Friday Books: The Fat One, Finally!

I finally finished the fat book: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbot. It took me a month to read it. That is unusually long for me. Despite the time it took, I really liked the book. It's about four women who acted as spies, soldiers, or other roles to help the "other" side during the U.S. Civil War. They had to be very courageous to do what they did, especially the ones who actually fought in battles or wore disguises in order to sneak into enemy territory and deliver information or goods. Those were very scary times!

The book is very well-researched, and it's long (430 pages). I admit to sometimes getting bored with the events of the war. I was most interested in the stories of the women and how they carried out their subterfuge. How they pulled it off and all the escapades in which they participated were quite amazing.

Another interesting aspect was just learning more about civil war and how stupid it is. It truly was brother against brother (sometimes families actually had family members fighting on both sides). The spying and secret-sharing made a definite impact on the war efforts. (I wouldn't call the abolition movement stupid, but civil war is always a grossly horrible thing... I don't know how else this dilemma could have been solved, even though I remain steadfastly opposed to war. Some questions are just too difficult for me to tackle.)

Very interesting book; I'm glad I read it, even though it took me too long to do so.

Glad we remain the United States