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Academic Discourse at Havana by Wallace Stevens
All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
The Big Pony Race by Erica David
Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bye-Bye, Big Bad Bullybug by Ed Emberley
Camp Buccaneer by Pam Smallcomb
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
Child of the Owl by Lawrence Yep
Creole Ladies, Marti the Smuggler, Bullfighting by Maturin M. Ballou
Cuban Sketches (excerpt) by James Steele
Dancing Above the Waves by Susan Walerstein
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Evergreen by Belva Plain
Enfant Terrible by Scott Dalrymple
Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor
Flight of the Goose by Lesley Thomas
The Frog Prints by B. L. Harwick
Fullbrim's Finding by Matthew Hughes
A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis
Havana Letter by William Cullen Bryant
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
LoveHampton by Sherri Rifkin
Marlin off the Morro by Ernest Hemingway
The Minister's Wooing by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
My Pet Virus by Shawn Decker
Nana Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa
Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen
The Penthouse Mystery by Ellery Queen
Reader's Guide by Lisa Goldstein
Red as Blood by Tanith Lee
The Roberts by Michael Blumlein
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Sea Gift by John Ashby
Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
Singing to Cuba (excerpt) by Margarita Engle
Spiders and Scorpions: A Look Inside Series by P. D. Hillyard
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda
Unholy Domain by Dan Ronco
Virus Games by G. L. Sheerin
Zen of Fish by Trevor Corson

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Good Thing We Didn't Have Any Plans

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5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


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Sin in the Second City: 07/13/08

"I'm getting Everleighed tonight." (p. 22) That quote, part slogan and part red light district slang sums up Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott best.

This well researched book with an ample bibliography and notes section covers the rise and fall of the Everleigh Club in Chicago. As there are so many people of interest on both sides of the issue (those running the brothels and those trying to close them down) that the Abbot includes her own three page cast of characters.

At the start of each short chapter, Abbott includes a photograph or illustration from the time period. They are all captioned: either with the original caption or with relevant information for the upcoming chapter. These old pictures were my favorite part of the book. I wish the cover art could have been taken from one of these instead of being a stock photo of an unknown woman.

The strength and weakness of Sin in the Second City stems from the same source: its abundant information. As the timeline progresses and I'm guessing source material becomes more reliable and readily available, it becomes more difficult to keep track of the events while reading. As a source of research material Sin in the Second City will be very valuable. As pleasure reading, it needs to be taken slowly and passages reread for full comprehension.

If you haven't read Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, I suggest reading it as a companion book to Sin in the Second City. Although fiction, it helps fill in the gaps of what Chicago was like during the Everleigh sister's stay.

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