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