Books - Quarter 2

Is this already the end of the second quarter of 2013?  The year is half over already???  I feel like I better start doing some fun stuff to make the year last longer.  Anyway, I don't know what I have been doing, but reading has not been one of them!  I only got through one book in 3 months.

2. This book was one that was on my To-Read list for awhile.  It was a good book, but not what I had in mind.  It reads part fiction and part non-fiction.  Let me explain: It takes place in the era of when the World's Fair comes to Chicago back in 1893.  It is a work of non-fiction with dramatization, not unlike "based on true story" books and TV shows.  This is true crime that occurred during the World's Fair.  The boring parts for me, but interesting because it is how history was made, were the sections regarding how the Fair came about and who was in charge of what and the difficulties that the organizers and architects faced in order to meet the Fair's Opening Day in time.  Interesting because the Fair was when the Ferris Wheel was born and other inventions such as mass electricity, fireworks and Shredded Wheat debuted.  You learned that Frank Llyod Wright was an architect that was fired from a firm that did not win the bid for Fair and other interesting tidbits of historical information.  The interesting parts were the demonic ways of a silent serial killer on the loose during this time.  He used the lure and excitement of the Fair to gain property, loans, false identities and especially women.  He would lure women with his charm, and dupe them into signing over any property they had with dreams of marriage and extravagant trips.  Once he got what he wanted he would murder them in gas chambers that he built and in other horrific ways.  He went undetected as a serial killer and only was caught when he tried to cash in a life insurance policy on someone that he killed or so it would seem they died "accidentally"; he was caught for insurance fraud .  That was when they explored his personal belongings and uncovered another world in which he lived in.  The Fair and the serial killer story lines occurred in parallel, so reading this book tended to go slow during the historical parts.  It was a good book, well written based on hundreds of letters, other types of correspondence, photographs, trips to the Chicago archives and countless other sources of information.  One must be a great writer, to piece all of these events gathers from various sources to make a book that coherently tells this story of a great World's Fair.

I am getting burnt out on my knitting and crocheting projects, so I think I am taking a break from them for awhile.  I will do some sewing projects and some reading this summer.  I do love yarn and want to buy pattern books of beautiful pieces to create and soft yarn to touch, but I must resist!  I have a ton of yarn and a ton of books; I do not need to buy anymore.  I can finish my Scrappy Quilt that I have pushed the pause button on.  That should tide me over for a bit.

Is anyone else in a crafting slump?  Knitters block?  Eye twitching from too much reading?  Let me know...