I heard a lot of great things about this book, but I found it a bit disappointing. I thought the whole focus of the book would be about…well, April, 1865. But Winik was all over the place with his topics. It seemed as though he intially gathered information about just that month, discovered that it was not enough, and tacked on other tidbits about the war.

Also, I think he had a little too much fun with adverbs (at least I think they’re adverbs. I could mean adjectives, but you be the judge). For example, whenever Winik quoted someone, it was never the typical “He said…”, “She replied…”, etc. It was things like “He bellowed…”, “She screamed…”, “He thundered…”, “She roared…”

Now, I appreciate being creative in your writing, particularly when it comes to nonfictional works, but this seemed a little too much to me. But perhaps I’m just being a bit picky…or I’m secretly jealous of Winik’s adverbial prowess : )