Novel 4

The fourth Novel I read was called "Where All Our Dreams Come True" by Jack L. Cunningham Jr. This book was the first fictional story I've read, and was about three Swedish siblings immigrating to New York in the early 1920s. They knew very little English, and only had each other to rely on until they could afford to bring their parents over as well to this new, and what they imagined to be a land of great opportunity. However, they quickly realize that every land has their problems, and their dreams were further out of their reach than they expected. The only person to get a job was Edward, the eldest brother as a policeman.

The younger brother and sister then moved to Chicago quite early in the book, since they had often been told that many more Swedish people lived there, as well as had more work opportunities. This proved to be true when Susannah (the sister) finds a job at a ritzy hotel, which we later find out is where Al Capone and his gang hold weekly meetings. Soon after, John finds a job at a steel mill, and discovers the reality behind Unions, which soon encourages him to take a different job. They learn more and more about the realities of Chicago and life as the book goes on.

It took a while for me to warm up to this book, since I considered the writing to be mediocre, with plenty of unnecessary and repetitive details. However, I eventually understood the author's writing pattern, and could identify when I could skip over a few lines (he had a tendency to beat around the bush). In the long run, I got an introduction to Unions in the 1920s, which I hadn't even considered before, so I'm quite glad that I got the perspective from this book.

Chicago Pictures (Architecture, Fashion, and Books)

http://hubpages.com/hub/Chicago-Illinois

http://chicagotheroarin20s.tripod.com/the1920s.html

http://gracchii.blogspot.com/2007/04/murders-in-early-20th-century-chicago.html

http://lernerbooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/covering-age-of-innocence.html

http://www.leisuregalleries.com/bishopb.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pantufla/416037600/

Novel 3

The book I have been reading now is called "The Untouchables" by Eliot Ness. This is the true story of how Mr. Ness and his 8 partners brought down the infamous, 'untouchable' Al Capone during Prohibition. The story starts in 1929 and continues into 1933.

I found this book very interesting-- a real page turner. I loved the way the action, adventures, and characters were described in this story, and it made it ten times better to know that this was what really happened and that those people were real. It seemed to be a life of action, adventure, and even a little flirtation. I was very impressed with how Mr. Ness and his partners handled the whole ordeal. They seemed to have everything thought out. They even had a guy on their team who could understand Italian, so if they were ever eavesdropping or anything, they would be able to know what the gangs were saying, and it sure came in handy.

This story made me wonder how action packed the life of a cop is nowadays. Is it still just as exciting and interesting? What kind of encounters do they have? It just makes me all the more interested in becoming a journalist so that maybe one day, I'll be able to interview and report on people and stories like this.

Novel 2

I began reading 1001 Afternoons in Chicago by Ben Hecht.

It's a series of short stories about various happening in Chicago from the 20's, and each story is told by a journalistic view. However, the interesting thing about this journalist is the way he writes in a story like manner. Honestly, it was a little hard for me to get used to because the writing style was so different than what I was used to, but it managed to keep me reading it. It helped that there were a lot of hand drawn pictures that went with each story, which isn't something I see very often anymore.

Hecht has a very choppy sort of writing style. For example, on page 198, he writes:

"Her face. Oh yes, poor girl, she worked too hard. But what could she do? Only work."

This sort of writing is consistent throughout the book, but I thought that this line was a very good representation of his writing as a whole. His narration seems to switch from observations to personal comments and/or what others are saying around him regarding the subject. It makes the reading a bit confusing, but at the very least, it always kept me guessing.

Books Published in the 1920s

Books published in the 1920s:

http://www.caderbooks.com/best20.html

Some important authors that resided in Chicago during the 1920's include: Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley,Robert Sherwood, George S. Kaufman, Franklin P. Adams, Marc Connelly, Harold Ross, Harpo Marx, and Russell Crouse. (http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade20.html)

Political Developments:

-Prohibition

-The case of Leopold and Leob (A murder case)

-Nomination of Warren G. Harding to run for president with Calvin Coolidge as his vice president.

-Presidential election in 1920 (Post WW1)

- Calvin Coolidge is elected president in 1924

-Hoover is elected president in 1928

Honors Blog 1/ Novel 1

The first book I've been reading is a non-fiction called "Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful killers who inspired CHICAGO." It's all about Chicago back in the 1920's. It talks about the different murderesses who were infamous at that time, as well as the newspapers that reported on them, such as The Chicago Tribune.

In the book, it explains that the murderesses of this story were seen as beautiful by their society back then--so beautiful, in fact, that men would send them roses, chocolates, and steak dinners while the women were in prison. Back then, many women got let off the hook, and wouldn't end up being in jail for too long, because people believed that it was unnatural for women to do such things, and must have been caused by physical or mental abuse by their significant others. Some might have even been considered too pretty to be sent to jail.

Many of these women were just fine with being in jail, and took pride in the articles that were written about their recent crimes (especially since most journalists never failed to point out their loveliness). The girls of Murder City were quite illustrious.

Another part of this book that I find fascinating is the descriptions about The Chicago Tribune, and their competing newspapers. Apparently, reporters back then were extremely direct and determined to get the story first. One of the main things that made the newspapers in Chicago especially interesting was all the scandalous murders and interesting criminals that resided there. The reporters would bribe police to letting them into the interrogation room while they were interrogating a suspect, and would even throw in a few questions of their own for the suspect. Another common practice was for the reporters to join the criminals in their jail cell, and ask them questions as they played a card game, or something else along those lines. I love this imagery, and am fascinated in the fact that people really did this, because I'm pretty sure that that is not allowed anymore. It makes me even more interested in becoming a journalist. It just seems like it would be so exciting to talk to so many different kinds of people in all of these different environments. It's something I've always wanted to do, so reading about it makes me even more excited than I was before.

I can't wait to learn more about the tough industry of journalism and crime.