Thunderstruck - Erik Larson

When I saw that the author of Devil and the White City, Erik Larson, had written another book, I had to read it.

Thunderstruck is the non-fiction account of two figures who each captured the imagination of the western world at the beginning of the 20th century. Guglielmo Marconi was one of the driving forces behind the invention of wireless telegraphy. Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was an American doctor of homeopathic medicine, who in 1910, killed his wife. Larson tells the tales of these two fascinating men with the same engrossing style which he brought to Devil and the White City. The reader easily forgets that he is reading a work of non-fiction.

I happen to enjoy reading about the history of science and technology, but Larson's account of Marconi's development of transatlantic wireless telegraphy is accessible, and engrossing. One can't help but draw parallels between the the technological developments of the early 1900's and the early 2000's. The excitement and wonder with which the world embraced wireless is palpable.

I highly recommend Thunderstruck.

Still on the Bedside Table:

• W. Sommerset Maughm's Of Human Bondage
• Alan Furst's The Foreign Correspondant
• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
  
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

Bag of Bones - Stephen King

I give up! Not on reading, or even my less than faithful blogging. I've been trying to get interested in Stephen King's Bag of Bones, and I just can't do it. The book is bloated. I read about 125 of the book's 752. I've read plenty of books that are 1000+ pages that feel less ponderous than this one.

Perhaps I didn't give it a fair shake, but there are too many other books by great authors waiting on the bedside table. Maybe I'll pick this one up later.