While extremely informative, I guess I was spoiled by reading through Teddy Roosevelt's bios (and also the tremendous "Destiny of the Republic") where the subject of the book was a larger than life personality who actually enjoyed every minute of his term in office.

Grant, while very popular with the people and tried to do right by everyone he served and who served under him, took the job mostly out of obligation to his country rather than any strong desire to enter the political machine.

The accounts of his time in the army was more of a 10,000-foot view of the war - it actually made me want to go find a book on Sherman, the more dynamic and interesting of the personalities involved in the book.

All in all, I'd say it could have been about 100-150 pages shorter but I appreciated that it gave a complete picture of the man's life and dispelled a lot of the myths I had previously come to believe about Grant.

I liked the subject matter but did not care for Brands writing style.

This book was surprisingly engaging and thoroughly well written. While I can't exactly describe it as suspenseful, I did want to know what was coming next, and would find extra time in my day to fit in a quick chapter.
Brands' use of short quotes interspersed with explanations or commentary works particularly well- he's able to use Grant's (or his contemporaries') words without disrupting the flow of Brands' language.
The second book, describing the Civil War and how it was fought and won, does a better job of describing the war than any other biography I've read (and probably most Civil War histories as well). I'll agree with Rich's comments that it could have used more maps, but in today's connected age, that's not so much of a problem.
Here's a typical passage that I think does a fantastic job of capturing Grant in a few sentences:

Grant thought it ironic that his visitors had come from a convention where at least one speaker had railed against the administration in Washington in the most vitriolic terms. “I have never seen a speech equal to it in malignity, vileness, falsity, and slander,” he told his visitors. He inquired whether any among them had refuted the slander. They said they had chosen to treat the speech with “silent contempt.” Grant puffed on his cigar, eyed them skeptically and sent them away.

One last random note- I learned the the "Rebel Yell" was the battle cry of Confederate soldiers (not just a song by Billy Idol).

A great biography of a great man!

Grant is a fascinating figure. Remove the Civil War from his story and he becomes even more of an every man. He was a character forced to become a strong character and forced by circumstance to take chances and to reach out beyond his capacity and push himself to be more than he felt comfortable with, but not more than he could be.

I can't believe how long this book was, because it didn't feel long at all. Brands is a great storyteller.