Welcome to Litsy!

As a native Chicagoan, any history that enhances my understanding of the city, and specifically the unique neighborhoods that create the puzzle that is The Second City, is a wonderful journey. Abbott weaves a historical account with the personal narrative of Chicagos most infamous madams making it both compelling, and informative. Nice to have such an engrossing account of Chicago outside of the prohibition/Capone narratives the city is known for.

I work at a community college and summer is when instructors often clean out their offices resulting in the sudden appearance of tables of free books 📚 now to find a place to put all of these 😆 #bookhaul

It‘s been a crazy few weeks. Accepted a new job, sold our house and moved my family from Ohio back to Chicago. It‘s been a bittersweet move but when you aren‘t getting paid your worth, it‘s time to move on. Especially as a healthcare worker during a pandemic #osuistheworst Unfortunately, it‘s been hard to get things read. I look forward to the slower pace now that we are settled in. Lots of pages to get caught up on.

Very interesting book about one of the most infamous brothels in American history, the Everleigh Club, along with the two sisters who ran it and the people who worked towards their downfall.
Chicago‘s history is always told revolving around the organized crime and violence, and while this story does have some of both, it‘s also a look at a lesser known topic.

This was a great read! Abbott captures Chicago in the early 1900s (and you can feel the lead up to prohibition), and she manages to not only bring history to life and keep it interesting, but she also only uses dialogue that comes from a source. The Everleigh sisters opened up a classy house of ill repute, and of course became the target of religious groups (who were against brothels, but also didn't like to help fallen women bc of course).

Being from Chicago, I‘d thought I‘d like this book a bit more than I did. Perhaps it‘s because I‘d read two Abbott books back-to-back that I found this one a bit dry. There are also a lot of characters to sift through and most of them could‘ve had a their own book. I‘d recommend reading it when you have time to fully research all the aspects of the Chicago crime syndicate and law enforcement.

So apparently I am drawn to books about brothels and madams in the early 20th century. 😆 Maybe I was a madam or a working girl in a previous life.

Soccer time!
New audiobook, first soccer practice and getting my walk in #bfcr3

Really interesting book - loved learning about the red light district of Chicago. I grew up there and had no idea it ever existed. #nonfiction #audiobook

Good advice!

Today‘s challenge is a combo of locations for me. I am only 3 miles from the Illinois. I hope to move closer to my family soon! #SetInYourState/Town #NewYearReads @bookloo @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This book has been on my shelves for 8years and it is still unread. Maybe someday I will get around to it unless someone here tells me I need to read it now! #novemberbythenumbers

I'm a huge fan of narrative nonfiction in general, and Karen Abbott specifically. I've read all her books and I can't wait to see what she does next #acityinthetitle #uncannyoctober @RealLifeReading

My #goldandsilver books. I've read most of these long ago, and I have to say, none of them standout to me. Are there any here I need to reread? #fallintobooks

Look what happened during my 6 hours driving today!!! I just joined #audible in September. Pretty good for an exact 6 month anniversary! #audiobooks

Minna and Ada Everleigh of Chicago's Everleigh Club, enterprising women who actually (unintentionally and by way of their practice of "white slavery" (by which I mean owning and operating a brothel)) helped found the FBI... Dive in for a fun ride through the late 19th/early 20th centuries in Chicago. Not the same style as Erik Larson, but Abbott's voice keeps you just as entranced. #brothelbooks #funhistory #USHistory

Interesting social history of the rise and fall of a segregated "vice" district in Chicago, as seen through its most famous madams. Also covers the hysteria over "white slavery" in early 20th century America. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#DavidCat and #TrickyCat listen with me to this audiobook about Chicago's most accomplished madams and their establishment at the beginning of the 20th century.

...."the blustery talk of civic leaders - and not Chicago's weather - had inspired the 'Windy City' moniker."
Born & raised in Chicago. The city & its history are forever in my heart. #SetInYrCity/Country #ReadJanuary @RealLifeReading

Good book about the early history of part of Chicago.

Fun non-fiction book about prostitution in Chicago at the turn of the last century. Would be a good companion read to The Devil in the White City.

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The coolest of the cool, the vice-iest of the vice-y

#AugustPhotoChallenge Impulse buy - Karen Abbott's Sin in the Second City. A non-fiction account of the two sisters who ran Chicago's Everleigh Club, the most notorious American brothel of the turn of the last century. Many noteworthy ministers and politicians of the era make appearances!

Born & raised in Chicago, the city will always be in my heart. I worked at Rush University Med Ctr. in my early nursing days as a labor & delivery nurse. Rheumatoid Arthritis forced me into an office setting in 2003. Started a new job last Monday. I married my Prince Charming last October. He indulges my love of reading. Life is good! #day14 #augustphotochallenge @TheSpinecrackersBookClub

Non-fiction is hit and miss with me; it has to be a very interesting topic and cannot read like a textbook. This novel meets both of these criterium perfectly! Reads like a fiction novel about very real people in the vice underworld of Chicago. It focuses on two women that wanted to run a classy brothel and they were pretty successful. Pair this book with Devil in the White City, as it follows shortly after those events.

Very interesting, readable nonfiction. I really enjoy Karen Abbott's writing and how well researched her books are.

Reading about vice lords makes me wonder how the names came to be: Bathhouse John; Hinky Dink; Pony Moore; and Mushmouth Johnson, are just a few touched on in Sin in the Second City. They certainly are creative...

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The reading never stops when you have 7 bookshelves that make up a TBR pile!

On to reading some of my borrowed books! Looking forward to this one!

Taking some pics for my blog today. Does this say "Well-Read Neck" to you? #somethingsjustgotogether

www.wellreadneck.wordpress.com

Your face when you've got 5 minutes left on your audiobook and your lunch break *just* ended. 😭😰

Don't ask me how in the span of a week I can go from reading My Life On the Road and We Should All Be Feminists to a book about a whorehouse. That's just how I roll. I do love some Chicago history, though.