Two Brothers: One North, One South – Book Review

I gave up on my April ER book “Two Brothers: One North, One South” by David H. Jones. I simply do not understand the audience. It seemed that the author was using big words just for the sake of using them, yet the dialog was almost insulting in its assumption of the reader’s intelligence. Minus the unnecessary vocabulary, which made the dialog in particular stilted and wooden, the writing seemed more appropriate for a book geared towards middle school audience as a way to teach them the basics of the Civil War. I didn’t get as far as I wanted, but I couldn’t stand to continue reading a book that was so silly and yet insulting to my intelligence when I have so many good books in my TBR pile.

Do not read this book. Don’t even think about it. See an example of why below.

U.S. History Early Reviewer Morning: The Civil War, FDR

My April ER book arrived this morning (actually, our wonderful mailman Irving left it in our mail slot on Saturday, but I got it today).  The book is called “Two Brothers: One North, One South” and is historical fiction about the Civil War, the story is narrated by Walt Whitman by David H. Jones.  It is not actually an ARC, but is a very pretty hardback book that arrived in wonderful condition, personally autographed by the author, with two lovely book marks inside (both with information about the book).  I will have to decide what sort of historical fiction I’m in the mood for next: this, or a story of Juana la Loca.

Funnily enough, this same morning that I received my April U.S. historical fiction ER book, I saw a story in the New York Times about my March bonus batch U.S. history ER book.  This article discusses Joseph Persico’s new book Franklin and Lucy, the research therein, and the Roosevelt’s parallels to the Clintons.  Read my review of the book here.