List of chronological books?

I know I'm behind on the start of the anniversary, (two moves) but I wanted to go through the war with a good list of books. Any suggestions?

Also, maybe a list of books covering the whole war or major characters?

Battle Cry of Freedom is a very good starting point.

Battle Cry of Freedom is very good, I highly recommend it. Also Hardtack and Coffee for a soldier's eye view of the war. I'm a little thin on early war and western theater. Landscape Turned Red for Antietam (Sept. 1862).

Stephen Sears has a number of books on battles in the eastern theater beginning with To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign through Gettysburg. I am reading Chancellorsville right now and find it to be o good one volume history of that battle.

Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative is a large undertaking, 3 volumes, on (mostly) the battles of the war. It is a marvelous work which leans a bit to the south in its sympathies, but is a classic and should not be overlooked.
You can't go wrong with Battle Cry of Freedom, any of Bruce Catton works are superb, and as mentioned above, anything by Stephen Sears.

E. B. Long's The Civil War Day by Day is my indispensable go-to book for detailed chronology. As mentioned above, Battle Cry of Freedom is pretty much the standard one-volume history. Shelby Foote's The Civil War also recommended above is a superbly written narrative history but long (3 hefty volumes). It's very good reading, however, and moves fast. A good high-level military view with a lot of informed criticism of both sides is Donald Stoker's The Grand Design : Strategy and the U.S. Civil War. Stoker puts all the pieces together in a way that makes sense. A social and political approach is Phillip Shaw Paludan's A People's Contest: The Union and Civil War 1861-1865.

I am a little late but I consider A Civil War Dictionary a very good reference book on the Civil War. I am also reading as they come out a series titled The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It The volumes for the first two years have been published and they are very good.

Thank you all!! Getting ready to dive in and get started!! My kids will be learning about the Civil War in a few weeks.

I recommend the four-volume Civil War history by William Marvel:

Mr. Lincoln Goes to War
Lincoln's Darkest Year: The War in 1862
The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln's War
Tarnished Victory: Finishing Lincoln's War

I just read William J. Cooper's new book We Have the War Upon Us, which focuses on the period between November 1860 and April 1861, and is a really detailed account of the negotiations over the winter as well as the secession process in the southern states. Might be worth a look.