Helpful Score: 3
Really love Jane Smiley. Makes me appreciate central air and heat! Little House for grown-ups.
Dottie J. (pippin2) reviewed All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton on + 48 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Enjoyable reading, but not the book I thought it might be, but fun nonetheless. Very good author, like her other books.
Dottie J
Dottie J
Helpful Score: 2
An orphan's tale of the life she is forced by circumstances to lead. Held my interest from cover to cover. Exciting story that includes everything:love, standing by what one believes in and knowing what's worth fighting for.
Bonnie S. (Bonnie) -
Helpful Score: 1
All those great reviews! Gee, I had a really hard time getting through this book...and I love Westerns. But this one dragged and dragged, and I remember the narrative overpowering the flow of the story.
Well written and interesting account of a (fictional) young woman's experiences in Kansas territory during the free/slave state controversy prior to the Civil War.
Great Historical fiction. Kansas in 1855. Narrated by 20 y/0 Lidie Newton, this book examines a turning point in history and is also a riviting story of one womans' journey into uncharted regions of place and self. A great read for lovers of historical fiction.
Nancy D. (colafemina) reviewed All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton on + 83 more book reviews
This is a well written and engaging story, but somehow did not quite read true to me, the way her others have.
Michelle C. (Shellaree) -
This is a fiction book but has had copious amounts of research to make the novel very interesting. This looks into the life of a woman in Kansas around 1855 and the trials and tribulations of the era.
Emi B. (wantonvolunteer) -
Lidie Newton was an interesting tomboy of a character, and her All-True Travels and Adventures taught me a lot about American history prior to the Civil War, specifically as it took place in K.T. or Kansas Territory between Free Staters (Abolitionists) and the Slavers.
Lidie's constant wavering between ideals and sides and opinions, although realistic, grated my nerves towards the end. I liked reading about a lot of the supporting characters more than her, and after 452 pages I was sad not to know what happens to a lot of them instead of her. But overall, the story was great - Lidie marries an abolitionist from Boston, leaves her family in Illinois to travel with him out west to K.T. There they battle the wilds, settle and make a home, take in her nephew Frank, and then the political situation gets violent, and Lidie's adventures really begin.
Lidie's constant wavering between ideals and sides and opinions, although realistic, grated my nerves towards the end. I liked reading about a lot of the supporting characters more than her, and after 452 pages I was sad not to know what happens to a lot of them instead of her. But overall, the story was great - Lidie marries an abolitionist from Boston, leaves her family in Illinois to travel with him out west to K.T. There they battle the wilds, settle and make a home, take in her nephew Frank, and then the political situation gets violent, and Lidie's adventures really begin.
Stef S. (bookgoddessme) reviewed All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton on + 106 more book reviews
I am drawn to a book with a strong lead female character, and this book does not disappoint. Lidie is a true survivor, compounded by the face that women needed to be tougher than nails in the divided land of the United States in the 1850's. What a unapologetic story this novel tells of the near impossible conditions of K.T. (Kansas Territory) for the claim staking aboloitionists. Lidie lived many lifetimes in one. Slow, steady, story this book tells, but one that explains a lot about the tenacity and toughness of the people of the United States built on this foundation.
Wonderful!
Wendy C. (wonderdaisy) reviewed All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton on + 11 more book reviews
My favorite of Jane Smiley's always wonderful books.
Kim S. (FortrixEnigma) reviewed All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton on + 86 more book reviews
Please see my review of this book here.
