As part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program, I was recently sent a copy of Careers in Crime: An Applicant's Guide by Michael Weinberg. This book is a send up of the typical job hunting books that try to cover the "best jobs" in a given field. It's filled with statistics, example of practioners of different jobs, and ratings. Each job is summarized, descriptions of working conditions, environment, likelyhood of arrest and more are given for each job from counterfeiter to prison wife.

This book seems to be exactly as advertised. It's funny, and actually informative on several levels. While not a book that you're likely to sit and read in one session, it's a great book to keep in the bathroom. Many sections made me laugh out loud and read them aloud to the people around me. (Oddly, sometimes people find this annoying.)

My only real complaint about the book had nothing to do with the writing. The copy editing was terrible. There were many misspellings as well as an entire paragraph that was cut off mid sentence. Usually with advance reading copies there is a note that it is not the final version, but this book did not carry that notice and didn't appear to be a specifically printed Advance copy.

Overall I'll give Careers in Crime a 3.5 star rating.

I finished Devil in the White City by Erik Larson yesterday. I think it read like two fairly interesting stories mingled together with little to no actual connection between the two. The writing was quite good though. It read fast and kept me interested. This book, after having read Empires of Light and Citizen has made me want to read more about the Columbian Exposition and Daniel Burnham.

Larson does a very good job of developing the personalities of the characters, and making you feel as if you know them. I think this is particularly difficult when writing non-fiction, as the information you have to work with is limited, yet you cannot just "fill in the blanks" from your imagination.

Wednesday night Salman Rushdie spoke at the Chicago Public Library (hat tip to Chicagoist for the heads up). I was able to get in at about 5:30 and the talk began just after 6:00. It was given interview style with a professor from Columbia College's writing department asking questions. Although the interviewer was very hard to hear, Mr Rushdie spoke clearly and was very enjoyable to listen to. In telling of his childhood, he presented a "post-modern limerick".

There once was a man from Japan Who could never get his limericks to scan When he was asked why He said, with a sigh "You see, it's because I always try to fit as many words as possible into the last line."

He mentioned that people seem to associate him primarily with the situation regarding the fatwa issued against him for The Satanic Verses, and thing that because this very serious thing happened to him, he must be a very serious author. This is not true. I find his books very entertaining. He spoke a lot about the nature of reality in writing (and in life) and said "The thing about memory is... it's always wrong." He pointed out that the important thing in telling a story is that the reality of the story is what is important. That has always been the mark of a great author to me. Naturalism doesn't take nearly the talent or skill that creating a whole world from your imagination and giving it its own reality does.

Afterwards, I was able to get my copy of The Ground Beneath Her Feet signed.