Ann shot and killed her husband, thinking that he was the prowler who had been breaking into homes in their posh neighborhood.  Although Ann was ultimately not convicted of her husband’s killing (a cover-up by her in-laws to avoid a worse scandal?), she was shunned from her former society life.

 

Truman Capote (1924 – 1984), was also born into poverty and came from a dysfunctional family.  He, too, had dreams of making it big.  With the publication of In Cold Blood, he became a household name and a fixture in New York society.  Capote became the confident of all the high society socialites, or swans as he called them. They spilled all their secrets to him.  Capote imagined his next book, which would be called Answered Prayers, to be a fictionalized account of all the tales that his swans had revealed.  The sordid scandal of the Woodward killing was red meat to Capote.  He took to calling Ann Woodward Mrs. Bang Bang.

 

Capote’s downfall came with the publication and article entitled La Côte Basque, 1965, which was published in Esquire magazine.  The story was a chapter from his incomplete novel Answered Prayers.  La Côte Basque, 1965, was a thinly veiled portrayal of his swans.  Once the story was published he was instantly cut off from high society, that had been so meaningful to him.

 

This was a fast and fun read.

 

Read: March 13, 2023

 

4 Stars

 

Books Set in the World: Unnamed city and country

The Maid, by Nita Prose (2022)

 

Molly Gray is a maid in a fancy hotel.  She takes pride in her work and lives to return hotel rooms to a “state of perfection”.  The novel is written in first person with Molly as the narrator.  She knows that she sees the world differently from others.  Her deceased grandmother has taught her how to interact with others.

 

She has few friends but takes people at face value.  She finds Rodney, the hotel’s bar tender, to be dreamy. When he sets a time to meet with her about a particular matter, she thinks she is on a date.  She is also friendly with Mr. Preston, the doorman, and Juan Manuel, the dishwasher.  Mr. Preston seems to care about Molly and, knowing that she perceives the world differently from most people, tries to warn her that not everyone has her best interest at heart.

 

One day, Molly goes in to clean a room only to find Mr. Charles Black, a very important and repeat guest in the hotel, dead on the bed.  Molly follows protocol and calls reception to report the death.  She takes careful note of the room but is unable to read the people involved in the investigation.  Soon, she finds herself as the prime suspect.  She knows she didn’t commit the murder and wants to clear her name.

 

The Maid is an absolutely delightful novel.

 

 Read:  January 15, 2023

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Paris France

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris, by Holly Tucker (2017)

 

This book is a fascinating look of life in Paris the reign of Louis XIV, King of France.  The book opens in in 1665 with the murder of the city’s criminal lieutenant.  He had been stabbed to death in his home by burglars. Shortly thereafter, one of his colleagues was poisoned.  Nicholas de La Reynie was then appointed to clean up the streets of Paris – quite literally.  Paris, during this period, was quite filthy.  Streets were littered with garbage and the contents of chamber pots.  The dark streets were a haven for thieves.  La Reynie installed gaslights to illuminate the streets at night.  Homeowner were mandated to keep the lights burning at night. That was just one of the reforms brought about by La Reynie.

 

As La Reynie continued to stop criminal activities, he uncovered a series of crimes that involved members of France’s nobility.  No one was safe from these mysterious criminal activities and black magic, not even the King himself.  La Reynie uncovered nobles employing witches to cast spells and create poisons to destroy their enemies.  Priests were in the clutches of dark rituals.  Some of the practices and crimes La Reynie found had direct ties to the King.

 

This is a fascinating window into the history of France and the city of Paris in the late 1600s

 

Read:  December 2022

 

4 Stars

 

Books Set in North America: United States, Newton, Massachusetts

Defending Jacob, by William Landay (2012)

Defending Jacob is a courtroom drama that centers around 14-year-old Jacob Barber who has been accused of murdering a classmate who bullied him.  The reader sees the story unfold through the eyes of Andrew Barber, Jacob’s father.

Andrew Barber is the First Assistant District Attorney in Boston.  As such, he was the first attorney called to the scene of the crime.  Andy, as he is known, works with the police on the initial investigation.  Has the First Assistant, he has the option to take case himself, or pass it on to another ADA.  He initially takes the case, and he focuses in on a suspect who is a known pedophile.

Suspicion, however, soon turns towards Jacob.  One of Jacob’s friend’s posts an incriminating statement of Facebook suggesting that “everyone” knows that Jacob committed the crime and he owned a knife, much like murder weapon.  Later Jacob’s fingerprint is found on the victim’s clothing.  Circumstantial evidence seems to pile up against Jacob.  Andy must be recused from the case and his former protégée, Neal Logiudice, takes over.

Jacob’s defense attorney must prepare for all possible defenses.  He looks into the family’s past for inherited violence.  For several generations, the men in Andy’s family have exhibited extreme acts of violence.  Andy never knew his father, Bloody Billy, who is serving a life sentence in prison.  Andy never shared this fact with his wife, but now he must.  This revelation blindsides Laurie, Andy’s wife, and she begins to question whether her son, Jacob, might actually be predisposed to violence and could have committed this brutal murder.

I enjoyed the courtroom scenes.  They were very true to life in a criminal trial.  The novel fell apart at the end with several events coming together that didn’t make sense.

Spoiler Alert:  Andy finally visited his father in prison and his father later arranges, unbeknownst to Andy, to have a hitman “protect” Jacob.  The hitman ultimately tracks down the pedophile, has him draft a confession, then hangs him.  Thus, Jacob, is a free man as the case against him is dismissed.  The family then goes on vacation, where Jacob meets a young girl named Hope.  The two connect, but when she goes missing, Laurie suspects her son might have something to do with her disappearance.  The novel ends with Laurie driving her car over a cliff and Jacob is killed.

Read:  December 23, 2021

3 Stars

Books Set in North America, Washington State, United States

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson (1995)

 

Snow Falling on Cedars is part trial novel, part mystery.  Set in San Piedro, a remote island in the Puget Sound in the 1950s, it takes place in the years after World War II, where Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American stands trial for the murder of fellow fisherman, Carl Heine.  Many of the men of San Piedro had fought in the War, and many are still skeptical of the Japanese.

 

Although Kabuo was born in the United States, and thus was American, he was born of immigrant parents.  Even before the War, there was considerable prejudice against the Japanese who lived on the island.  Furthermore, there were laws which prevented its Japanese citizens from owning land.  Underlying this novel is a feud between the Heine and Kabuo families.  Carl’s father had an arrangement to sell Kabuo’s father 7 acres of property for growing strawberries.  Kabuo’s father was making regular payments, but before he could make the final two payments, he and his family were sent off to an internment camp.  While Miyamoto family was interned, Carl Heine’s father died.  Carl’s mother, Etta, was a bitter and prejudiced woman, who took the opportunity to sell the land to another strawberry family.  When the Miyamoto family tried to claim their land, they were surprised to find it had been sold out from under them.  This feud brewed for many years.

 

When Carl was found drowned under suspicious circumstances, the local law enforcement was quick to settle on Kabuo as their prime suspect.  The novel begins with the trial, but the story is told in flashbacks as the reader meets the characters.  The reader learns their backstories and the interactions between the townspeople and the island’s Japanese community.  As evidence piles up against Kabuo, prejudices of the entire community are exposed.  The novel builds the suspense to the end.

 

Read first: December 29, 2003 / Second time: October 21, 2021 (for Hadassah Attorney Council Book discussion)

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Turkey

The Sultan’s Seal, by Jenny White (2006)

 

The Sultan’s Seal is a novel that takes place in the 1880’s, the final years of the Ottoman Empire.  When the body of a young English governess washes up on the shore of the Bosporus Strait, north of Istanbul, Kamil Pasha, a magistrate in the secular courts, wonders if there is a link between this death and a similar death of an Englishwoman that occurred 8 years earlier.  Kamil believes this will be a simple murder case.

 

Kamil’s first stop in the investigation is at the English Embassy, where he meets the Ambassador’s daughter, Sibyl.  Although she is English and he is Muslim, they form a friendship.  He tells her details of his investigation, and, because he is unable to meet with the women of the Sultan’s harem, Sibyl attempts to aid in the investigation.

 

The story line is rather convoluted and is far from a simple murder.  The novel is told through the voices of many characters.  The novel is more of a historical fiction than a mystery novel.  The author provides many details of daily life in Ottoman Turkey at this period of history, when there is clearly a tension between the Western influence in the country and the political area of the sultanate.

 

This novel is the first in the Kamil Pasha series.  I enjoyed the first part of the book much more that the final third.  As noted, the story line was convoluted and ultimately, I was not satisfied with the ending.  I learned about Ottoman culture but will probably not seek out other books in this series.

 

Read:  March 4, 2021

 

3.5 Stars

 

 

Books Set in Asia: Israel

Waking Lions, by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (2014)

Dr. Eitan Green is a young neurosurgeon who had been transferred to a remote hospital in the Negev because he refused to participate in a bribery scheme in his hospital in the city.  While driving home one evening after a long day at the hospital, he ran over and killed an Eritrean immigrant on a lonely stretch of the desert road.  He got out of his SUV to investigate, and, although the man was still alive, it was clear that the man was fatally injured.  Eitan got back in his vehicle and drove home to his wife and two young sons.

The next morning, the dead man’s widow, Sirket, knocked on Eitan’s door and handed him his wallet.  She told him to meet her late in the evening in a garage nearby.  Thinking that she wanted money, Eitan withdrew a large sum of money to bring to their rendezvous.  Sirket took the money, but she wanted so much more.

Illegal immigrants from Eritrea have been flooding into Israel and are in need of medical care.  Sirket quickly saw that she could blackmail Eitan into treating these people in return for his silence.  She demanded that he go to the garage each night after his daily rounds are over.  In order to do this, Eitan must begin a web of lies with his wife and with his boss at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Eitan’s wife, Liat, is a police detective.  She was assigned to investigate the hit-and-run.  Her fellow officers, however, were disinterested in tracking down the driver, since the victim was “just” an illegal.  Furthermore, they blamed the hit-and-run on young Bedouin boy, who refused to participate in his defense after he was arrested.

This is a novel of secrets.  As the layers of the characters are peeled back, the reader learns of the secrets each one carries and the price of those burdens.  The novel also investigates the complex relations between the Israeli, Bedouins and Eritreans.

The title of the book comes from an Eritrean proverb that says once a lion has woken up and tastes human flesh, it will never eat anything else again.  As we learn more about Sirket, we realize that she has become the woken lion.

Because Eitan is a neurosurgeon, the first few pages describe medical conditions.  I was struck by the description of the hit-and-run victim because my mother was also struck and killed by a car (although not a hit-and-run) and suffered a similar injury.

This is the best book I have read this year.

Read:  July 21, 2020

5 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States

Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933 ~ 1934, by Bryan Burrough (2004)

In the late 1980s, the files on the activities of the early years of the FBI were released.  The author, while watching a documentary on the Barker Gang, became intrigued by the first spate of criminals deemed Public Enemies.  This book is the result of his interest.  He poured over FBI files and wrote this comprehensive look at the FBI’s pursuit of four groupings of criminal gangs that were active in the early 1930s ~ Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger and the Barker Gang.

Although the FBI had been in existence since 1908 (as the Bureau of Investigation), in the early years, the agents were forbidden to carry weapons.  The philosophy was that they were an investigative branch ~ the arrests were to be accomplished by the local jurisdictions.

This changed in the 1930s.  The Great Depression brought with it a new kind of criminal ~ bank robbers.  It was the deadly Kansas City massacre of a number of law men that changed the face of the FBI.  In June 1933, a criminal gang led by Vernon Miller set out to free fellow criminal, Frank Nash, who was in Federal custody and was being transported in Missouri.  Miller’s gang ambushed and opened fire on law officers, killing four.  Nash was killed in the ensuing gunfire.  This massacre got the attention of the J. Edgar Hoover. It has been speculated that Pretty Boy Floyd was involved in the massacre, but this has not definitively been proven.

The FBI had few trained agents, and none with any really experience with weapons and very limited jurisdiction.  At the time, robbing banks was not under the jurisdiction of the Feds.  The FBI had to work with local law enforcement officers, some of which were also ill-equip to handle major crimes, or were not willing to work with the federal officers.

This book shows the growing pains of the early years of the FBI.  Homer Cummings, the United States Attorney General, had to convince Congress to expand the power and authority of the FBI.  Soon after the Kansas City massacre, the FBI was training its agents to use weapons.  Some of their interrogation procedures, however, left much to be desired.

The book delves into the activities of Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and the Barker Gang.

Dillinger came from a middle-class background.  He was good looking and was known to jump over bank railings when he robbed banks.  He was exceedingly polite.  He captured the public’s attention and was seen as a Robin-Hood figure in robbing banks. It was not his aim to hurt anyone during his crime sprees.  When he was ultimately betrayed and killed outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago, he had achieved near national folk hero status.

During this same period of history, Bonnie and Clyde were ruthlessly crossing the country, leaving a bloody path in their wake.  During their lifetime, they were largely unknown, except for the locales of their robbing and killing.  The FBI sought the couple, but bungled their investigative efforts.  In the end, it was a posse of local law officers who ambushed the two criminals.

The author also followed the exploits of the Barker Gang.  Although Hoover publicized that the “brains” behind the Barker Gang was the criminal’s mother, Kate “Ma” Barker, the FBI files showed that she was actually more concerned with jigsaw puzzles and had little before-the-fact knowledge of the gang’s criminal activity.

The FBI had a tip that Dillinger and his gang were holed up in an inn called Little Bohemia in northern Wisconsin.  The FBI agents, still without expertize in weaponry, badly misjudged the situation. In the dark of night, in a raid lead by Melvin Purvis, came upon the inn.  The FBI, mistaking local patrons leaving the inn for the Dillinger gang, began a shootout, killing the innocent patrons.  One federal agent was also killed, but Dillinger slipped through their fingers.

Baby Face Nelson was one of the most brutal criminals during this era.  He seemed to delight in terrorizing and killing victims during his robberies.  Agents trailed him all across the country before he was finally killed in another shoot-out in Illinois.

By the end of the 1934, the FBI had gained its footing and overcome the fumbles of its earlier year and was well on its way to the power and prestige is has today.

A fascinating and very readable book.

Read: August 2, 2019

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Maine

All the Beautiful Lies, by Peter Swanson (2018)

I picked up this crime thriller from the library solely because the novel is set in Maine.  I’m glad I found this author.  The descriptions of the small coastal Maine towns is spot on.

Harry Ackerson is just about to graduate from college when he gets a call saying that his father, who lived in a small coastal Maine town, had died when he fell off a rocky cliff on his daily walk.  Harry immediately returned home to his young step-mother, Alice, and to attend to funeral arrangements.

Harry’s father had run a rare bookshop in Manhattan, but after his wife died, he moved to Maine and opened a second shop.  After relocating to Maine, Harry’s father married Alice, his realtor.

Alice has a mysterious past.  We slowly learn the details as the chapter alternate between “Now” and “Then”.

After the autopsy is completed, the police begin to suspect that Harry’s father didn’t just fall, but believe he may have been murdered.  Then a mysterious young woman appears at the funeral.  Harry meets her to find out why she has come to town and to find out why she was interested in attending the funeral.

Harry learns that his father’s life was more complicated than he thought.  Who was responsible for his father’s death?  As the relationships between the characters unfolds, the mystery slowly unravels.

I found this book to be a very quick read and very enjoyable.

Read:  May 10, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York State

Lost Girls, by Robert Kolker (2013)

I am not sure what possessed me to pick up this book.  True crime stories are the sort of book I typically read.  This book follows the lives of 5 young women who were leading lives in the internet world of sex and drugs.  They found they could make a lot of money working on their own by advertising as escorts on such sites as Craigslist and Backpage.  The disappearance of Shannon Gilbert on Long Island leads the police on a search.  Instead, they find the bodies of four other women, all of whom were wrapped in burlap and buried in the marsh.  These women had been missing for several years, but no serious search had been performed, in part, perhaps to the fact that they were known sex-workers.

The book kept my interest, but mostly because I was on an airplane and it was the reading material available.  The book was not really well written, although it was in interesting look into this aspect of life.

Read: March 1, 2017

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Holland

The Dinner, by Herman Koch (2012)

Read: February 26, 2017

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Louisiana

Familiar Evil, by Rannah Gray (2015)

Read: April 20, 2016

2 Stars

Books Set in Canada: Quebec

The Beautiful Mystery, by Louise Penny (2012)

This book is one in a series of Chief Inspector Gamache detective/crime novels.  Although it is not the first book in the series, it is the first book I had read.   I will definitely read other books in this series.

The novel takes place in a remote monastery in deep woods of Quebec where 24 monks who have taken a vow of silence but for their chanting live.  A recording of their chants has made them world famous and brings money to the monastery.

The choir director, however, ends up dead in the abbot's private garden.  Chief Inspector Gamache and his side-kick, Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Surete du Quebec are called in to solve the murder.  The discover that all his not peace and quiet in the monastery and several of the two dozen monks could have a motive for the murder.

The book was well written and the outcome of the mystery satisfactory.  I look forward to reading about the Chief Inspector in other books.

4 Stars

Read: December 12, 2014

Books Set in Europe: England

Mistress of the Art of Death, by Araina Franklin  (2007)

3 Stars

Read: April 16, 2014

Books Set in the United States: New Jersey

One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich (1994)


Read: January 14, 2012

Books set in the United States: Kansas

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote (1966)


Read: February 19, 2011

Books Set in Europe: Sweden

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (2008)

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It has been on the best seller list and gotten rave reviews, but that doesn’t make it good literature. Larsson creates a very bleak picture of life in Sweden. The dominant theme is abuse of women by men. Interestingly, in Sweden, the book was entitled Men Who Hate Women.

The prologue of the novel begins with a mystery. An elderly industrialist (whom we later learn is Henrik Vanger) receives a framed pressed flower on his birthday, just as he has received for his birthday for the past 40 years. The recipient is unknown. The flower is a gentle reminder of the gifts his beloved grand-niece, Harriet, had given him before her disappearance and supposed murder in 1966.

The book next shifts to journalist and magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist. He had just been found guilty of libel. Disgraced, Blomkvist ostensibly removes himself from his magazine and is offered a job by Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkvist to investigate Harriet’s disappearance. The cover story that Blomkvist, however, is a history of the Vanger family. Harriet had disappeared from an island, so Vanger believes there is a limited number of suspects. Indeed, Vanger believes that a family member is responsible for Harriet’s murder.

Blomkvist takes the job because of the carrot Vanger dangles. He promises to deliver the executive who was the target of Blomkvist’s libel suit.

Finally, we meet Lisbeth Salander, the title character ~ Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She is an anti-social young woman with a photographic memory who freelances for a security company. She has amazing computer skills, many of which are illegal, which aid her in her security work. We get brief glimpses of her family life ~ her 48-year old mother is in a nursing home. Lisbeth visits her often, but the mother often confuses Lisbeth with her sister. Lisbeth has no close network of friends, and because she has had bad encounters with the police, she doesn’t seek legal assistance after she was brutally raped by her guardian.

Lisbeth had been initially hired to delve into Blomkvist’s past. Suddenly, the investigation was called off. Later, Blomkvist needs assistance in his Vanger investigation, so Lisbeth is called to assist him discover Harriet’s disappearance.

In a convoluted plot, Harriet’s murder seems to be connected to a number of murders that took place throughout Sweden in the 1950s and 1960s. As family members are interviewed, events lead Blomkvist to believe that maybe there is a copy-cat killer.

This is where the plot begins to unravel. A series of unlikely events occur, and, as if the book were the prelude to a movie script, there is a climatic scene where Blomkvist and the villain come to blows. Fear not, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes to Blomkvist’s rescue.

The resolution to the mystery is horrifying and one that came totally from left field. It didn’t fit with the initial portion of the book.

Larsson depicts how cruelly and sadistly the men treat women they encounter. Many women are tortured and raped. Blomkvist, however, isn’t cruel, physically, but has a lot of casual sex with nearly every women he meets. Even though he is more than twice her age, Blomkvist engages in a sexual relationship with Lisbeth, even after he knows how fragile she is emptionally. On wonders what scars his attitude toward such casual sex leaves on both Blomkvist and his women.

Once the Vanger mystery has been solved, Larsson turns to Blomkvist’s revenge on the executive who bested him in the libel suit. At this point in the novel, the plot totally falls flat. The reader doesn’t really care about the outcome. Lisbeth has virtually disappeared.

Although the book kept my attention, in the end, I found it lacking and unsatisfactory.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in a trilogy by Larsson. After reading this novel, I am not ready to run out and read the rest in this series.


Read: July 27, 2010

Books Set in the United States: Chicago

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (2003)

In 1893, Chicago hosted the Columbian World's Exposition celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the "New World." Chicago was at the time a city struggling to find itself. When it was awarded the honor of hosting the event, it had numerous challenges to overcome. The architectural firm of Burnham and Root had the task of creating the exhibition grounds. Early on in the planning, however, Root, who was the creative partner, died. Burnham enlisted the aid of numerous other well known architects to assist in the project, including Frederick Law Olmstead, of New York's Central Park fame, and Louis Sullivan. The end result was the beautiful "White City" of the exposition grounds.

At the same time Dr. Henry H. Holmes arrived in Chicago and built his own version of the "World's Fair Hotel" adjacent to the exposition grounds. His building, which he was able to create by firing workers after a few days, included random hallways, soundproof rooms, dissection tables, gas chambers and a 3,000 crematorium. Holmes was a psychopath with an uncanny ability to lie his way through any difficulty. He also had an ability to lure young women, who were beginning to leave their farms and come to the city to find work, to stay at his hotel, where he would torture and kill them. He was ultimately captured and incarcerated on insurance fraud charges. The murders came to light when a detective with the Pinkerton Agency began probing into the disappearance of three children and their deaths were linked to him.

This was a marvelous book, well written, and brought the end of the 19th century to life. The Columbian Exhibition helped Chicago become the city it is today, and had many visitors, including Buffalo Bill, Susan B. Anthony, and Theodore Dreiser.

Read: December 27, 2009