As one who has spent many years surviving personal, life-threatening horrors, I loved this book. Inman's journey from the madness of war juxtaposed with Ada's struggle to feed herself and make a life from the land inspired me. As an historical novel though Cold Mountain fails. These are not 19th Century people and Frazier's strange, new-age perspectives will probably not weather well. There was a serious lack of editing. Still, I loved the characters and enjoyed the book immensely. The recent movie, sadly, was a travesty.

Though this book won the National Book Award and was quite popular back when it came out in 1997, an amazing 13-years ago now, there are no wishes for it in bookcrossing and you see it everywhere, unread sadly. I found it a good read and my father loved it. So I plan to release this in his memory sometime soon.

Left at the ATM. I hope you'll enjoy it Dear Next Reader.