By Shannon Cole

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

If you’ve heard of this book, I know what you’re thinking: the girl gets to recommend books to the city of Providence, and she talks up some book about Chicago?? But hear me out. Larson’s chronicle of the 1893 Colombian Exposition (aka the first World’s Fair) is part historical drama, part crime thriller, and an intense page-turner. Larson weaves together the tales of the two men whom popular history has all but forgotten, but to whom we owe so much: chief architect of the fair Daniel Burnham and H.H. Holmes, the first American serial killer. (more…)

Here at the Dose we don’t just waste our days away trolling the Internet for inane blather. I do, but the others don’t. They read! Books! Welcome new contributor Shannon Cole who’ll be checking is with us from time to time to tell us what we should be reading. Now I gotta go find me some lolcats…

Nicole Krauss’ novel The History of Love (2005) is the history of one love that weaves through languages and across continents in the form of a book (also titled The History of Love), and the lives it alters along the way. But don’t get confused. It’s not a romance novel — as evidenced by the repeated mentions of farting and the running list of tips on How to Survive in the Wild — and it never gets, you know, mushy. (more…)