I finished outlander last night! I've already gotten my sister, mom, and grandmother wanting to read it. Claire and Jamie's story is so captivating! Did anyone else read it/want to discuss?
I'm FINALLY into it (Outlander). I think I'm roughly 150 pages in though so no discussions for me yet. I just started remembering who each of the characters are LOL
I'm FINALLY into it (Outlander). I think I'm roughly 150 pages in though so no discussions for me yet. I just started remembering who each of the characters are LOL
Haha yeah, it took a while for me to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't stop! I was up till 5 finishing it last night. Such an amazing book! I started the second one today. :P
Girls, I'm SO glad you're into it - it's the gift that keeps giving. I read all the books at least once a year...it's like snuggling up with my favorite blanket @literachick, I hope you're enjoying the new book - I was worried about the jumping around at first, but I think she did a very good job of reconciling the need to tell the stories with staying focused on the characters we love. I'm about 3/4 of the way through - loving it!!
Good! I'm so excited for you ladies just starting your foray into the Outlander world. They get so much more rich and you will become totally invested in every character.
I learned so much about 18th century history from these books and didn't even realize it at first. You'll find yourself picking up Gaelic and French too.
I'm glad to hear this! I'm always afraid they'll stop paying attention to my favorite characters and move on to new ones.
I'm already a fan of history and love books that make you figure out what they're saying in the other languages.. This is a perfect series for me!
***POSSIBLE SPOILER***
On a side note without giving too much away to anyone who hasn't read it yet, the last 150 pages of outlander were so hard to get through! I wanted to cringe and cry for most of it. Haha so glad it ended well.
@LiteraChick - definitely intense. I imagine my pregnancy hormones weren't any help, but my heart went out to Jamie so intensely. I feel like I've emotionally bonded to the story now! I'm about 200 pages into the next book.. Loving this series. Has Gabaldon decided when she's ending the series? If they stay this good, I could keep reading them forever!
@LiteraChick - definitely intense. I imagine my pregnancy hormones weren't any help, but my heart went out to Jamie so intensely. I feel like I've emotionally bonded to the story now! I'm about 200 pages into the next book.. Loving this series. Has Gabaldon decided when she's ending the series? If they stay this good, I could keep reading them forever!
I think she is doing one more. I may be wrong, but she thought she'd end it with 8 and then couldn't make it all fit. I'd dearly love for her to write more, but they take forever come out. Surely with all the detail research you can see why it takes that long thiugh.
I can definitely understand why it takes so long. I'm glad I haven't had to wait for the first 8 to come out! I think I can manage only having to wait for a 9th.
@LiteraChick - definitely intense. I imagine my pregnancy hormones weren't any help, but my heart went out to Jamie so intensely. I feel like I've emotionally bonded to the story now! I'm about 200 pages into the next book.. Loving this series. Has Gabaldon decided when she's ending the series? If they stay this good, I could keep reading them forever!
I think she is doing one more. I may be wrong, but she thought she'd end it with 8 and then couldn't make it all fit. I'd dearly love for her to write more, but they take forever come out. Surely with all the detail research you can see why it takes that long thiugh.
I can definitely understand why it takes so long. I'm glad I haven't had to wait for the first 8 to come out! I think I can manage only having to wait for a 9th.
You convinced me to Google. Diana Gabaldon had stated the series will end around 1800. I'm in 1778 right now, so, squeee!
You may be a former lurker but you have excellent literary taste. Heehee.
So that would make Jamie and Claire in their 80's when the series ends? That's pretty old for that time in history!
@literachick have you finished? I can't believe I have to wait for another one. I love love love how this one ended...and I need to know what happened to bring all the pieces back together! (SO avoiding spoilers.) Damn her for writing such amazing books, but so very far apart. On to Silkworm...
@literachick have you finished? I can't believe I have to wait for another one. I love love love how this one ended...and I need to know what happened to bring all the pieces back together! (SO avoiding spoilers.) Damn her for writing such amazing books, but so very far apart. On to Silkworm...
Finished last night! I was so bummed out I couldn't flip more pages!
Loved how she ended it, but sucks to read about that reunion in another 4 years! Grrr!
Have to say, wasn't my favorite Outlander book, wasn't as tight and detailed but it was still awesome.
I felt the same way - I feel like as she has more stories going on, the narrative loses a bit of the magic. I loved the bulk of the book, when it was just the story of our favorite characters, but the ancillary stuff didn't really turn my crank.
Spoiler:
That part (I trimmed it above) and man's best friend made me sad. I'm glad she hasn't gone the way of George RR Martin, but any losses hit me hard. I can't believe that C & J are in their 50's, btw...they don't seem like they've aged at all. He's still smokin' hot in my head
@literachick yes!!! I actually listened to the first two (I was commuting 90 minutes each way to work at the time) and LOVED them, so I reread all of them. It's been a few years, though - that might be my post partum back up series to reread again
@literachick yes!!! I actually listened to the first two (I was commuting 90 minutes each way to work at the time) and LOVED them, so I reread all of them. It's been a few years, though - that might be my post partum back up series to reread again
Giiiiiiiirl the final book in the series is being released in September, you had better catch up! I am normally not into the urban fantasy scene but I adore that series! Her last few books have been spectacular. If you follow her on Twitter she frequently posts when the e-versions are on sale via Bn.com or amazon!
Nice!! I'm not sure when I stopped reading, so I will dig out my old paper-and-binding copies of the books I have and get caught up. Thanks for the reminder!!! I remember they were a little magical for me - made even chores like that horrendous drive fly by...a very nice memory
@literachick I like it a lot - I actually fell asleep reading it while DH played video games last night. I think you're right about having the characters sorted out ahead of time playing a role. I'm sure JK found it challenging to establish a new "style" of writing too, and it may have taken a bit for it to exhibit itself.
I'm in the same boat reading-wise. When I was working, feeling extra ick and exhausted, I couldn't get myself to read long enough before I'd fall asleep. Now that the school year is over, reading is all I want to do!! My mom also embodied me with super-fast reading skills, so I'm glad I have a buddy to keep up with Now I'm so excited to reread and get caught up with the Hollows again after I finish this one!!
@literachick, what did you think? I liked this one a lot more than the first...I think the characters were more well-developed, and I didn't guess the culprit as easily as I did in the first book. I think the way that she teases the conclusion is interesting - Strike always figures it out, but she keeps the reader in the dark for a time. I feel like most mystery writers carry the reader the whole way with their problem solver, but JK departs a bit. I think I like it, even if it disconcerts me a little.
@litera : Chard really bothered me too! I thought that between the manservant and the weird anatomical obsession art that he would factor a bit more...but I think he was just the whipping boy for this story; she had already made him a creep with the "touching" of Orlando that turned out to be nothing.
Matthew is the worst. I was very surprised that he came around as much as he did about Robin's work, but I suppose he can't be totally unreasonable, or their relationship isn't believable any more. And no, you are not cray cray-I think that another couple of books, and we'll see a coupling (or a try at it).
What are you reading next? I'm finishing the first Hollows book today, even though I swore I wanted to save it till the bebeh is here, and read it aloud (I figure read fun books till she understands 'em).
I actually need a suggestion from you I was going to restart the Outlander series but then I thought I would want something new. I've been rereading a lot lately and need something to get into. I have a feeling those late night feedings with LittleDude will free up some Nook time, so whatcha got? Hit me!
(if you would oblige me anyways)
Also, getting really pumped about the 3rd Discovery of Witches book, that I'll drop everything for on the 15th (hopefully) so I'll squeeze in 1 more reread of the second one to refresh me.
Of course! Most of what I still love have been out for a while, (I was working on my PhD, so read the most boring books ever for about 2 years) so bear with me if you've read all of them.
If you're into historical fiction, Ken Follett has a couple different series...I liked the first (Pillars of the Earth) the most, but the Century series (starting with Fall of Giants) was pretty good too. He reminds me a bit of George R.R. Martin's style in terms of switching story lines and weaving them together - albeit on a shorter timeline than good ol' George. For that matter, he writes some good intrigue that isn't necessarily serial in nature. The historical novels were a departure for him, and I loved them. Philippa Gregory (the Other Boleyn Girl) wrote a couple of different series about the Tudor court and the Plantagenets (who preceded the Tudors). The Tudor series was more interesting to me, but both are pretty good, if a little tedious here and there.
If you're looking for good murder mystery books, Tess Gerritsen and Kathy Reichs (Rizzoli & Isles and Temperence Brennan from Bones, respectively) are VERY light reads, but good for those late nights when you just need to distract your brain for a bit. Gerritsen wrote some very good medical mystery novels outside of the Rizzoli/Isles series as well that I liked a lot. If you do consider either of those, don't worry too much about the TV series ruining them or vice versa. They don't have a ton in common.
Michael Connelly writes some of my absolute favorite mystery novels, with Harry Bosch as his main character - you can certainly pick up any of them and read independently, but they are fun to read in order, too; the first in the Harry Bosch series is The Black Echo. He also wrote a bunch of independent books that are definitely worth a read; The Poet and Void Moon were both worthy reads.
Nelson DeMille also writes some very good political/intrigue books - Plum Island and Up Country were both very good, but he has TONS of books out there.
I hope that helps! It made me want to go back and re-read ALL THE BOOKS Oh, and if you need books on educational and communications theory that will make you want to jab toothpicks in your eyes, I can help with that too!
@litera and @kwh33ls I totally agree with Ken Follett! His non-historical fiction stuff starts to get repetitive after a couple, but Pillars of the Earth and it's follow up are great and I've really enjoyed the newest collection as well (Century Series).
Has anyone read anything by C.C. Humphreys? Diana Gabaldon just recommended him on her FB page as another excellent historical fiction author, and I'm intrigued--just wondering if there's a good one to start with. Happy reading, ladies!
Not sure this is worth a new thread, so I'm putting it here since you ladies are the ones who got me into Outlander.
So, we all know the show starts this weekend. I discovered yesterday that you can get the first episode on demand already with Uverse. Has anyone else watched it yet, or am I going to have to wait until Saturday night to compare notes?
@kwh33ls I think overall it was good. I liked the flashbacks to help establish the background history of Claire and for the most part was ok with what they left out in the early part of the book. It didn't seem to take away from where the story is going.
I did struggle with some of the details. Claire's eyes aren't the right color. The books reference her eye color over and over and it didn't look right in the show (they looked blue or gray, but they're amber colored). Random stuff like that stuck out to me. I'm also not sure about the actor playing Jamie. He seems kind of weak (emotionally and physically). Hopefully he'll develop more.
The eyes!!! That really bothered me when they cast her, and it still does. I thought the beginning was a little weak-the flashbacks were good, but the real time stuff was lacking something. In the book, Claire and Frank were so in love that it was a little sad when she had to move on...I feel like they planted seeds of unhappiness already, and that made me a little sad. I definitely want to see Jamie develop a bit more too--he needs to be more manly
I agree with y'all - though I don't know that Jamie's strength was very apparent at the beginning of the book. I think it leaves the tv show the ability to show character development over the 8 weeks of episodes. Maybe? I'm hoping!
Does anyone know how far in the book this season is going to get?
I just finished The Slap by Christos Tsolakis (I'm pretty sure that's how you spell it but I could be wrong)...the story progresses normally but each chapter is from a different characters point of view...the language can be a bit vulgur but I really enjoyed it
I finally got a chance to read Gone Girl--what a crazy book!!
TTC History
Me: 35 DH: 34 Married 07/2012 DD born 07/2014 DD2 born 10/2018 DS born 10/2022
IF history: TTC #2 since January 2016 June-Aug 2017: 3 IUIs w/Clomid = BFN Sept 2017: Dx w/Endometriosis Oct 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN Nov 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN Dec 2017: pre-IVF testing Jan-Feb 2018: IVF--17 eggs retrieved, 13 fertilized, 9 frozen and 1 transferred on 2/10 = BFP on 2/19!!! EDD 10/29/2018 FET Oct 2021: BFP on 10/31! MC at 5 weeks FET Feb 2022: BFP on 2/15! EDD 10/29/22
Re: Book Club - NOW OPEN!
I'm already a fan of history and love books that make you figure out what they're saying in the other languages.. This is a perfect series for me!
***POSSIBLE SPOILER***
On a side note without giving too much away to anyone who hasn't read it yet, the last 150 pages of outlander were so hard to get through! I wanted to cringe and cry for most of it. Haha so glad it ended well.
You may be a former lurker but you have excellent literary taste. Heehee.
So that would make Jamie and Claire in their 80's when the series ends? That's pretty old for that time in history!
Haha :P well thank you, I feel slightly redeemed!
Nice!! I'm not sure when I stopped reading, so I will dig out my old paper-and-binding copies of the books I have and get caught up. Thanks for the reminder!!! I remember they were a little magical for me - made even chores like that horrendous drive fly by...a very nice memory
Does anyone know how far in the book this season is going to get?
Married 07/2012
DD born 07/2014
DD2 born 10/2018
DS born 10/2022
IF history:
TTC #2 since January 2016
June-Aug 2017: 3 IUIs w/Clomid = BFN
Sept 2017: Dx w/Endometriosis
Oct 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN
Nov 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN
Dec 2017: pre-IVF testing
Jan-Feb 2018: IVF--17 eggs retrieved, 13 fertilized, 9 frozen and 1 transferred on 2/10 = BFP on 2/19!!! EDD 10/29/2018
FET Oct 2021: BFP on 10/31! MC at 5 weeks
FET Feb 2022: BFP on 2/15! EDD 10/29/22