Peter Cozzens and Robert I. Girardi, Eds., The New Annals of the Civil War. This is a wonderful collection of essays printed in a late-nineteenth-century magazine. They're vignettes from the war, written by the people who actually experienced them. In general, the writing quality is very good, and the firsthand nature of the accounts lends an immediacy to this overview of the war that is unusual to see. Well worth reading.
Kathryn Kenny, Trixie Belden and the Mystery at Maypenny's. I thought this one was interesting because it focused a lot more on a controversy dividing the gang's small community and a lot less on the mystery, an unusual format for this series. But it was a good change, and allowed for a little more focus on the individual characters, which is always a good thing.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Borne in Blood. Usually, I'm a fan of Yarbro's. I like her character, Saint-Germain, even if I find him a bit too idealized to be believed. But in this case, the book was a compilation of plot twists that have occurred a little too often before in her works, and took so long for anything to happen that it was impossibly tedious.
Melissa Wiley, The Road from Roxbury. The next installment in the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's grandmother. Again, well-researched and interesting, with a lot of good glimpses into the daily lives of people in those times.
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