I am sick today. I lost my voice. So it's a bad day for conversation. But a good day for napping, blogging, and reading. Out of sympathy for my plight, I think you should read Metropolis.
Go read this novel by Elizabeth Gaffney right now.
It's a romance. It's a heist/caper. It's a gangland saga. It's a musical (without the music).
There's a museum of freaks, beasts, and oddities--on fire, including a tiger tiger burning bright. There's a secret tunnel in the sewers. There are canes decorated with silver monkey heads. There's an unwanted pregancy which was obviously tossed into the book as an ill-disguised excuse to show off the author's research into birth-control options in 1870s New York--and it's so interesting that you don't mind. There is a character with the last name "Undertoe".
Go. Get. Read. Now.
Labels: book, research, urban morphology