Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

by Karen Abbott | History |
ISBN: 0812975995 Global Overview for this book
Registered by book8 on 11/9/2014
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This book is in a Controlled Release! This book is in a Controlled Release!
4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by book8 on Sunday, November 9, 2014
I read this and enjoyed learning about the Everleigh sisters and Chicago during their heyday. It was interesting to see all of their big name connections. A snippet about them can be found here: https://chicagology.com/notorious-chicago/everleigh/ on this interesting website of Chicago history.

Journal Entry 2 by book8 at Springfield, Illinois USA on Thursday, June 25, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (6/25/2015 UTC) at Springfield, Illinois USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

RABCK mailed to CollectorKerri in Springfield, IL. Enjoy!

If you find this book, it is yours to read, keep or release! Please leave a journal entry so that I can follow this book's journey! Happy reading! - book8

Journal Entry 3 by collectorkerri at Springfield, Illinois USA on Sunday, June 28, 2015
Received this wishlist book as a RABCK from a super-generous BookCrosser along with a boxful of other wishlist books. Thanks so much, book8!

Journal Entry 4 by collectorkerri at Springfield, Illinois USA on Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Wow, what a story. I am from the Chicago suburbs and I knew that the city always has had problems with corruption and vice--sadly, that now includes a sky-high homicide rate--but I had no idea about how connected the lawbreakers, the law and the city government were until I read this book. The Everleighs were a couple of fascinating women. I would love to have been able to sit down and have a conversation with them.

Fans of this book also will want to read The Devil in the White City, another true story set in roughly the same time period. There are a lot of parallels, and they both are exhaustingly researched.

The book now heads to Firegirl in Virginia as part of the Nonfiction Virtual Bookbox.

Journal Entry 5 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Monday, October 10, 2016
Arrived safe and sound. I read, and enjoyed, The Devil in White City, so expect to like this too. Thanks for sending it my way.

Journal Entry 6 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Thursday, January 11, 2018
I definitely enjoyed reading this. It really gives a launching point for discussion on the idea of legalizing prostitution, which seems to get kicked around every now and again. (I know my friends talk about it from time to time.) The Everleigh sisters had a brothel that sounds similar to the nicer ones in the small patches of Nevada (not Las Vegas, contrary to popular belief) where they are legal. Their brothel had women there of their own accord who dressed, ate, behaved, and spoke well. Who studied poetry and went to a "finishing school", of a sort. They saw a doctor regularly and were well cared for by their madams. Their house is contrasted to the lesser houses where women were often abused and mistreated. The book also explores the crooked side of Chicago at the time - payoffs and "protection" money, law men who looked the other way, etc. We are even introduced to Al Capone, as he comes upon the scene. Fascinating stuff.

It seems the sisters are buried not far from where I live. I plan to make a trip to the cemetery to find their headstones. I'll be sure to post a photo when I do. Thanks much for sharing!

Journal Entry 7 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Monday, February 19, 2018
Today I made it out to visit the Everleigh sisters' graves. I was surprised and delighted to see someone else had paid their respects, as there was a little empty bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label whiskey at each gravestone. I've attached a photo, though the bottles are difficult to see in such a small picture.

Journal Entry 8 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Thursday, February 22, 2018

Released 6 yrs ago (2/22/2018 UTC) at Annandale, Virginia USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to Georgia as a RABCK. Enjoy! (Counts for the 2018 "Keep Them Moving" release challenge.)

Journal Entry 9 by wingtempestsanswing at Canton, Georgia USA on Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Shared to me by my sweet friend, Firegirl. I just finished this book and have thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is a first book by author Karen Abbott and as such I was impressed by the book and how well she handled the subject matter. Abbott's book tells an amazing story unified around the history of Chicago's Red Light district. As one might expect from a history of Chicago during the time from 1900, the story held plenty of Chicago political corruption. This book also provides an small in depth look into religious and secular movements of the time and the intersection of those movements with the Everleigh Club brothel owner sisters, Minna and Ada (Everleigh/Lester). The book covers the moderately successful young madams who moved to Chicago, procured a 50 room mansion in a fashionable part of Chicago's red light district (the Levee) and turned it into arguably, the most fabulously wealthy revenue generating, elite brothel the world has ever seen.

Don't expect any particularly titillating material but do expect a good read about the Levee. Abbott includes lots of historical detail and explores amazing personalities, the business of sin, corrupt politicians, graft, and the particular emphasis on the Everleigh House with it's two sister proprietresses. The story slowed at points and I would have loved to see it even more focused on the sisters but I still found the book both enlightening and entertaining.

I'm not a bit history reader and this book really reads more like a novel. To me the perfect melding of the two. I look forward to finding more of Karen Abbott's work on m TBR.

Journal Entry 10 by wingtempestsanswing at Canton, Georgia USA on Sunday, April 8, 2018

Released 5 yrs ago (4/1/2018 UTC) at Canton, Georgia USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

handed off to my friend hannah who indicated she was interested in reading this one after we'd had a short discussion about it. enjoy and share it forward my friend.

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