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Gosh, lots to read but all so softly written. Constance goes to fight instead of Bartholomew. She is strong yet deeply hurt. This story tells of her background, her own mother and those she encounters. His writing is so good.

Beautiful writing despite the sparse sentences with few commas or demonstrative pronouns. But that had a firm purpose-it was the way that Ash spoke. She leaves her husband to manage the farm while she goes off to fight with Union soldiers in the Civil War. Hard to put down with an ending that may surprise you.

#LitsyLove
#ReadAway2024

Book 11 from my #14Books14Weeks2023 stack.

Melancholy (though a cheerful book about the US Civil War would be weird) and written in a sparse somewhat cryptic style. Constance Thompson dresses as a man and marches off to fight for the Union, while her husband stays on their farm in Indiana. The comparisons to Cold Mountain are apt, along with the loose allusions to the Odyssey. A slow read, despite its low page count.

It took me awhile to get into the writing style. Vauge and dreamlike. i had to slow my reading to understand. Civil war era novel about Ash. A wife who leaves her home to fight with the union. She's an unreliable lead that had me trying to guess what was going to happen next and if what she was experiencing was reality. I did like it more than I first thought i would. Warning for graphic descriptions of war and numerous other things. 4 ⭐

This one just wasn't for me. Ash is the strong one in her marriage, so she dresses as a young man and heads off to fight for the Union. She is detached, sometimes dissociated and not particularly reliable.

The style of this one just wasn't for me, sparse but needing to be parsed carefully at times and full of intimation. Rather too literary(?) for my tastes, and I was left rather wondering what the point was...

I was fully behind this one until the WTF ending. I get it, but it came out of nowhere and I just thought it was too odd.

Makes me think of a female version of Cold Mountain, what with the long journey home to a beloved from the war without permission. #audiobook #civilwar

Guys! I finally went and renewed my library card! First I had to pay 9 year old fines but then they trusted me again. So I can audiobook again - so happy! So Jojo Moyes‘ latest came home with me! #libraryhaul #audiobooks

For the past week I hauled around the pictured items everywhere I went. I've only been using the Kindle for a few weeks but I've found myself turning to it for quick fun reads. I still need my physical books though. There's a comfort in having one close at hand. And, of course, I need my phone to check in on Litsy and possibly reserve a library book someone recommends.

Not much over 200 pages but it took me awhile to finish. Sometimes I had trouble understanding passages because of the writing style and other times because the main character wasn't reliable. I'm still not sure what I read. This one may have been too literary for me.

Ash is a contradiction of a character and we learn her secrets while she alternates stories of her life before the war with her husband and her wartime exploits.

There's been a proliferation of novels in recent years that feature women who masqueraded as men so they could fight in a war. Some are better than others & I will mark this as one of the better efforts. An author who can take me all the way through a book & lull me into thinking I know how it's going to end, then punch me in the gut & tell me I was wrong is an author I will watch. Watch Laird Hunt. Full review at http://itsallaboutthebook.org

This is what my night looks like. A windstorm took out our power yesterday and there's no estimate on when we'll get it back. So, reading in the dark by flashlight, wearing my winter coat & gloves. It's supposed to be 10 tomorrow. Hotel, here I come!

I belong to a local reading group called Turning the Page (shout-out to Writers & Books in Rochester NY!) and got my quarterly mailing today. The people who manage this group take such care to pick amazing books, then package them so creatively. Can't wait to read this one!

I can't quite figure out where I am with this one. The writing was spare and honest and somewhat detached. I enjoyed the story but to me an account of war, no matter what gender the soldier, should have more feeling to it. War is not clinical, and that's kind of how this felt to me. The story of Ash and her time masquerading as a soldier in the Civil War is still wonderfully told and her journey is still one you should read.

Reading between errands. Only have a couple hours in. Tonight and tomorrow I will have more time. My Goodwill haul from this morning. #24in48

📯📯📯📯📯 I really liked this book. I love stories about women who dress up like men to do badass things. In this, a woman goes off to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. It's a very close narrative; she tells us what happens so there isn't a lot of action and I never did figure out why she joined up. But I don't think it matters. I felt that she was telling her story to me so while I didn't have all of the facts, it felt personal.

Finished! Very well written and researched. Hunt's style is beautiful, vivid and poignant. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"There was one of us had to look to the farm and one had to go and that was him and that was me. We were about the same small size but he was made out of wool and I was made out of wire."

I did not expect the ending. It was good but I was a little disappointed at the end. It does show that life is not always what it seems to be. It's also a good fictional look at society during the Civil War.

Wow! I started reading this book and could not put it down until I finished it! War is hard. Add that mental and physical pressure plus having to hide who you are- Ash is one tough character! Great read!!!

Lately I have been trying to read a variety of genres and authors to get myself out of my book comfort zone. This one is very much out of that zone.