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VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

Name: VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
Author: Ralph Peters
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7403-5

by Ralph Peters ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2015

A superlative novel.

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Those who enjoy Bruce Catton's and Shelby Foote’s Civil War histories will find a fictional equal in Peters’ retelling of the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign.

Combining character study, strategy, and battle scenes, Peters (Cain at Gettysburg, 2012, etc.) focuses on the great, small, and those in history’s shadows, like U.S. Gen. Emory Upton, "an enigma, a hardened Christian, mean as a Turk…a brilliant, intolerant merciless young man." Famous names also appear: Union Army Gen. Philip Sheridan, all pugnacious Irish temper; tobacco-chewing Confederate Gen. Jubal Early, "a spitting, crook-back man and harsh-mouthed as a heathen"; and future president Rutherford Hayes, who learned "War made it hard to credit a merciful God." Peters draws from contemporary sources, including writings of the 61st Georgia Volunteer Infantry’s George Nichols, country boy and confused Christian: "Nichols had gotten himself a new pair of shoes, assured by Elder Woodfin it was not theft to remove them from the dead Yankee." His writing vivid with cannon smoke and screams, clashes between generals and brigades, Peters begins with disgraced Gen. Lew Wallace—pilloried for supposed errors at Shiloh—rallying rear-echelon ragtags to prevent Early’s capture of Washington. There at Mononacy Junction, Peters introduces another patriot, grizzled Army Gen. James Ricketts, key in denying Rebels the Shenandoah’s easy passage north and its fertile farms. Peters details the battle at Winchester, the rout at Fisher’s Hill, and the decisive confrontation at Cedar Creek. With alluringly literary language—describing a warrior’s newborn child as "the promise that a man’s blood would go on, a swaddled, mewling hint of resurrection"—Peters is deft with dialogue and setting, but it’s his characterizations ("Custer was a bloody-handed instrument") and battle scenes ("without a muchness of guns to give things a shake") that make this a must-read for Civil War history fans.

A superlative novel.

Pub Date: May 5, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-7653-7403-5

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Forge

Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.