Booth's Sister [Kindle Edition]

Jane Singer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"My brother killed Abraham Lincoln. That is my weight, my shame. While he remained at large, I was held captive in my home. I should have told the soldiers who came with guns drawn and bayonets at the ready this true thing: I might have stopped him, for I harbored him and kept his secrets. I was a pie safe locked tight and guilty as he."


Asia Booth Clarke was twenty-nine years old and pregnant when Union soldiers and Federal detectives stormed her Philadelphia home in search of her assassin-brother. John Wilkes Booth's older sister had grown up in one of America's most notoriously troubled but spectacularly acclaimed acting families. "Johnny" and Edwin, her handsome brothers, were the matinee idols of the era. When John Wilkes Booth's crime left the nation in furious mourning and the Booth family under a dark cloud of accusation, it was Asia who bore the brunt.


Booth's Sister was inspired by Asia Booth Clarke's personal memoirs. Author, Civil War scholar and storyteller Jane Singer has masterfully imagined the family dynamics and intimate dilemmas that led to one of America's most fateful crimes and left a sister's life in shambles.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1401 KB
• Print Length: 228 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0980245338
• Publisher: Bell Bridge Books (July 1, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0038JCW4C
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,998 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Jane is a Civil War scholar and author of Booth's Sister, a novel about the reckless, enchanted and tragic life of Asia Booth,the sister of Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.(Belle Bridge Books, August, 2008)

Her nonfiction work, The Confederate Dirty War: Arson, Bombings, Assassination and Plots for Chemical and Germ Attacks Against the Union was published by McFarland & Company in August of 2005. In November of 2006, the History Channel based a two-hour special called Civil War Terror on her book. She was both the historical consultant for the project as well as the primary on screen narrator. Her writing has been featured in the Washington Post Magazine (The Fiend in Gray), The Washington Times (Felix Stidger and the Sons of Liberty). Her research and discovery of Stidger; a little-known American hero, were illuminated in a Chicago Sun-Times article. Singer is a member of The Author's Guild, Pen West and The American Historical Association. She is also a professional actor, voice-over artist, narrator and lecturer. Born and raised in Falls Church, Virginia, she now lives in Los Angeles, California, and is available to speak to various groups across the country about her writing.

She has recently written, produced and directed Green Zone Blues: Voices of War; a series of voices of ordinary men and women caught in the crosshairs of our troubled times. A CD of the production will soon be available.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transporting!, August 6, 2008

By 

Moah Anboss "Moah Anboss" (New York New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Booth's Sister (Paperback)

I love this book. Jane Singer is an amazing writer. Often I would go back and slowly re-read a sentence just to savor it. Particularly compelling is the multi-dimensional relationship between Asia and John first as children then, as innocence wanes, adults. I found myself wanting to know more about John and his motivations but that's for another book (Hopefully one by Ms. Singer) The histrionics of the father were amusing but I would have liked to get to know him not always "on". With Asia, I felt I knew her so well by the end of the book: her bravery, her fears, her playfulness, beautifully revealed by the author. All in all it's a wonderful story and I found myself wanting more.

Moah

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisitely Written, July 30, 2008

By 

J. Rubiner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Booth's Sister (Paperback)

I see another review for this title seems to have neglected to notice that it is fiction. And it's beautiful fiction. Much of the writing has the lilt and imagery of poetry. It's a wonderfully imagined story and chock full of fascinating history. All around, a great read.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not everything you would think, March 8, 2010

By 

CLJ (KY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Booth's Sister (Kindle Edition)

I'm really having a hard time getting into this book. The writing style reminds me of a fairy tale, lots of describing of scenes and place setting with little of substance about Asia. I get that the sons/daughter of the Booth family would have been raised in a theatrical home. I don't need multiple chapters about it.

I'm frustrated in the reading of this book and will have to put it away for a while. I think I'm going to have to be really desperate for something to read before I'll pick it up again.