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freham's review
These individual stories are captivating. Yet I was frustrated by the format of telling it by what happened each year, rather than telling about each individually. Therefore I read parts of it by skipping around to see what happened with a particular woman. Still, found it fascinating and read the whole book in 24 hours.
inkstndfngrs's review against another edition
3.0
I'll be really honest. I didn't finish this book. It wasn't because I didn't like it...I blame Karen White as the reader of the audio book edition. ...Okay, and maybe the author, Karen Abbott, a little bit too. I think I would have enjoyed this story better if she had focused on one woman at a time. I realize she was trying to do a narrative and the overlaps of their tales...but oh my god. I ended up really not carrying too much about Belle, Rose, and Elizabeth and really just wanted to here about Emma/Frank. I found her part of the story far more interesting than any of the others. Ironic, given that I had picked it up because of Belle Boyd being a familiar name (she is actually buried in Wisconsin, my home state...I didn't get far enough to see if she actually mentions that or not).
Otherwise, the rest of the story became a giant "TL;DR" for me. I have a hard time focusing on nonfiction anyway (much more of a fantasy reader), but I see why others would really enjoy the book and I will recommend it to others who don't have the same hang-ups that I do.
Otherwise, the rest of the story became a giant "TL;DR" for me. I have a hard time focusing on nonfiction anyway (much more of a fantasy reader), but I see why others would really enjoy the book and I will recommend it to others who don't have the same hang-ups that I do.
elizkacz's review
3.0
I listened to this on Audible and wish I'd have actually READ it. The material is fascinating, but the performance was disappointing.
littletaiko's review
5.0
This is a wonderful book about four women who were very active participants in the Civil War. Rose was a widow with Southern sympathies who was seduced all sort of secrets from various men, Emma who disguised herself as a man and fought for the north, Belle, a spirited Southern teenager, who used her wiles to find out secrets and pass them along, and Elizabeth the wealthy Richmond lady who ran a spy ring out of her home. Loved this book!
ktoumajian's review
4.0
3+/4- This was long but definitely worth it...I give the beginning 3 stars...a bit fractured with such meticulous details that it was hard to follow at times but once the war really gets going I was very much caught up in the exploits of these 4 very different women who use their femininity and position in society to make real contributions to the war effort on both sides. My favorite was Unionist Elizabeth Van Lew, unmarried but from a stout and well-respected Richmond family who created an immense spy ring right under the noses of the Confederate government, even convincing Mrs. Jefferson Davis to employ one of her own servants who secretly spied and collected information on Confederate meetings and military plans. Fascinating. Equally fascinating, the story of "Frank" Thompson (born Emma) who enlists to escape her brutal father and an early marriage. The two Confederates, D.C. widow and insider Rose Greenbow who manages her own spy ring until exiled to the south by Union detectives, and very young Virginian Belle Boyd, both use their feminine wiles & quick wit to get information, and both are sent to Europe to assuage England and France to recognize and support the Confederacy. This book opens up another world within the War of espionage and women daring greatly of which I was not aware.
lporto's review
3.0
DNF I had high hopes for this book. Non fiction about women during the Civil War. I ended up feeling more like gossip that history. I had read about some of these women before and hoped for more. Maybe some "data" between the stories would have have improved the overall work.
nicoleankenmann's review
4.0
Audiobook: 15hr. 14m.
A fascinating dive into a little-known slice of American history. As a Canadian public school kid, I was exposed to the basic talking points of the American Civil War, but I doubt that even students in the States know what this critical conflict looked like from the perspective of women. This book explores the worlds and worldviews of north and south. This balance is a rare and valuable test of the reader's own biases and challenged my own assumptions on multiple occasions. I would recommend this to anyone who is going or has gone through a high school world history class. I think it would be a helpful text not only for talking about matters of the past but also for better understanding and discussing the modern political and social divides in the United States.
A fascinating dive into a little-known slice of American history. As a Canadian public school kid, I was exposed to the basic talking points of the American Civil War, but I doubt that even students in the States know what this critical conflict looked like from the perspective of women. This book explores the worlds and worldviews of north and south. This balance is a rare and valuable test of the reader's own biases and challenged my own assumptions on multiple occasions. I would recommend this to anyone who is going or has gone through a high school world history class. I think it would be a helpful text not only for talking about matters of the past but also for better understanding and discussing the modern political and social divides in the United States.
truliec's review
3.0
It was interesting to learn about some players in the American Civil War that I was not familiar with at all. I thought it was fascinating that the women played such important, although largely unknown, roles in their respective areas. I wish it was a little less long. I did appreciate that the author based all of her writing on journal entires, letters, etc.