by ALAN ROSENBERG

“Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War”

By Michael Vorenberg, read by Landon Woodson. Random House Audio, 16½ hours, $28.

If you’re like me, you learned in school that the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

But Vorenberg, an associate professor of history at Brown University, argues in this meticulously researched book that this is far too simple a view. For one thing, other Confederate armies were still in the field, in the South and in the Midwest; it would take time — and many more deaths — for them, too, to lay down arms. For another, Union troops that were supposed to be mustered out at war’s end were about to head West instead, to fight Native tribes.

And then there was the more subtle war — the war waged by Southerners unreconciled to the notion that Blacks were equal to whites. This front opened less than a week after Appomatox with Lincoln’s assassination by Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, on April 15, 1865, and continued, with the aid of racist President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, through the long period known as Reconstruction (itself of uncertain duration, despite what’s taught in history classes). And beyond.

Why does any of this matter? Because, Vorenberg says, it shaped the nation in countless ways, and still does. That’s what makes this important listening for anyone who wants to understand how we got from a war meant to end slavery to economic conditions that, for decades afterward, mimicked slavery closely — and are still far from equal.

Woodson’s reading is perfectly modulated to maintain interest even in the smallest of Vorenberg’s minutiae. It’s one of the best nonfiction performances I can recall.

Vorenberg is appearing at several Rhode Island bookstores and in an online event in the next several weeks. Here’s the schedule:

Wednesday, April 23, 4 p.m. Brown University (Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 111 Thayer St., Providence)

Tuesday, May 20, 7 p.m. – Barrington Books with the Barrington Public Library (281 County Rd, Barrington, RI 02806)

Thursday, May 22, 6:45 p.m. – Smithsonian Virtual Event www.si.edu/events

“The Snowbirds: A Novel”

By Christina Clancy, read by Karissa Vacker and Graham Halstead. MacMillan Audio, 10 hours, $26.99. Available through all Rhode Island public libraries.

This isn’t about Rhode Islanders in Florida, but about Midwesterners in another warm winter destination: Palm Springs, once the legendary home of celebs like Frank Sinatra, now a place where older folks go to rest their weary bones.

Kim and Grant are just in their mid-50s, but when he loses his job as a professor at a Wisconsin college and she’s granted a sabbatical by the nonprofit she works for, it just seems to make sense to head there — especially since Kim’s ex-husband has offered them the use of his Palm Springs house. So Kim begins to hang out with her former mother-in-law at an exclusive community while Grant takes up hiking in the mountains. Meanwhile, the pair are dealing with the nagging issues in their relationship, including Grant’s history of walking out when the going gets rough and Kim’s hesitancy to commit.

And then, on a midwinter hike, Grant disappears. Is this another disappearing act? Is something more sinister afoot? Or has he simply gotten lost in high-altitude twists and turns — and if so, will he make it back?   

Clancy draws Kim and Grant as complex but recognizable characters. Vacker, reading most of the book, helps enormously with shaded readings for all sorts of characters, while Halstead, reading Grant’s journal, gives a solid, understated performance.

“The Fourth Consort: A Novel”

By Edward Ashton, read by Barrie Kreinik. Macmillan Audio, 8½ hours, $19.99.

Dalton Greaves was living a dead-end life in a little West Virginia town when he was recruited into the service of Unity, a galaxy-spanning alliance that now includes Earth. Those who leave the planet to serve Unity end up living lives of incredible ease and wealth — if they return.

Now a mission has gone sideways, and Dalton and a human woman, Neera, are stranded on a planet light-years from home. As Unity’s titular ambassador, Dalton is left to deal with the insectoid natives, who have a deep conception of honor but no idea of human society or abilities; Breaker, the sticklike representative of a competing confederation, the Assembly; and Neera, who’s itching to blow the stickman into next week.

Ashton, author of such novels as “Mickey7” and “Mal Goes to War,” makes Dalton a deeply sympathetic character, trying to live his odd and desperate situation without getting killed by Breaker or the natives — or Unity, if he and Neera are rescued without having succeeded in their mission. And if this makes the story sound grim, then I’ve done Ashton a disservice. There’s also much humanity in Dalton, and the story moves you right along.

Kreinik, one of the best narrators around, succeeds in making distinct characters not just of Dalton and Neera, Breaker and some of the aliens, but even of the AI translator that’s embedded in Dalton’s neck.

“Amorph”

By Chené Lawson, based on stories by N. K. Jemisin, read by a full cast including Lawson, S T A R R, Chris Attoh, Amanda Turen, Raphael Corkhill, Vikas Adam, Orlagh Cassidy, Gillian Saker, Oscar Jordan, Skyla I’Lece and Zein Khlei. Audible Original, 3¼ hours, $11.20; free with Audible Plus membership, $7.95 a month.

This ambitious but heavy-handed dystopian tale is based on two of Jemisin’s short stories, stitched together: “The Trojan Girl” and “Valedictorian.”

Both are about young women who don’t fit in. The first, in something approaching our present day, can’t afford to implant the neural network that links just about everyone else in a social net so tight and absorbing, it’s nearly impossible to function in society without it. The second, hundreds of years later, is smart, bold and accomplished when everyone in her high school seeks mediocrity, enforced by a rigid social structure that demands allegiance and obedience.

Both stories are set in a science-fictional universe where there are beings who inhabit the computer network but can, with great difficulty, move into physical existence. The heroine of the first section, Trojan Girl, is the first to realize the connection between the Amorph, where the digital beings reside, and the Static, where having bodies keeps people divided unless they’re linked by the neural net.

Although there’s a lot of sturm und drang as the book progresses, these are just trappings for Jemisin and Lawson’s fairly conventional message about the problems of — but ultimate rewards in — being yourself. The cast does what it can, however, taking the overwrought words and never succumbing to the temptation to chew the invisible scenery.

Alan Rosenberg, of Warwick, is a retired executive editor of The Providence Journal and has been reviewing audiobooks for more than two decades. Reach him at AlanRosenbergRI@gmail.com.