Sherman's March by Burke Davis

Creative non-fiction. And you have to wonder about some of the sources - they seem pretty anecdotal, of the flavor of the virtuous Confederate women barring the door to the villainous Yankee invaders. How accurate can those accounts be?

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Dickens' first novel, and it shows a little in the beginning, I think. A very slow start. Throughout the novel there is the convention of the author speaking to the reader, commenting on the action. Quite old fashioned.

It's a series of anecdotes and tales, loosely linked, but it improves greatly as it progresses. I think Dickens was learning his craft, and getting better at it, as he went along.

Proslavery - A History of the Defense of Slavery in America, 1701-1840 by Larry E. Tise

A good reference book, but it focuses more on who the proslavery writers were than on what they actually wrote. However, the essential facts of their arguments are presented. Of course, without the actual words of the writers how can we judge how persuasive they might have been? No matter how ludicrous the facts behind an argument, the power of the argument owes much to how it is presented.

One thing I found that I never knew - most of the proslavery clergymen were Presbyterians! Maybe it was all part of the predestination thing...

Plain Folk and Gentry in a Slave Society by J. William Harris

An extensive examination of the yeoman and gentry classes around Augusta just prior to the Civil War.

Many Excellent People - Power and Privilege in North Carolina 1850-1900 by Paul D. Escott

An excellent examination of the yeoman class and its effect on politics and the Civil War.

The Civil War - An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward

An excellent book of Civil War era photographs. The companion volume to the PBS series.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The title says it all, and really, what can I add to the volumes of criticism that have been written about this novel? I can only say that the author is more concerned with the ideas of his characters than he is with the characters themselves. They seem to be mouthpieces so that the author can expound. I feel as if they are specimens under glass for us to study. You can probably tell that I didn't empathize or sympathize with any of the characters.

Gardens of Water by Alan Drew

An excellent and complex novel about loss. A muslim family of Kurds in Turkey copes with an earthquake. Their fate is intricately connected with their American neighbors. The author examines in detail the muslim religion and how the Kurdish family copes with the changes in their life. The treatment of women and their subjugation under Islamic law and the Kurdish tradition is at the core of the family's story.

Extremely well written, the author takes some risks with his storytelling. I don't want to reveal any plot-spoilers, but there are two narrators, and one of them undergoes a life-changing experience that is rare in a novel. But the author pulls it off with skill and sensitivity.

The treatment of the religion of Islam is powerful and complex. The comfort it gives the sufferers of the earthquake is clearly described, yet I couldn't help but be saddened by the barbaric and backwards aspects of the religion: the treatment of women, the honor killings, the resignation to fate and the lack of hope.

Yet the novel is not anti-muslim, or anti-Turkish or Kurdish. It is well balanced and surprisingly realistic in it's treatment of all the many religions and cultures present in Turkey.

Highly recommended.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The author lies to the reader in the prologue, and that ruined this book for me. There is no excuse for it really, the book would have been fine without intentionally misleading the readers.