Library Research: My Perfect Read: Sharon Wasserman

Sharon Wasserman

Sharon Wasserman reading Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City.

Connecting people with great reads is one of the best parts of my job. Whether I'm drawing on my own reading experience or exploring the stacks to help someone find that "just right" book, it's that matchmaking element that makes readers' advisory so much fun for me.

I read broadly because I never know what will fit my state of mind at a certain moment. I may be in the mood for fiction (literary fiction, mystery or psychological thrillers) or non-fiction (chiefly history, biography, essays and true-crime).

I developed my interest in true-crime around 2003 after reading Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City. I was amazed at the author's skill in weaving together the — admittedly horrific — true-crime narrative with an account of the planning and construction of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. I was hooked, and I've been seeking out Larson's books — and similar titles — ever since. As for fictional crime, I’ve been drawn to mysteries since I was a child reading the Bobbsey Twins, and later graduating to Agatha Christie (Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot) and Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe). My current favorites include series by Ian Rankin, Tana French and Jo Nesbo.

I'm an avid knitter and love to talk with other knitters and would-be knitters. Knitting is a great hobby for audiobook fans who want to multi-task! I enjoy combining my love for knitting with travel, recently taking a cruise to East Asia with several other knitters.

If your reading interests sound similar to mine, get in touch!

Genres of Interest:

Narrative non-fiction
- Biographies
- History
- Essays
- True crime
Literary fiction
Mystery
Psychological thrillers

True Crime

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll

Fiction

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Atonement by Ian McEwan
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Pompeii by Robert Harris
Out by Natsuo Kirino

Mysteries

In the Woods by Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad)
Black and Blue by Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus)
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (Harry Hole)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot)

Good for a laugh

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
Hyberbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse
Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson
Anything by Bill Bryson
Anything by David Sedaris

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
ISBN: 9780609608449
Publication Date: 2003-02-11
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds--a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.
Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
ISBN: 9781594202438
Publication Date: 2010-02-18
Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook --chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler--investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, Barnum and Bailey's Famous Blue Man, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler work with a creativity that rivals that of the most imaginative murderer, creating revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. Yet in the tricky game of toxins, even science can't always be trusted, as proven when one of Gettler's experiments erroneously sets free a suburban housewife later nicknamed "America's Lucretia Borgia" to continue her nefarious work.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
ISBN: 9780385534246
Publication Date: 2017-04-18
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.
In this last remnant of the Wild West--where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the "Phantom Terror," roamed--many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization's first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
Midnight in Peking by Paul French
ISBN: 9780143121008
Publication Date: 2012-04-24
Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives--one British and one Chinese--race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?

In my job as the Branch Manager at the Great Falls Library, I am usually at work Monday through Thursday and alternate Fridays and Saturdays. I will get back to you as quickly as possible, but please allow a day or two for me to respond.

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