The Chocolate Chip Country

A while back I picked up Secret Missions of the Civil War, by Philip Van Doren Stern. I finished it a bit ago, but didn't get around to posting a review until now.

It's an interesting format. The stories are told in order by date, with sections broken up by year. The author starts each section with a summary of the year's events, then begins each story with a little intro to set the stage. After the story (which is from some contemporary account), he will provide a little information on what happened to the people who were involved.

Given the neatly divided nature of the book into years and stories, I ended up doing most of my reading in the bathroom. The stories were long enough to be interesting, but short enough that I could easily put the book back down.

If you're at all interested in either Civil War history or spy history, it's a good read. The book has some surprises, unless you're a real Civil War nut and already know all the trivia possible. The accounts are mostly first-hand, but sometimes written well after the fact. Van Doren Stern's intros and summaries help to place them within the context of the Civil War, which I found very helpful.

I don't recommend it as something to hit all at once, but instead as a good book to read in bits. All the different authors and the structure prevents it from functioning well as a single narrative. So, good for the bathroom, or for brief rests between busy periods.