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The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel | Jane Smiley
9 posts | 6 read | 4 to read
See the difference, read #1 bestselling author Jane Smiley in Large Print * About Large Print All Random House Large Print editions are published in a 16-point typeface Six years after her Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, A Thousand Acres, and three years after her witty, acclaimed, and best-selling novel of academe, Moo, Jane Smiley once again demonstrates her extraordinary range and brilliance. Her new novel, set in the 1850s, speaks to us in a splendidly quirky voice--the strong, wry, no-nonsense voice of Lidie Harkness of Quincy, Illinois, a young woman of courage, good sense, and good heart. It carries us into an America so violently torn apart by the question of slavery that it makes our current political battlegrounds seem a peaceable kingdom. Lidie is hard to scare. She is almost shockingly alive--a tall, plain girl who rides and shoots and speaks her mind, and whose straightforward ways paradoxically amount to a kind of glamour. We see her at twenty, making a good marriage--to Thomas Newton, a steady, sweet-tempered Yankee who passes through her hometown on a dangerous mission. He belongs to a group of rashly brave New England abolitionists who dedicate themselves to settling the Kansas Territory with like-minded folk to ensure its entering the Union as a Free State. Lidie packs up and goes with him. And the novel races alongside them into the Territory, into the maelstrom of "Bloody Kansas," where slaveholding Missourians constantly and viciously clash with Free Staters, where wandering youths kill you as soon as look at you--where Lidie becomes even more fervently abolitionist than her husband as the young couple again and again barely escape entrapment in webs of atrocity on both sides of the great question. And when, suddenly, cold-blooded murder invades her own intimate circle, Lidie doesn't falter. She cuts off her hair, disguises herself as a boy, and rides into Missouri in search of the killers--a woman in a fiercely male world, an abolitionist spy in slave territory. On the run, her life threatened, her wits sharpened, she takes on yet another identity--and, in the very midst of her masquerade, discovers herself. Lidie grows increasingly important to us as we follow her travels and adventures on the feverish eve of the War Between the States. With its crackling portrayal of a totally individual and wonderfully articulate woman, its storytelling drive, and its powerful recapturing of an almost forgotten part of the American story, this is Jane Smiley at her enthralling and enriching best. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Lcsmcat
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Pickpick

This is a good book for this point in US history. About a year in the life of Lidie Newton, during the days of the Kansas territory and the pre-Civil War days. Smiley doesn‘t take the easy way out. Lidie struggles with “the goose question” and people who do the right thing but maybe not for the right reasons. And people who do the wrong thing, but with a good heart. Don‘t expect a neat, happy ending. But do expect to love Lidie 👇🏻

Lcsmcat ?? and every step of her adventures. Amélie, on the other hand, is just glad that I have put the book down and will play “red dot” with her! 3y
KathyWheeler Such a beautiful cat.❤️ I‘ve read Moo and loved it but have never read anything else by Smiley. I need to remedy that. 3y
Ruthiella 😻Amelie is adorable. 3y
See All 6 Comments
Lcsmcat @KathyWheeler I think Moo was the first of hers that I read. So funny! Smiley is now auto-buy for me. 3y
Lcsmcat @Ruthiella Thank you! She‘s sweet, but very demanding when she wants to play. 3y
Leftcoastzen 😻 3y
52 likes6 comments
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Lcsmcat
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#currentlyreading
Loving the snark of the sisters on the steamboat!

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TracyReadsBooks
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Pickpick

I‘m not entirely sure why I bought this book—with its uninteresting cover & long-winded title—but I‘m glad I did. Lidie Newton is a fantastic character & it is seeing life in 1850s Kansas—all the joy, hope, fear, courage, deprivation, & violence—through her eyes that makes this a book a pick for me. Married to an ardent abolitionist after a short courtship, Lidie finds herself caught up in the politics of the day with unforeseen consequences.

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TracyReadsBooks
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Oh, this book is good and Lidie Newton is a fantastic character. I‘m taking my time with it but I must say, I‘m really enjoying this book. Really interesting fictional account of life in 1855 Kansas.

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TracyReadsBooks
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😂😂😂

So far, so good.

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TracyReadsBooks
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My next book is one that randomly caught my eye as I was looking over the sale shelves at one of my favorite local bookstores. It‘s set in 1855 Kansas so I‘m making the leap from hard science fiction to historical fiction. Nothing like reading ALL the genres to avoid falling into a rut. Here‘s to another great book. 🤞

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Lcsmcat
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OriginalCyn620 👌🏻📚 5y
43 likes1 comment
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Lcsmcat
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EvieBee That Jane Smiley novel looks awesome! 7y
27 likes1 comment
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Lcsmcat
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This has been on my TBR list for a while. Has anyone read it? #true #lyricalapril @Cinfhen

Cinfhen No, I haven't read this one but it sounds fascinating! I love books set in the 1800's early 1900's 7y
Ole Yes I've read it and liked it. Interesting historican setting in Kansas Territory. 7y
Lcsmcat I've read a lot of Smiley's work and liked it all, si I thought it was a safe bet. But it's good to have it confirmed. 7y
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