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The Hole on the Wall gang - a band of outlaws
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

This was a fine book. Just very down the middle. I liked the old Western feeling of this book, but I wish there would have been more descriptions to really sink into the atmosphere. Also, it says she can't tell us what she accomplished with women being barren, I think I would have enjoyed that story better. I think a deep delve into her midwife career doing research on why some women are barren would have been super interesting. 2.5/5

#BookReport
This week I managed to finish the book for work and make decent progress in my other reads. I think I'm like 60% into Atlantis and 30% into Grass.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal for this week is to finish Grass and get more caught up in the ReadingWesteros Chapter A Day read.

I enjoyed this more than i thought I would. An interesting take on a world where woman are defined by their fertility. The ending felt a little abrupt but made sense for the character.

#BookReport
Had a pretty good reading week. I enjoyed both books I finished. One was my commute book so I was able to start another.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal this week is to make a dent in my current reads. The tagged is for work, ASoS is for ReadingWesteros, and Thistlefoot is for the SFFBC. If I manage to finish any of these I'll be starting my BookSpin which is Grass.

#BookReport
I had a phenomenal reading week and ended up finishing four books this week two of which I absolutely devoured. Arkady Martine is now a must read author for me.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal this week is to finish TMIaHM and make a dent in both the tagged and Saint of Bright Doors. If I have time I'll probably start my BookSpin draw when it comes up on Friday.

This is fun. Like a western version of The Crucible. That sounds dreadful actually but it isn't. It's very girl power.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

#BookBinge

#LeastFaveGenre is tricky for me as I read & enjoy books from many genres. I find I gravitate least to Westerns or books with that setting.

Still, I have enjoyed books in or somewhat the Western genre & these 3 books with “Western” tags are in my #TBR.

My second roll book for this month‘s #roll100 ended up being a second in a series and since I didn‘t have the first one, I put it aside for now. Told my son to go grab a random book from my shelf to replace it with. Here was the pick. So far I am enjoying it.

Setting: Women who can‘t have babies within their first year of marriage, are “not real women” & sentenced to hang. When one straight, white woman can‘t get pregnant, she joins a band of thieves &outlaws, women or non-binaries only, she risks all of their safety &comfort, for her own goals with little regard to the rest of them. the only male, gay character is so deeply abused. please reevaluate which women &queer people y‘all claim this serves

I see this has mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it.

In an alternate old west, barren women are pushed out of society, often persecuted as witches or cursed. Main character Ada fails to have a baby after a year of marriage, and is sent to a convent. She learns of The Kid and the Hole in the Wall Gang and finds they are not what she expected.

I liked the quirkiness of all the gang members and Ada‘s drive to improve women‘s lives.

A feminist Western - sign me up! I enjoyed this twist take on Billy the Kid.

⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this! But I wanted a little more from it.

I'm giving it a hesitant "Pick" status because I don't think "So-So" does the story justice.

Started #Outlawed today. It has quite a mixed bag of reviews! Have you read it?

The first couple pages gave me anxiety, but I have settled in a bit and am looking forward to the adventure ahead.

This book is a woot so far.

This didn't live up to the hype IMO. I've heard it described as cinematic & I absolutely agree. The alternate history was interesting but I wanted to see the winds of change starting to blow. I didn't feel the optimism I wanted at the end. The stories of all the women, maybe esp The Kid, were heartbreaking & well done. But I wanted more for them. Maybe that's my problem rather than the book's but I ended up not liking this the way I expected to.

Really fun. “The Kid” in this book is not Billy! Going to be a terrific movie, can‘t wait.

This is an alternate history version of classic westerns. I was drawn to it because I've always been interested in the Old West. The story felt a little uneven and I would have liked a more in-depth portrait of the "Hole-in-the-Wall Gang". I'm using this for #Booked2022 #NonPatriarchalSociety @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage

An interesting book

3.75/5

Read for:

#PopSugarReadingChallenge2022
#TheStoryGraphGenreChallenge2022
#TheStoryGraphOnboardingChallenge2022
#TheNerdDaily2022ReadingChallenge

I had high hopes for this. A cowgirl, feminist, western? Sounds good to me! Unfortunately, this book didn‘t quite hit my boxes. 4/10

This book had me at “genderqueer cowboys” and only continued to impress me. While rushed in some parts, I felt that the plot escalated very naturally. The pace didn‘t feel forced, even for a ~260 page book :) I loved the character dynamics, and the explorations of what it means to be different, define yourself, and find community (even amongst outlaws!) Top tier pick for me personally :)

I appreciated the clear, concise prose and how well North captures the starkness of the landscape in which most of the story occurs. It reminded me, in some interesting ways, of Katherine Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved. The theme is all too timely.

I really enjoyed this story about a woman who was unable to conceive and joined a gang of women. It was a fun story 4/5

An alternate history with a feminist slant. What if an epidemic wiped out most of the population in the US mid-19th century and the became primarily fundamentalist Christian with an emphasis on bearing children and shunning women who were unable to conceive? Ada‘s mother is a respected midwife, but she cannot protect her when Ada is run out of town as a witch. But Ada finds refuge in an unlikely place.

#Booked2022 Non-patriarchal society.

Amazing concept: a feminist western that is a bit of a gender bent “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid” mashed up with “A Handmaids Tale”. But the constant info drops (all tell, no show) and lack of true character development really killed it for me. And the audio narrator didn‘t do a great job with the voices- using a completely different voice for the same person.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ • I really liked this, although most characters weren‘t developed enough.

#AestheticallyMatched @Clwojick

I saw tons of mixed reviews for this one when it came out last year, so I was a little surprised when I ended up really liking it. I think this is the third alternate history feminist western I‘ve really dug in the last few years. Who knew that was even a genre? I‘ll have to be on the lookout for more. #PopSugar2022 #Booked2022 #AboutANonPatriarchalSocietyorEcoFeministNovel #BBRC Adult Alternate History #LGBTQBookBingo #F/MLove

The Wild West meets The Handmaid‘s Tale! I liked this way more than I thought I would, though I probably wouldn‘t have read it if it didn‘t fulfill a couple of my reading challenges. Just goes to show that reading challenges can help you broaden your horizons by finding and liking books that you otherwise would not have picked up!

#bookspinbingo - free space
#pop22 and #booked2022 - non patriarchal society
#jumpstart2022

Barren women, ejected from society, become criminal outlaws in order to survive, but there‘s a serious undertone to this Wild West adventure. If you like your social politics (feminist, sexuality, gender identity, race and reproductive rights) delivered in an alternate history 19th-century western, this novel is for you. #LGBTQ

I know how living under a false name depletes the storehouse of the heart.

I read this in January so my original review was I liked it and I mean it's been 11 months now so I guess I did to a point but it has no staying power. Ada doesn't get pregnant in her first year of marriage so her mother tries tricks and eventually she has to run away. I didn't love it but maybe that's because I'm suffering through my own round of infertility and there's no magic in it, and setting it in the west of the future was a weird choice.

What an adventure! I didn‘t know what to expect with this book, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. North‘s prose is fast-paced, fun, and easy to consume. Her alt-history of the United States in the 1890s and take on the Western genre is fresh, but women‘s precarious position in this fertility focused society is a little too close for comfort if you‘re concerned about the attack on reproductive justice unfolding today. 4 ⭐️

Married a year with no baby to show for it, Ada finds herself
accused of being barren & a witch, the latter of which is a hanging offense in this 1890s America. Abandoned by her husband, Ada leaves town to protect her family & eventually finds her way to the Hole in the Wall gang & a chance for a better life. I really enjoyed this “feminist western” that explores gender, fertility, family, survival & more. A very timely (unfortunately so) story.

There was a lot to like about this book. I love the alternate timeline that has so much of our own history peppered in at all the right places. I love the all female band of misfits, outcast for not being the perfect specimen, even when it was the church's God that was in control of that imperfection. It was a little slow moving at some places but all in all I really liked the story.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Reading by the pool today…

This #althistory of the West leans heavily on Medieval European witch-hunts and a True Grit-style heroine.
I‘m having trouble with it.
While I really enjoyed the concept of a gender-bent Hole in the Wall gang, this book seems to imply that queerness in women stems from barrenness…? There could have been a lot more here regarding what it means to be a woman when you can't have children.

I picked this book because it had a cool cover and was NOT disappointed. It was my first ever cowboy book! All the cowboys were women and the only man ate pussy. The main character was a cowboy who was passionate about women‘s healthcare. I couldn‘t have dreamed of a better book.

I really loved the start of the book. It‘s a feminist western with a Handmaid‘s Tale twist. As the story went on it lagged a bit and by the end I wasn‘t as invested as I once was. I appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation and the writing was masterful. Overall I have to give it a Pick.

very bad

I am really starting to enjoy queer, female-centric Westerns, but I did not love this one as much as Upright Women Wanted. The plot was great, but the characters were not feared out enough, and I hard a hard time distinguishing between the different members of the Hole in the Wall gang.

Also, it‘s been a crazy and stressful week, but @Marmie7 I sent my #lmpbc book to you today. I didn2 day shipping, so you should get it on Monday.

Jumping in to #20in4 readathon this weekend. I‘ve got some 2021 releases on my plate I‘m hoping to read:

📖 Outlawed by Anna North
📖 Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
🎧 The Body is not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

Lots and lots of laundry to do today, so will be do focusing on the audiobook!

I have to admit I was expecting a little more from this (I may have, unfairly, had ‘Even Cowgirls Get the Blues‘ in mind thanks to this fun cover) but it was a decent read at a time when I need a little escape at the moment 😊

Spa day!! Got here 4 hours before my massage to enjoy the amenities and read with the sound of falling water in the background!

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I've seen many mixed reviews on this one, but it's a definite pick for me. I loved the characters North created and how she manipulated the typical Western world to fit them in. The backstory for each character was fascinating to learn about as the story unfolds.

If you enjoyed Upright Women Wanted, give this one a try.

Finished!! Great book! A female led western .. never thought I‘d read a western but it was good! Not too graphic, just a nice story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ slow and dragged at times

My beautiful beach day on Monday betrayed me and now I‘ve got skin as pink as the cover of this book. 😅

However, spending a day away from the sun did give me the nerve to read a library book at the beach, so it wasn‘t all bad! This story was excellent — I loved all the sexual preference/gender fluidity throughout the book and the way the gang related to each other. I loved Ada‘s backstory and how it powered her forward. I would LOVE a sequel!

I‘m too ashamed to actually stack my unread #BOTM books, but I‘m sure it‘s as tall as my shortest friend at this point. Determined to lighten this load. LOVE this cover and it seems super short, so diving in! I‘m pretty sure this one previously got the “1 page and ditch” during one of my more moody book selection moments. Anyone read it?? #outlawed

13-29 May 2021
The start and end of this ‘feminist western‘ intrigued me. I loved Ada‘s study of midwifery and obstetrics and her yearning to understand infertility. The slightly alternative US where barren women were denounced as witches was fascinating. The middle section was not for me. I was not interested in banditry or gunfights and was not sure I liked many of the gang or their treatment of Ada. Barely scraped a pick - for the ending.