Annotated lists of books receiving at least one starred review from one of four major review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, LJ and PW. The review source assigns the star.
(lists of new and notable books - lists are sortable and can be downloaded)
A list of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist (BL), Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus, and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on this list. Titles are listed by date, then alphabetically by author.
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.
KirkusKirkus PWPWKirkus PW KirkusKirkus PW LJ KirkusPWKirkus LJ Booklist PWThe Year of Jubilo: A Novel
of the Civil War
Author: Bahr, Howard
Publisher: Henry Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805059725
Kirkus PW
Written with scrupulous respect for historical accuracy, The Year of Jubilo
is the story of Civil War soldier Gawain Harper, who returns to his home in
Cumberland, Mississippi, only to find that a showdown awaits him that once again
pits South against North, and dignity against defeat.
Library JournalIn the Fall
Author: Lent, Jeffrey
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly $ 25 ISBN: 0871137658
Kirkus PW Booklist
"An extraordinary first novel that bears no resemblance to a first novel" (Jim
Harrison), In the Fall tells the heartrending story of three generations
of an interracial American family, from the end of the Civil War to the Great
Depression.
The Other Side: A Novel of the Civil
War
Author: McColley, Kevin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0684857626
PW
In the tradition of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, the author
of Praying to a Laughing God takes an epic look at the Civil War through
the eyes of one young man, as he makes a harrowing journey from the innocence
of Ohio farm life to the violence of the battlefield.
Buckskin Line
Author: Kelton, Elmer
Booklist
From a six-time Spur Award winner comes the story of a Texas Ranger who carries
heavy burdens. The father and brother of the woman he loves have been lynched,
and he is fated to meet the Comanche warrior whose band killed his family.
Prayer for the Dying
Author: O'Nan, Stewart
Booklist PW LJ
Dark, poetic, and chilling, A Prayer for the Dying asks if it's possible
to be a good man in a time of madness as members of a town succumb to a fatal
epidemic.
Faded Coat of Blue
Author: Parry, Owen
PW
A riveting and original tale of crime, detection, and punishment set amid the
blood and tumult of the American Civil War - for fans of such books as The
Alienist and Cold Mountain.
Cloudsplitter
Author: Banks, Russell
PW
This brilliant recounting of the events surrounding John Brown's legendary raid
on the armory at Harper's Ferry is a masterpiece of modern American storytelling.
The Silent
Author: Dann, Jack
LJ
The internationally bestselling author of The Memory Cathedral now
renders an extraordinary novel about a boy coming of age during the Civil War.
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon
Author: Gibbons, Kaye
BL
In the year 1900--on the afternoon she suspects might be the last in her long,
eventful life--Emma Garnet Tate Lowell sets down on paper what came before,
determined to make an honest account of it. She recalls her life on the plantation,
her marriage to a Boston surgeon, her survival of the Civil War, and the terrible
secret which shaped her father's life.
A Soldier's Book
Author: Higgins, Joanna
BL PW
In this powerful and historically accurate novel, a young Union soldier, on
his way to the notorious Andersonville prison camp, shares the horrific details
of a world that is growing ever more barbaric and absurd, with its "dead lines,
" starvation, cruelty, filth, and false rumors of exchange.
Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War
Author: McCaig, Donald
PW LJ
A novel that resonates with the bitter glory and deep human shame of the Confederacy.
Against the epic canvas of the Civil War, the people, black and white, of one
Virginia plantation fulfill their unforgettable destinies.
Dead March
Author: McMillan, Ann
Kirkus
The first in a new mystery series that takes place during the Civil War. Two
women from opposite ends of society investigate the murder of a slave woman
and risk their lives to find the killer and save the life of an innocent child.
Also: Angel Trumpet: A Civil War Mystery
Booth
Author: Robertson, David
LJ PW
In the tradition of The Alienist and Time and Again, this
spellbinding first novel recounts the tragic coming of age of a young man, who
is unwittingly manipulated into helping John Wilkes Booth assassinate President
Lincoln.
Author: Bahr, Howard
Title: The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War
PW
One of the most riveting Civil War novels since Michael Shaara's The Killer
Angels", this powerful book tells the story of a young Confederate rifleman
who comes under the care of a young Southern woman who, even in the midst of
battle and defeat, manages to find ways to express her love.
Author: Bass, Cynthia
Title: Sherman's March
PW
Bass treats this infamous turning point in our country's past with exquisite
and tragic detail and breathes new life and honesty into an event that has long
since ossified from truth into legend. Told from the perspectives of three different
characters, this novel shows both the utter devastation of the march--and its
utter necessity.
Author: Cornwell, Bernard
Title: Copperhead: Starbuck Chronicles #2
PW
Author: Dyja, Thomas
Title: Play for a Kingdom
PW Kirkus
An extraordinary novel of our nation in the cauldron of the Civil War, Play
for a Kingdom vividly recreates America in the counterpoint of the bloody
battle of Spotsylvania, and a series of baseball games played between two companies
on opposite sides of the war.
Author: Frazier, Charles
Title: Cold Mountain
PW
The #1 national bestseller and National Book Award Winner. A Confederate soldier's
trek brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and
marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign, as he makes
his way to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains .
Author: Gurganus, Allan
Title: The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells ALl
Kirkus
A major literary event . . . an astonishing first novel of the South from the
Civil War to the present in the voice of the woman who lived through it all.
Sections of the book have appeared in Paris Review, Antaeus, Harper's, Atlantic
and The New Yorker.
Author: Quinn, Peter
Title: Banished Children of Eve
PW
It's the third year of the Civil War and the North is about to impose its first
military draft, sparking in New York City the most devastating and destructive
riot in American history. Quinn brings to life a pivotal period in this country's
history through a myriad of characters.
Author: Brown, Rita Mae
Title: High Hearts
Author: Crane, Stephen
Title: The Red Badge of Courage
Author: Foote, Shelby
Title: Shiloh
Author: Jakes, John
Title: North and South
Author: Mitchell, Margaret
Title: Gone with the Wind
Author: Nagle, P.G.
Title: Glorieta
Author: Olds, Bruce
Title: Raising Holy Hell
Author: Shaara, Jeff
Title: The Last Full Measure and Gods and Generals
Author: Shaara, Michael
Title: The Killer Angels
Links:
Ann Arbor Library
Booklist
American
Civil War Web Site
Civil War@ Smithsonian
Springfield Library
Civil War Booklist
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