The Sweetness of Water

Finished February 10

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

This historical fiction novel is set just after the end of the United States Civil War. George Walker and his wife Isabelle have a farm a little way outside of a small southern town called Old Ox. George often walks his land and the forest that is part of it, partly searching for a creature his father told him of, and partly to think. Towards the end of the day, one he spent wandering, he comes across two middle-aged black men. Their names are Prentiss and Landry and they were recently owned by Ted Morton, George's neighbour. The two men decided to leave once they were emancipated, but haven't got any idea of the outside world or where to head. George has a burden of sadness on him, one that he soon shares with Isabelle, and the two reconsider their future plans. George determines to clear and farm some of his land, and he approaches the two black men to offer them work helping him. When George offers them work, they are grateful to be able to earn some to take them away and into a new life. But George's actions cause issues with others that resent the loss of their traditional social order. 

Trust grows between George, Prentiss, Landry, and soon Isabelle as well, and another family member who has seen things in the war that changed him. 

When a tragedy happens to this group, it becomes a larger issue, one that both destroys friendships and creates new ones. The trust between them becomes something more, and while there is hope, more tragedies happen in the town and this household. 

I found this novel moving and thought-provoking. Crimes lead to insults, and insults become crimes. An engaging debut novel that won attention from celebrity book clubs and was longlisted for the Booker. 

Tried and True

Finished January 19

Tried and True by Mary Connealy

Set just after the American Civil War, this is the first in a series of novels about three sisters, Bailey, Shannon, and Kylie shortly after they begin their land claims in Idaho Territory. Pressured by their father into disguising themselves as young men and joining the Union army after their only brother dies in service, the women have used their service as a way of decreasing the time they must stay on the land to finalize their claim. Kylie is the youngest, and the least adept at the skills needed to manage a farm. Her sisters helped build her cabin in the fall, and now that it is spring the story starts with her attempting to repair a loose shingle in her roof. 

She was troubled by her war experience, but after her first battle was able to avoid worse trauma by working as a general's aide and as a spy. Her commanders were unaware that her success as a spy was due to her gender as she removed her disguise when engaging in espionage activity. 

When the local land agent, Aaron Masterson comes by just as Kylie is descending from the roof, he discovers her secret and insists that he must change her claim to eliminate the service record, even though she served as women weren't allowed to enlist. 

He finds himself drawn to her, and finds himself visiting her again soon after when a local rancher threatens her land. When another threat appears soon after, Aaron worries about her safety alone at her cabin and works with her siblings to find a solution. 

This novel is an historical western romance, with a touch of mystery. Kylie is less helpless than she first appears, as she has depended on her sisters more than she could have. But she is also a reluctant land claim candidate and plans to sell as soon as she owns the land outright. 

I found Kylie growing on me, but enjoyed her sisters more. There are other interesting characters as well, including a motherly and capable native woman. Aaron's history played a role in the plot and was an interesting commentary on the aftermath of the Civil War. 

Night Watch

Finished May 28

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

This historical fiction novel jumps around in time a little during the late 1800s. The book has five parts, with the first and third parts taking place in 1874 and the second and fourth parts taking place in 1864. There is also an epilogue that is set in 1883. 

The point of view changes between a few of the characters but is always clearly stated at the beginning of a chapter. The chapter sometimes has a month and year to set it more specifically within the time of that part of the book. The chapter headings are descriptive, telling us of events that take place, or people that are introduced within that chapter. I liked that the chapters were relatively short, and moved you through the book in a natural flow. 

The main character in the book is ConaLee, a thirteen-year-old girl as the book opens in 1874. She is travelling from her home in the high West Virginia mountain area with her mother to an asylum, taken there by the man that has been in their life for the last few years, one who insists that they call him Papa. ConaLee knows that the relationship between her mother and this man is one of control and abuse, but she doesn't understand the hold that he has on her. ConaLee has watched her mother go from an active loving woman who taught her to read and showed her the stars in the sky to one who lies in bed and doesn't speak. ConaLee's mother has had other children from Papa, all without names. The toddler, who ConaLee calls Little Chap has been taken under her own wing and mothered by her. She reads him stories, cuddles him, feeds him, and acts like a mother would. Her mother has recently given birth to twins, a girl and a boy, that ConaLee served as midwife to.  

In a cabin higher on the mountain, above the one that ConaLee and her mother share is one lived in by Dearbhla an older woman that trades in salves and tonics that she makes from the wild plants near her. Dearbhla was midwife to Little Chap, but has been banned from their home for many months now. ConaLee has met her secretly from time to time, to get advice and medicine, but Dearbhla has the vision to know what has been happening with this small family. 

We learn that ConaLee's father, her mother's husband left to fight for the Union in the Civil War, but never returned, and stopped writing home ten years earlier. He has an occasional voice in the earlier time setting, as The Sharpshooter. 

Dearbhla also has a voice in the book, as does a young boy who lives and works at the asylum, known as Weed. We also learn from the 1864 time what ConaLee's mother Eliza went through and why Papa has the control he has. We hear from Dr. Story, the man in charge of the asylum, and from the mysterious O'Shea, the Night Watch of the title, who is calm and watchful man. 

I really enjoyed seeing the story gradually unfold, understanding what connections were between characters, and seeing explanations for events uncovered later in the story. This is a book about love, risk, and the illusion of control. A fascinating read that was hard to put down. One gets a sense of the landscape of the places, both constant and those travelled through. 

The Saddest Words

Finished November 9

The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War by Michael Gorra

I first read Faulkner in my university American Literature class, and have several of his novels on my shelves. This book looks at his books treatment of the civil war and its aftermath, and of his own personal statements on the same. Beyond that it looks deeply at the social history of the American South, and how the civil war is reflected in that history. 

It looks closely at several characters in his novels, and at how he portrays black characters, quite differently from other southern white authors, and we see how his books differed from the customary attitude about black people in the south. Some of these things in his novels were observations that he wasn't as comfortable saying publicly outside of fiction, and he still struggles with some of the prejudices of his peers. 

There is in-depth analysis of his writings, social commentary, historical comparisons between his fiction and the real events, and literary criticism. The book includes a chronology of his life, a list of his major works, and a brief history of his fictional Yoknapatawpha County. 

The title refers to references from the book, referring to the words "was" and "again", both references in this way by the author. 

I found this a fascinating insight into his books, and his environment. It seems especially apt during the social changes that we are going through now.

March

Finished February 17
March by Geraldine Brooks

I've had this one on my shelf for a while, and finally got to it. This book was inspired by Little Women and imagines the story of their father, Mr. March. As the book begins, March is embedded with Union troops as a chaplain, involved in a battle that isn't going well. Following the battle, as he makes his way to a plantation house taken over by troops, he realizes that he has been there before as a young man, when he worked as a peddler. It was here that he first came face to face with the realities of slavery.
The story mostly stays in the time of the Civil War, but it also wanders back to his days as a peddler, his first meeting with Marmee, and the early days of their marriage, outlining how he gradually became the man he is now, and how he came to be where he is.
I found it interesting to see both him and Marmee as more complex characters than they appear in the stories of their daughters.
Brooks based March partly on Louisa May Alcott's father Bronson, but also on other historical figures and using other historical information, particularly around the Civil War, which Bronson did not serve in.
My copy also has an interview with Brooks, and a reading guide for the book.

Ghost Riders

Finished January 16
Ghost Riders by Sharon McCrumb

This novel takes place in the North Carolina mountains. Part of it is from the 1860s when the war reached this area, and is centered around a young married couple Keith and Malinda Blalock and a young lawyer, real-life Zebulon Vance. Keith was brought up by his mother and stepfather, and leans toward the Union side, but many of the men of the hills side with the south. When Keith is finally forced into the Confederate Army, Malinda is determined not to let him be alone, and she follows him. Keith ends up in the men commanded by Vance, and thus their paths cross for the first time. Keith and Malinda end up on the Union side, but in a sort of unofficial capacity, fighting in the hills that are their home.
More than a hundred years into the future, mountain man Rattler and wisewoman Nora Bonesteel are drawn into the story as rebel reenactments draw the spirits of the past into the present creating a dangerous situation.
I enjoyed the history of this novel, learning more about how the war affected the backcountry of North Carolina, and about the man trying to do the best for the people of Appalachia, Zebulon Vance. Any civil war pits neighbour against neighbour, and sometimes even brother against brother, and this was certainly true for the United States Civil War. Seeing some examples of how this played out was eye-opening.

The Tinsmith

Finished July 30
The Tinsmith by Tim Bowling

This novel begins in the US Civil War, around the Battle of Antietam. Anson Baird is a doctor working for the Union Army. With a seemingly endless supply of injured man, Anson moved from one operation to the next, amputating, digging out bullets and stitching closed wounds. He has little time for sleep, and next to no assistance. So when he first notices a tall man in a torn uniform helping bring injured men to the medical area, he does so only to notice that he keeps bringing men in, unlike most who disappear quickly. When the man proves even more helpful by serving as a surgical assistant, he is very thankful.
When a civilian is killed in a shocking manner, and the body goes missing soon after, he doesn't connect it with the man until later when men come searching for the body. Once he's made the connection, he works to protect the man and give him a new identity. The man, previously John, now taking the identity of a soldier named William Dare.
We see backwards into John's life as a house slave, looked after by a slave family, and caught as a pawn between a violent and vindictive overseer and the culture he was born into. The story moves back and forth between first the war and John's past, and then many years later, the Fraser river in B.S. and John's past, as William Dare tries to save his fledgling salmon business by asking for Baird's help once again.
This is a story of race, of culture, of reputation, and men whose greed is larger than their morals.
I enjoyed the character of John/William Dare, a man who doesn't really fit in wherever he goes, and of Anson, a man who wants to do the right and moral thing.

American War

Finished June 5
American War by Omar El Akkad, read by Dion Graham

This book feels all too possible as a future reality in these troubling times. This book imagines our world in the late 2070s, after a civil war has broken out in the U.S. over the use of fossil fuels. The former United States are no longer united. A southwestern portion has split off and become a Mexican protectorate. A small group of southeastern states has left the union to become the Free Southern States and holds on to the use of fossil fuels. As climate change took it's toll, coastal areas became enveloped by the oceans, and lost to habitation. This includes most of Florida and portions of all the coasts. This led to the relocation of the U.S. capital to Columbus, Ohio.
The book has a story within a story. A man in Alaska near the end of his life tells the outer story. The inner story begins in the spring of 2075 near the beginning of the civil war. The Chestnut family lives in Louisiana, which is Union territory, but
Sarat and her twin sister Dana are six years old, but very different. Sarat is all about curiosity, trying things out. She is built large and will grow into a large woman. Dana is girly, already into dresses and makeup, while Sarat wears overalls. Their older sister Simon, nine, is smart and eager to help. Martina, 39, and Benjamin, 45 have a good marriage. Benjamin works at a local shirt factory and the family has enough to live, but the war has meant that the school closed due to fighting drawing near, and Martina wants more for her children. As she encourages Benjamin to apply for a work permit to work in the North of the country, this is the first decision that will change all their lives forever. The second decision follows closely, the one to leave their home and go to a refugee camp.
As the story follows the lives of the Chestnuts, you see the difficulty of living a life of uncertainty, a life where growing children don't always make the choices you would like them to make.
This is a story of war, of rebellion, of family. It is a story of the inequities that come with war, about its effect on the lives of civilians. It is about children forced to grow up too quickly, and with teachers that have their own bias.
It was an amazing read.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday

Finished April 25
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

This US Civil War novel begins with one wedding, quickly followed by another. Agnes, the daughter of Carthene, Placidia's father's second wife is being married, and Placidia, only sixteen was not part of the wedding party. Placidia, called Dia by her family is a girl of spunk, with a talent for horses. Energized by riding a horse deemed unrideable by others, she comes upon her father and a Confederate army officer who is purchasing a mule from him. A connection is made, and by the end of the weekend, Placidia is travelling with Major Gryffth Hockaday back to his farm. His first wife died in childbirth while he was away at war, and Placidia looks forward to taking on responsibility for the infant Charlie and the farm duties.
With their honeymoon cut short by war demands, the couple have only two days together before he returns to the fight, and they are separated until after the end of the war. Placidia misses him dreadfully, and fights off conmen, raiders, and other dangers alone with the servants on the farm. Despite her isolation, rumors that she was pregnant and killed her baby are circulating and come to the major's ears as her returns. Charged with a crime, Placidia tells what she feels she can in letters to her cousin, a young war widow with a daughter. Adding to the tale are court documents, and a few letters from Gryffth to Placidia during the war.
The second part of the book is told again in letters to the now grown man Charles from his brother, as they learn about the story of Gryffth and Placidia, and piece together the missing information to complete the story.
This is a sad book, of love, mistrust, and honor. A book of secrets and of promises. A tale of betrayal and of justice.

Sister of Mine

Finished February 7
Sister of Mine by Sabra Waldfogel, performed by Bahni Turpin

This historical novel begins with a scene when two Union soldiers get separated from their scouting party and notice a Union flag on a well kept plantation. Approaching the house, they find a group of people gathered on the porch. A white woman and several black women and men. They are welcomed, fed, and their wounds are treated.
The story then jumps back twelve years to 1852, when Adelaide Mannheim, daughter of Mordecai Mannheim, a Jewish planter in northern Georgia was given her own maid, a slave named Rachel. The two girls become friends, much to the annoyance of Adelaide's mother, and soon realize that Rachel is also Mordecai's child, which explains Adelaide's mother's feelings toward her. Mordecai is a businessman, trading in many goods besides what he grows on his plantation, and he is pleased when Rachel shows an aptitude for figures as well, quizzing her when she has been tidying his study. Adelaide has secretly taught her to read as well.
When Adelaide gets to be a young lady, her mother insists that she leave school and travel to Savannah, where there is a large Jewish community, to find a suitor. Adelaide quickly meets a young man that she likes, but both her and Rachel discover that they are naive when it comes to relationships. When things go badly, both retire to the plantation, where Rachel learns more, and Adelaide's health suffers. A new opportunity for both leads them to new beginnings, but also more heartache and gradually they form a new different relationship.
This is a story of slavery and the realities of life in the South during the plantation era. While it is fiction, it is based in fact. Many Jews in the south did own slaves, as they adjusted to the society they moved into. As slave-owners, they ran the gamut from kind to cruel.
Many children were born into slavery despite being fathered by the white men who owned their mothers, growing up alongside their half-siblings, but with few of the advantages.
This book has depth for both the plot and the characters, and I found it enlightening.

Yankee in Atlanta

Finished September 4
Yankee in Atlanta by Jocelyn Green

This book is book 3 in the series Heroines Behind the Lines.
Caitlin McKae has followed her brother Jack into the war on the Union side, but when she is badly injured, she ends up in Confederate care in Atlanta, thought to have been fighting on the Confederate side. She keeps her own counsel, adjusts to life there and becomes a teacher at a local school, something her training prepared her for. When the war intensifies, the school is shut and Caitlin takes on the job as governess for the daughter of a fellow teacher who feels impelled to go off to war. Noah Becker is an immigrant from Germany, trained as a lawyer, and while not in favor of slavery feels the need to fight for his home. His daughter Analiese is the joy of his life and he values Caitlin's teaching skills, her emphasis on teaching responsibility, and her comforting way with children.
Back in New York, the focus is on Ruby O'Flannery, a young Irish widow, mother to a young son Aiden, and working as a domestic and seamstress. She is recently converted to evangelistic Christianity, and is visited often by a young pastor Edward Goodrich who came back from the front to tend his injured father.
The book follows the trials and tribulations of the two women. Caitlin is struggling to survive, to care for Analiese, and to eventually find her way home, Ruby is struggling to create a better life for her son, to stay on her new course despite her unhappy past, and to look for a future she is afraid to dream of.
This novel gives a good sense of the history of this time, and social situations, and the changes taking place with the war and western expansion.

Neverhome

Finished April 26
Neverhome by Laird Hunt

This historical novel is full of surprises. The narrator is Ash Thompson. Ash's real name is Constance, and she has taken time to learn to move like a man and feel comfortable in men's clothing so that she can go and fight for the Union in the U.S. Civil War. Ash is more assertive, more robust, and more skilled at many tasks than her husband Bartholomew and she feels that one of them should go to represent their family. Her motives are more complex in reality and as the novel unfolds we begin to realize that Ash is not always telling us everything.
Ash makes a name for herself early by coming to the aid of a women in an immodest situation, earning herself the nickname of Gallant Ash. She is recognized for her shooting skills, and her strong work ethic. She recognizes others like herself along the way, and they recognize her in return, but all keep the secret. When she is placed in difficult situations, Ash is not above using her female identity to gain advantage, nor is she unwilling to switch back to male if that will further her own ends.
Besides the story itself, this book has underlying meanings, beginning with Ash's real name of Constance. Constance is the one thing she is not, but also the one thing she is.
She survives capture, accusations of treason and spying, imprisonment, being labelled a madwoman, being tortured, and being betrayed. She does not find war what she thought, but neither is home what she expects either.
The story has an element of reflection, as she looks back on her experience and tries to find meaning in it.

The Spymistress

Finished April 1
The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini

This historical novel is based on the U.S. Civil War experiences of the real-life Elizabeth Van Lew. In her forties, a spinster, with her fiance dying of a fever two decades earlier, Lizzie is dedicated to her family and good works. She and her mother would have freed their slaves following her father's death, but his will expressly denied them the ability to do so. Instead, they pay them like they were free men and treat them well. As Virginia votes to secede from the Union, Lizzie is appalled and determined to do what she can for the Union cause. As Union troops are captured, she works hard to get permission to visit them, bringing them food, medical assistance and comfort. She walks a fine line in the community to not be arrested and taken for treason, but she works carefully, and with the support of her family and the guidance of like-minded friends, makes headway. Eventually she became a reliable source of information for the North, sending them coded messages, assisting escaped prisoners to make their way north and helping place others in strategic positions where they can learn useful information and help those in need.
Lizzie's sister-in-law is on the Confederate side, and life becomes easier for Lizzie when her brother's family moves to their own home. To cover her activities, she also supports charity and assistance for Confederates in need from time to time, evening opening her home to Confederate officers when they are waiting for housing.
This is an interesting story of Richmond, Virginia during the war, the influx of prisoners and wounded men to the city, its effect on the common people, and the availability of those goods needed to survive, and the ultimate abandonment by the South, resulting in terrible destruction. It is also the story of a strong woman, who went on to a career as the postmaster of Richmond under President Grant, proving herself as a good businesswoman as well as a good spy.

Wilderness

Finished October 11
Wilderness by Lance Weller

This debut novel will capture you. It begins with Jane, an old woman in a nursing home, but she is a very small part of the story. The story goes back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, moving between the US Civil War and a few days in the late fall of 1899. She looks back at her parents: her first father and mother, her second father, her third father and her second mother. The Civil War portion tells the story of Abel, Jane's second father, the one she had for the briefest time. Abel fought on the rebel side, and his memory takes us through the loss of fellow soldiers, the lost of family, and the loss of others he meets along the way. It is doled out in bits, with pieces alluded to, hinted at, and told partly, before we hear the tale in full. The time in 1899 tells of Abel's last journey, and his relationship with Glenn and Ellen, Jane's third father and second mother. It tells the tale of how she came by these parents, and the challenges that these adults faced. The writing is lovely, and the story will capture you as you wait to find out how they manage through their difficult lives.

An Eye for Glory

Finished April 30
An Eye for Glory: the Civil War chronicles of a citizen soldier by Karl Bacon
I picked up an advance copy of this title at a conference earlier this year and once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. The citizen soldier here is Michael Palmer, a married father, who feels compelled by his religious feelings to fight in the war against slavery. He knows that others are fighting for other reasons, but that is his reason. He doesn't want his children growing up in a country that allows slaves.
He enlists voluntarily after feeling that God wants him to fight, and his best friend John joins along with him. His story is told after the war, as a record for his children, put together from memories, his journals, and letters to and from his wife. He was in the war for several battles including Gettysburg. He sees friends die, sees both good and bad leadership and decisions, and sees the horrors of war firsthand. At first he isn't sure he can kill, but finds that in the heat of battle he can. It is only when he encounters an enemy soldier that he has mortally wounded, and that takes his last moments to find comfort in the Bible, that he begins to question himself. He internalizes these issues, sharing them with no one, and just goes on with his duty. But it changes him deeply, and it is only when he returns the bible to the soldier's widow that he finds a change he can live with.
This was an interesting view of the war from the view of one soldier, an educated man with a strong sense of  morals. We see his questions and struggles and how he deals, or doesn't deal with them. We also get a sense of the futility of battle often felt by those in the ranks, who simply obey orders. With this year being the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the war, it seemed a good time to read more about it.

History

Finished January 10
Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and his Brothers in the Civil War by Robert Roper
This book looks mostly at Walt Whitman, but also at his brothers George and Jeff, very successful in their own fields. George was a soldier during the Civil War and a well-regarded one. He fought at several major battles including Antietam. He was a leader among the men and considered lucky. Jeff, even though he had no schooling past the age of fourteen, became one of his century's great engineers. He built the Saint Louis waterworks among other large projects. Besides being a gifted poet, Walt spent much of the war visiting wounded men in the hospitals and attending to their needs. Taken from family letters as well as other historical sources, this book opens a new window on the Whitman family and I learned a lot about not only Walt, but his immediate family as well.
This was a very interesting read.

Inner Thoughts

Finished January 5
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
August Brill, a 72-year-old book critic, lies in the dark in his daughter's house and thinks. He thinks about his past, about his family, and makes up stories to keep himself from thinking about those things he doesn't want to think about, but can't help thinking about.
Besides the stories of his own life, he invents the story of Owen Brick, and man transported into another version of the world in which the United States is engaged in a civil war. Owen is given the job of killing the author of this version of the world so that the war may end, and struggles with the mission given to him.
This novel is like nothing else I've read. It concerns the life of a man who is sensitive yet not without his own destructive powers. I got a sense of the concern for others, as well as the inevitability of sorrow.
This is a wonderful little gem.

Pre-Civil War Novel

Finished August 11
Soul Catcher by Michael White, read by William Dufris
This saga of slave catcher Augustus Cain takes us from the Mexican-American War through to the civil war as Cain looks back on a life running from his past as he engages in what he intends to be his last job as a slave catcher. He has been drawn into the occupation due to a skill in tracking and finding slaves that he first identified as a young man.
Rosetta is the runaway slave that he has been hired to find. She runs from a master who has taken his ownership in every way he could and runs to save her soul from that subjugation.
As their lives become entwined, in the days before the Civil War, Cain must face the past he is trying to forget and face up to what his life has become. Rosetta fights to gain her freedom, and yet must also face the subtleties of human behaviour.
This is a journey in a very physical sense, but also a mental journey for both of the main characters. There is a lot of history contained in this story, as well as extremely well-written characters. The reading of the book by Dufris is excellent and captures the characters of the various players in the story.
I loved this novel.

Black History

Finished February 11
From Midnight to Dawn: the Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad by Jacqeuline L. Tobin
This history of the underground railroad concentrated on the movement of blacks from the United States to Canada, particularly into southwestern Ontario.
One thing that I really liked about the book was that Tobin looked at the women who played roles in this movement, an aspect often forgotten.
Some players came to Canada temporarily, going back for either the Civil War itself, or its aftermath. Some however returned to Canada, finding the new black codes implemented in the south after the war too imposing.
The tales of individual fugitives offer much detail and bring the history to life.

Historical Fiction Audiobook

Finished December 6
The March by E.L. Doctorow, read by Joe Morton
This historical novel of the U.S. Civil War follows the army of General Sherman after he burned Atlanta in 1864. Sherman himself plays a role here, as do some of his generals and other officers. The other main characters include an army doctor, originally from Germany; a young southern lady left alone after her judge father died; a young "white" slave woman; two rebel soldiers freed from their jail sentences; a young slave boy; a free black photographer, and a mildly injured Union soldier. There are many additional characters that are there for short portions of the book or more peripherally. All of the characters are out of their element, whether soldiers or civilians, southerners or northerners, rebels or union. The civilians have been uprooted from their previous lives, some have been dispossessed of their homes, and the experience they share is told in wonderful prose, and read here beautifully.