Quote:
Originally Posted by jgaiser
Not fiction, but Mary Boykin Chestnut's diary is an exceptional look at life for the planter caste during the Civil War. My Penguin copy is title "Mary Chestnut's Diary".
There's also Michael Shaara's novelization of the Gettysburg battle. "The Killer Angels"
And finally an 8 volume set published in the early 1900's for young adults by Joseph A. Altsheler. First book is "The Guns of Bull Run"
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Thank you. I greatly enjoyed both Chesnut and Shaara; I have a bunch of my father's Altsheler books on hand and I should check them out. I'm glad you recalled them to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Quickly scanning the list of books I've read over the past twelve years, I think these were all quite good:
John Bailey, The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans
Fergus Bordewich, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America
Julie Fenster, Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It
Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (might be the best on this list, but no eBook  )
P.S. I know you said fiction recommendations, but I don't read historical fiction. |
LOL, I don't really read historical fiction either, but I thought good novels might be a shortcut to an speciation of the period. Thanks for the non-fiction recommendations; more grist for the mill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenG
There's Raintree County by Ross Lockridge Jr, I've had my eye on it for years but I'm intimidated by the length, over 1000 pages. It looks like almost half of it takes place before the war in Raintree County,
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I read
Raintree County as an adolescent, the best time of life for getting through those doorstoppers.
Fortunately, I remember the gist of the plot well enough that I can't justify rereading it! I liked it at the time, but I think I'd find it overblown and at least borderline offensive now.
And then there's the film version, famous for being Montgomery Clift's before-and-after movie.