book reviews

Back again! Brief pause between visitors, time to regroup a bit. Whew!

John Jakes, Love and War. Of Jakes's Civil War trilogy, ironically, the one covering the actual war is my least favorite. It's a giant epic following two families, one Southern and one Northern, across the events of the war. It's eventful and richly detailed and covers all sorts of facets, but it's also a bit dark, as you might expect.

Peter R. Decker, "The Utes Must Go!" This tale of westward expansion as it affected one particular tribe of Native Americans was interesting and detailed, but I felt it fell a bit short ... largely through lack of the Native Americans' perspective. It was a straightforward factual reporting of what happened, but without a lot of insight into the motivations of anyone but one particular Indian agent. Not a bad book, but not a keeper, either.

Charles Dickens, Bleak House. This is one of my favorites of Dickens's works. I particularly like the character of Esther Summerson - she seems more approachable than many of Dickens's heroines - and the plot is convoluted and interesting.

Roger Lea MacBride, New Dawn on Rocky Ridge. This book made me wish intensely that Laura Ingalls Wilder had lived long enough to write these years herself. I find Rose a pale substitute for her mother, and her mother as seen through Rose's eyes less interesting than as seen through her own (which, of course, is not at all surprising!). In this installment in the series, Rose is growing up and beginning to discover the world of young men (at 14. See, it's not just today!), and it all seems a bit whiny and self-indulgent. (Again, probably not that surprising. But not that interesting, either.)