The Last Castle

 

I really enjoyed reading The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan. I am sure the fact that I started reading this days before heading to Asheville, North Carolina and my first visit to the Biltmore Estate and I finished reading the morning after arriving back home was a huge contributing factor. I would highly recommend that everyone visiting Biltmore takes the time to read this non-fiction accounting of George W. Vanderbilt's visions of his mountain home becoming a reality and then the fight by Edith Dresser Vanderbilt to keep her husband's dream alive after his death.I'm glad that I first read The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey, the fictionalized version of basically the same story. (It also became incredibly obvious that Harvey did her research well. Reading both these books in conjunction with my trip gave me enough information so that I had a good background about the city of Asheville, the history of the area, the Vanderbilt connection to the area, and some specific history of Biltmore.It also insured that I was more curious about things that I saw while sightseeing. And that sightseeing included a trolley around Asheville, time spent at the Grove Park Inn, spending time at the Estate and driving around the Piegan Forest. Now that I finished The Last Castle, I wish I was close enough to go back to the Asheville and look at some specific things a little more closely.

Sadly, it was too cold on the day of our visit to explore the gardens the way that I'd hoped. I'd done research on how to best maximize your time at the estate so we got their mid-morning, giving us time to shuttle to the house, then get to the gardens (I thought that would be a walk and not a shuttle), explore, and time to get back to the house to enjoy a hot chocolate before getting to go inside for our audio tour appointed time. We took the audio tour slowly, savoring lots of the rooms. From there, we shuttled back to the parking area and then drove to the Antler Hill Winery, a new business started by. the latest generation of the family. After the wine tasting, we went to the Legacy exhibit which I really enjoyed. That brought even more of the book to life. It also got me thinking about the generation running the estate now. A brother and sister about my age running their family home as a business. George and Edith's great granddaughter lives on property so she's running her home as a business. Intriguing. 

Wealth is a strange thing. There's so much curiosity about how "the other half" lives as well as such disdain for those who have so much. At least this branch of the Vanderbilt family did a lot of good with their riches. And fascinating how they've struggled financially for many years trying to maintain the house the way George dreamed it could be.

Day 1 in Asheville we spent several hours at 
The Omni Grove Park Inn

The view from the Inn

Interesting construction






Day 2 was our Biltmore Day

The Wedding Veil

Preparing for a return trip to Asheville - and my first visit to the Biltmore, I was interested in reading something to give me a little background. The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey fit the bill. It's a perfect cross between well-researched historical fiction and a Hallmark movie. And I love Hallmark movies!

The novel unfolds in dual storylines. Some people don't like this format for novels. I don't mind. 

The historical fiction storyline is about the Vanderbilt family, the building and maintaining of Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. Edith Vanderbilt is determined to preserve her husband's legacy after his untimely death. Their daughter, Cornelia, would also like to preserve the legacy, as well as maintain her "safe" home away from the spotlight in the mountains. Until she comes to the realization that she needs to make her own mark on the world.

The romance storyline is about runaway bride, Julia, and her determination to find out more about the history of the wedding veil that her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all had worn before her. It was while putting on the wedding veil, which comes with the promise of a "happily ever after" that Julia realizes the guy she's about to marry at, where else, but at the Biltmore, isn't going to be her happily ever after.

It doesn't hurt that Julia and her grandmother, Babs, my favorite character in the novel, have a special connection to the Biltmore. Babs has a mountain home in Asheville. It's a place where both Babs and and Julia go to think about life.

After reading this, I'm more excited than before to make my trip.

The Last House on the Street

I gave Diane Chamberlain's The Last House on the Street a 5-star rating on Goodreads. It was actually more like a 4.5 that I rounded up to 5. But be warned, this is not a book for everyone.

In 2010, Kayla and her husband, Jackson, build their dream home at the end of a street in a brand new development in Round Hill, North Carolina. Jackson dies in a tragic accident - at the house - before they can move in. And for some reason, discouragement about moving into the house is coming from all different places.

In 1965, Ellie Hockley, a 20-year old from Round Hill, North Carolina, volunteers to work for the summer educating "Negroes" about registering for the vote, in anticipation of the Voting Rights Act. She was part of a program that was put together for students from the North and out west to canvas in rural Black areas in the south. Ellie, as a southerner, was not really who they wanted in the program. Her family and friends are not at all happy that she feels the need to volunteer. She has her reasons and feels that she has to do something to help.

The novel is written in alternating storylines. Kayla's story and Ellie's story. Most of the early part of the novel I was waiting for the two stories to intersect, to help me make sense of Kayla's story.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, so I won't. But living in the south for the past twelve years, I found both the 1965 and 2010 stories hauntingly realistic. They are both stories about blatant racism, the KKK, divisions within the community. It's about new developments in rural areas. It's about relationships - both family and friends - and how far they can be stretched.
 

Book Lovers

How could a book lover who also loves Hallmark movies not love Emily Henry's latest, Book Lovers?

After my last finish (The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle), I needed a book that was going to captivate me and that I'd be able to tear through. Book Lovers was that book. 

Emily Henry starts the novel with her character talking about Hallmark movies. I was hooked! And truly, the plot of the novel could easily be a Hallmark movie. Nora is an intense book agent in NYC. She's very cutthroat, her clients love her for what she can achieve, but they call her "the shark" behind her back. The only relationship she is able to hold on to is with her younger sister, Libby, and her sister's family.

She approaches Charlie, a NYC editor, to see if he'd be interested in a novel by one of her hot authors. Charlie is not interested in that at all. He thought the author's last novel was terrible. And their meeting did not go well at all.

Story then jumps ahead a few years. Libby is pregnant with her 3rd child and needs a little break before the baby comes. She invites - coerces - Nora to accompany her to Sunshine Falls, NC, the setting of one of the novels that Nora represented. The one that Charlie seemed to hate. Libby has a list of things that Nora needs to accomplish on this month-long getaway. Silly things like wearing a flannel shirt, dating a local, riding a horse. Silly things like that.

It's Nora and Libby's first morning in NC. Libby is being a pregnant slug so Nora walks into town and who does she spy in the coffee shop but a guy who looks exactly like Charlie. What do you know? It IS Charlie! They get thrown together repeatedly. The banter between these two main characters is what makes the book so enjoyable. It is just such smart, witty banter. And they can read each other like a book!

I really enjoyed Beach Read. Enjoyed People You Meet on Vacation even more. I loved Book Lovers. If I need a little break from heavier reading and Emily Henry has a new romance novel out, that is what I will choose to read. Highly recommend.

 

Outlander again! Finally!

I put the latest in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone on a library request list as soon as I saw there was an actual publication date. I'd heard it was coming... and it was coming... but had no idea when. The wait felt so long!

I think that this might have been my least favorite of the Outlander books. There were many references to characters or events in earlier books with very little context. I found those frustrating at times, especially since I know that I will never go back to read the earlier books. While it was very interesting to read about battles of the American Revolution, sometimes the military stuff got a bit too much for me and slowed down the pace of my reading.

I thought this was going to be the final book in the series. If that is so, the ending was terrible. It just kind of dropped off. There has to be more!
 

A Good Neighborhood

 

A Good Neighborhood, by Therese Anne Fowler, is a very timely, quite thought-provoking novel that addresses the issues of what makes a good neighborhood and what makes a good neighbor. It factors in age, profession, women's roles, race, religion, environmental issues just to name a few. 

The narrator of the novel are "the neighbors," collectively. As if they are sitting down to tell you a story about something that happened in their neighborhood. It tells the tale of Xavier Alston-Holt and his mother, Valerie and their new neighbors, the Whitmans. The two families have absolutely nothing in common. 

Brad Whitman is a real blow-hard, new money, and a local celebrity because he's personable and does his own commercials for his HVAC business. His wife, Julia, just wants to fit in. Brad and Julia have two daughters, Juniper and Lily.

Valerie Alston-Holt is a single mom to graduating senior, Brad. They are both well-liked in the neighborhood.

Valerie doesn't like Brad, and Brad isn't crazy about Valerie, even though Julia so wants to have Valerie as a friend. It's a dying oak tree in the Alston-Holt's backyard that starts the serious friction between the two neighbors. At the same time that trouble is brewing between the adult members of the families, Xavier and Juniper are becoming friends.

The book was incredibly authentic and many of the story lines are along the lines of things that are pretty current in the news, although the book was written before these stories hit the news. It's just that timely. There's no reason that anything in this story could not possibly happen, especially not in the current climate of our country. The setting of the story is Oak Knoll, North Carolina, a southern small city. As a transplanted New Yorker living in the part of Florida that more closely associates with the south, it reminded me of just how southern the thoughts of many people who live here are. I was able to make a few uncomfortable connections.

I found the book a real page turner and think it would make a great book club book. Will definitely recommend it to my book club this afternoon.

Necessary Lies

 

I'm somehow surprised that this 2013 historical fiction novel, Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, wasn't on really my radar. When I finished American Dirt, I needed another book to read since nothing on hold had come in, browsed the library website for what was available and came across this one. Apparently it was kind of sort of on my radar since I had added it to my "want to read" list on goodreads. 

I'd read two other Diane Chamberlain novels. Pretending to Dance which I read for my community book club and The Stolen Marriage which I didn't like quite as much, but in this time of coronavirus, I think about it often.

What a story! Apparently well into the 1970s, there was a eugenics program in North Carolina. Yes, you read that right. Until the 1970s, a board selected people that they felt shouldn't reproduce and they sterilized them. Most other states abandoned the practice shortly after WWII because it was too closely associated with Nazi Germany.

Necessary Lies is the story of young, idealistic social worker, Jane, and some of her clients. Jane takes over from another social worker although her training is cut short  when the woman training her falls and breaks her leg. We meet Jane's clients, some of the people who live and work on the Gardiner tobacco farm. It's the Jim Crow south.

Necessary Lies is also the story of 15-year old Ivy Hart. After her father's death and her mother's commitment, she lives with her grandmother, her 17-year old sister, and her sister's 2-year old son. Her grandmother has diabetes and is not aging well. She's not up to the task of raising Ivy, Mary Ella or Baby William. Mary Ella is "feeble-minded" and Baby William is most likely following in his mother's footsteps. The task of running their sharecroppers home on the Gardiner farm is up to  Ivy who is dealing with epilepsy. 

Jane gets a little overly involved with the Hart family which causes problems in her new marriage as well as problems at work.

Not great literature but wow, what a story! At times I had to stop and think. Wait! This was happening in the 1960? Unimaginable. I'd highly recommend.

Where the Crawdads Sing

I was so disappointed when I realized that I'd still be out of town when my community book club discussed Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I started reading when I thought I might be back home. This is a book with so much to discuss.

But how to describe this richly layered novel? It's a coming of age story. It's a novel about life - and nature - in the marshes of North Carolina. It's a murder mystery.

I'm not a mystery lover but that aspect of the story did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel. Even if I strongly suspected "who done it" long before it was disclosed. My heart broke for Kya, as a small child and then as a young woman.

Owens reinforces that prejudice is not just based on race. And that as many awful, terrible people there are in this world, there are also a few really good ones. She also reminds us that being educated isn't just about going to school. It's about being open to learning in whatever manner you are able.

I'd highly recommend this book. I've been told that the book club discussion was great. Sorry I missed it!

Redemption Road

Many of you who have been following me for awhile know that mysteries and thrillers aren't really my thing. But I've learned a few things by reading "The Sign of the Crime" novels authored by my friend, Ronnie Allen. I've learned that I don't have to be able to follow all the subplots early on. I have to patient and let things evolve.

That was definitely the case with John Hart's latest, Redemption Road. To say I was in a state of perpetual confusion for the first 1/3 of the novel is an understatement. But I was patient, knowing that eventually the subplots would come together - and differentiate themselves - and things would become much clearer. I'd know what I was dealing with.

Redemption Road is about murder, rape, parent/child relationships, loyalty, infidelity, police violence. I'm sure there's more that I just haven't pegged yet. It takes place in a small town in North Carolina. I'd read somewhere that the location of the setting was important to the plot. I didn't find that at all. This story could have taken place almost anywhere.

I'm afraid that I'll inadvertently give something away if I begin to explain any of the subplots. Which is why I'm not giving you any personalized sort of summary of the book. Instead, I'll just give you what I read on goodreads.

Imagine:
A boy with a gun waits for the man who killed his mother.
A troubled detective confronts her past in the aftermath of a brutal shooting.
After thirteen years in prison, a good cop walks free as deep in the forest, on the altar of an abandoned church, a body cools in pale linen…
This is a town on the brink.
This is Redemption Road.
Brimming with tension, secrets, and betrayal, Redemption Road proves again that John Hart is a master of the literary thriller.

 If you want to know more, you're going to really have to read this book.

About two thirds of the way thru the book, I started having my own thoughts on how things were going to pan out. And in nearly all cases, I was correct. I'm pretty sure that will be something many of my book club members will comment on as well.

I'm really curious, though, if tomorrow's book club meeting will be more about the specifics of the story or more about the writing style of John Hart. Either focus should lead to a good book club discussion.

I gave it 4 stars on goodreads. Mostly because I enjoyed John Hart's use of language. And because this was a book that put me out of my reading comfort zone that I didn't mind reading.

The Stolen Marriage

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain, in my opinion, is a combination of historical fiction and sappy romance. The plot revolves around missed opportunities for communicating, poor choices, secrets, acceptance, and coming to term with oneself. The setting is early 1940s, Little Italy in Baltimore and Hickory, North Carolina. The US is fighting in WWII, infantile paralysis (or polio) is raging in pockets throughout the country, and racial and gender inequalities are the law of the land. There's religious intolerance as well, but I'm fairly certain that type of intolerance still exists.

The first half of the book felt more like sappy romance. That's not really my thing. Tess abandons her fiancé, Vincent, to run off and marry Henry. Even though she really loves Vincent and doesn't really know Henry. Henry's family hates Tess. They don't want her to be able to sit for a state licensing exam that will allow former nursing student, Tess, to become an R.N. She's a Kraft. It would sully the family name if she was to work. At times, I was ready to put down the book. I couldn't understand the rave reviews. When was I going to get to the "good" stuff?

It wasn't until I got to second half of the book that I felt completely engaged. I love a book that makes me run to the internet to check if part of the plot is made up or based on history. I found myself investigating several times during the second half of the story.

I learned about "the miracle of Hickory." In 1944, Hickory and the surrounding area experienced a horrible outbreak of polio. At the start, most cases were being sent to hospitals in Charlotte for treatment. When that was no longer an option, the folks of Hickory commit to opening a hospital to treat their own polio patients, complete with an iron lung. From a small wooden building that was part of a Fresh Air camp to an operational hospital took a mere 54 hours. Truly a miracle. In The Stolen Marriage, the fictional characters of Tess Kraft, R.N. and her husband, Hank Kraft, owner of a large furniture factory, are hugely involved in getting the hospital up and running so quickly.

In the first half of the book, Chamberlain has us wondering why Henry married Tess. To the author's credit, my prediction was off the mark. Not completely. I wonder if other readers made the same prediction that I made. In the second half of the book, Henry's reason for marrying Tess is made clear. Other secrets are revealed. I don't want to include any spoilers here but the other secrets are much more substantiative than those that might be revealed in a romance novel.

It took me five days to plod thru the first half of the book and just one day to finish my reading. This is the explanation for my 4-star rating on goodreads.com.

• How I miss you and Little Italy and St. Leo's and everything! Have some pizza for me, Gina. They've never even heard of it down here, and I am ever so tired of grits!                                 As a transplanted pizzaholic, this made me chuckle.

• Well, guess what I did this afternoon? I went to the library and researched divorce in North Carolina. The results were depressing. Gina, it's impossible!                                             Divorce is horrible. But I'm so glad that the option was available for me. I could only imagine how Tess must have felt upon this discovery. That harming the family name would be more important than people living happy, satisfying, productive lives.

• "Get up, get up!" she commanded, breathless from the climb up the stairs. "The Allies attacked the French coast!" she shouted. "Teddy Wright just came over to tell us to turn on the radio." She was smiling broadly and I could see the pretty young girl she had once been in her face. "There are thousands of troops!" she said, clasping her hands together. "Thousands upon thousands! Hurry downstairs."   ...  In minutes, all four of us plus Hattie, already dressed in her uniform, sat as close as we could get to the radio in the living room, awestruck by what we were hearing.  ...  "Teddy says the church is open." Ruth got to her feet. "Everyone's going. I'm getting dressed and calling a cab to take me there myself. Lucy and Tess, you come with me. And Hattie, you can go to your church too, if you want."                                                              I know that 24-hour news is a relatively recent concept and that in the "old days" households had one radio that the family listened to together. I know this. But I often imagine what how a story would be changed if set in today's time with our current access to news. I also wonder about what went on in my parents' individual homes (they were both still teenagers, 17 and 15) as World War II was ending. That makes me sorry that I never thought to ask that type of question of my parents before they died. Big news stories, now, as then, demand coming together as a community. I remember in my younger days crowds of people standing outside appliance storefront windows watching big news story with others. I guess that's a way that we can make better sense of our world.

• "That's a pretty doll," I said, and Jilly held it in front of her to show me. The doll had eyes that opened and closed, pursed pink lips, and molded blond hair. I wondered what it was like for a colored child to have to play with a white doll. I wonder if that is still a big issue. I know that it was becoming less of an issue when my kids were little. It reminds me of the time that my younger daughter really wanted "Baby Tumble Surprise" and the only one I could find was the black version. I wanted my kids to be accepting of all types of people so I didn't give much thought at all to the fact that the doll didn't resemble my blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter. And she loved that doll. Until she stopped tumbling!

• "...We can help our children. And speaking of the children" - he paused momentarily - "we won't have the space to separate colored from white right away, so until we do, the facility will be integrated." He held up his hands as if to stop any complaints before they began. "That can't be helped," he said. "We need to remember that polio knows no socioeconomic or racial lines. It affects all of our community and it will take all of us to fight it." Ruth, mother of Henry, (falsely) believes that polio is caused by poor hygiene. I'm sure many affluent people thought that as well, until polio struck someone close to them.

• From the author's notes: To complicate matters, the town is impossible to navigate by map, having street names like "44th Avenue Court NE." To make matters worse, as I tried to learn what the town was like in 1944, I discovered that the street names were different back then. the joke is that the town government changed the names during the war in case of invasion - the enemies would never be able to find their way around. I wonder why the street names in Ocala, Florida, near where I live, are so ridiculous. NW 34th Avenue Road?

• Also from the author's notes: Joyce Moyer, the author of the award-winning children's novel, Blue, shared some of her research with me early on. She whetted my appetite to learn more, and I'm grateful for her generosity. I'm a fan of children's literature, checked out Blue on goodreads.com, and it sounds like another book I'd enjoy reading.

The Stolen Marriage is a book that I'm glad I stuck with. And if any of what I've just written sounds remotely interesting to you, you might want to give this novel a try.

Pretending to Dance

Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain combines two of my favorite genres: young adult fiction (coming of age stuff) and contemporary women's fiction. It's also the first book in a really long time that I had the pleasure to devour in just over 48 hours. It drew me in when I actually had a chance to sit and read for hours at a stretch. Yay!

When does pretending become lying? Molly's father, Graham, dealing with declining health due to MS, is a "pretend therapist." He's a real therapist... but he believes in the adage "fake it until you make it." If you want to be brave, pretend to be brave. If you want to be happy, pretend to be happy. That sort of thing.

Molly and her husband are living in San Diego, close to Aidan's happy family. They've reached the point where the only way they will have children is to adopt. The process necessary to go through in order to adopt brings many of Molly's secrets - and lies - to the front of her mind. Molly has lied to Aiden about her family. She's told him her parents are dead. In actuality, her father is dead but her two mothers - both her adoptive mother and her birth mother - who each had a huge role in her upbringing - are very much alive in North Carolina.

We experience the summer of 1990 when Molly falls in love for the first time, rebels against her parents and experiences loss after loss. We also go through Molly and Aiden's journey towards parenthood in 2014.

It brought back memories of the summers in my teens when I thought I knew it all and that my parents were just trying to hamper me. It brought back memories of the years when I wondered if I'd ever be a parent. I loved the relationship Abby had with her dad. I loved the way young Abby tried to figure out right from wrong. This book simply delighted me.

Another thing I realized that I loved about this book is that the ending wasn't rushed. Chamberlain let the story play out. She didn't rush to wrap things up. As I was reading, I recognized that a big complaint of mine about other books is how quickly they are finished. The climax comes... and then a few pages later, the story is over. That wasn't the case with Pretending to Dance. In fact, if I hadn't finished the book as quickly as I had, I considered writing a blog post about authors that have crash endings to otherwise wonderful novels.

The one thing I didn't like about the book would be a spoiler and if you've been following me long enough, you know that's not my style. To be sort of vague (and to jog my memory when I read this post before discussing Pretending to Dance with my book club in a few weeks), I didn't really understand Chamberlain's handling of a particular issue. She treated this particular issue as if there had been no social evolution regarding this issue between 1990 and 2014. I felt that 1990 Molly's thoughts and reactions were spot on while 2014 Molly's thoughts and reactions were stuck in 1990. And I don't mean in the sense that she kept going back to how she felt in 1990. It's as if this issue hadn't been in the news or in novels or in discussions over the past 24 years. The evolution of this issue could have and probably should have been reflected as Molly comes to terms with her family's experience in 1990. Enough said on that! This is the only reason why I gave this book a 4-star rating on Goodreads rather than a 5-star rating. I really did love this book.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I have been remiss in not posting while reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6) by Diana Gabaldon. It seems like I started the book months ago, then had the problems with Overdrive, then while I was waiting for the e-book to become available again, I had book club books to read. But finally had a good long reading session yesterday and finished Book #6.

You may or may not recall that after Book #5, I felt as though I was at a good point in the series to take a break and get some other reading done. I kind of knew what might happen next, just not what it might mean. Well, after the conclusion of Book #6, I immediately went in search of Book #7. I really, really, really want to know what happens next! I'm not at a good breaking point at all!

I can't really tell you what the book is about since I can't really recall where book #6 started. The bulk of the book was about the days leading up to the American Revolution. What was especially interesting to me is that most of the American Revolution history that I already knew was related to New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. I'll even admit that I never really gave much a thought to what was going on in North Carolina before or during the early days of our country. (In my little teeny mind, prior to reading this book, North Carolina didn't become a player until the days leading up to the Civil War. Have I mentioned that I love a book where I learn something new?)

I also won't tell you what happens at the end of the book, the type of cliffhanger I'm now left with. That would be a spoiler and I'm determined not to include spoilers when reviewing or writing about books. Suffice to say, it's a major cliffhanger and I can't wait to see what comes next. I'm #3 on a waitlist for the e-book.

That should give me a little time to get some other reading done while I wait.



Who I recommend this book to? Anyone who is hooked on the Outlander series!

Last night I started the January Books & Beer Club pick - The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, another classic that I've never read. Fantasy is not my cup of tea so I wasn't even sure if I would take the time to read this one. So far, it's not quite what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected. And it's a much quicker read than I imagined it would be. Stay tuned for my review.

Finally finished The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5)

Check me out on Goodreads!

I finally finished reading book 5 in the Outlander series. The Fiery Cross, by Diana Gabaldon. I will be 100% honest with you. I won't be able to give you a great review of the book because I can't remember what happened in this book versus earlier books. I don't remember exactly where Book #4 ended and Book #5 began. (That can happen when it takes a full two months to read a book.) And I don't want to give away anything!

I was really late to join the Outlanders fan club. This past summer, Books and Beer Club was reading the first book in the series for its July and August book! Book #1 left me with a ton of questions which could only be answered by continuing to read Book #2. Book #2 ended with more of a cliffhanger than an over-abundance of questions, as did Books #3 and #4. Book #5 doesn't end with a cliffhanger. I'm curious about what happens next but I don't have any burning questions. I'd planned to take a break after this book and I think it's worked out to be the perfect time.

In case you're unfamiliar with the series, as I was until I started to read it, it's a combination of time travel and historical fiction. Claire Randall, a British WWII nurse on vacation in Scotland, somehow goes back in time to the Scotland of the 1740s. That's where she meets and eventually falls in love with Jamie Fraser. Prior to reading the book, I knew nothing of the Jacobite Rising. I've learned more about redemptioners (a sort of indentured servant). And now I'm learning more about the years leading up to the American Revolution. I think I've mentioned before that I love learning new things so this is right up my alley. Books #1 and #2 had some pretty steamy sex scenes. While the content has gotten more factual as the series progresses, the romance has not died one bit between Claire and Jamie.

You might be wondering about my 4-star review on Goodreads for the book? Why not 5? I assign my stars based on a gut reaction to a book.

• If it's pure perfection and the absolute perfect fit for me, I'll assign it 5 stars.
•  If something nags at me, it goes down to a 4... which is still a pretty darn good book that I'd highly recommend to anyone who loves to read. 
• 3 stars means that I liked the book well enough but I'd only recommend it to certain people.
• 2 stars means that I got through the book just fine but I really didn't like it and I wouldn't recommend it.
• 1 star means that something at the end of the book got me really angry or was a huge disappointment in the end. Otherwise, I drop books after about 100 pages if I don't really get engrossed in anyway. When I last checked my dropped books shelf on Goodreads, I was surprised by how really full it actually was!

Having said all that, while I don't think I've given any of the Outlander books more than 4 stars, but I would most definitely give the series 5-stars.

Here's an interesting interview with Diana Gabaldon that I just came across that was most informative. And to think that she wasn't just playing around when she first started to write the book. Wow. Wowee! You can also see how huge the books are that she's signing in the video. No wonder it's taken me 8 months to get through 5 books!  


What I think I can say about The Fiery Cross without spoiling anything for you is that this book is told from 4 points of view. Claire tells her story in the first person. Jamie, Brianna and Roger's stories are told in third person. Each of these characters has many, many stories to tell.

There were lots of political stories to tell. The setting for the book is 1771 and 1772 North Carolina. While most of those in the Colonies weren't aware that big things were brewing, Claire, Jamie, Brianna and Roger know exactly what's coming. I learned tidbits of things regarding the American Revolution that I never knew before.

There were medical stories to tell. Claire seemed to rely more on her 1960's medical training to deal with the healing she needed to provide in the 18th century. As I read about her experiments with penicillin, I wondered if the character of Claire was changing the history of penicillin that I'd first learned about by reading A Fierce Radiance, a historical fiction novel about the early days of penicillin written by Lauren Belfer. How much of that history would have been changed had someone caught on to what Claire was trying to do. With all the talk about changing the history of the United States, what about the possibility of changing medical history? She also did much more reflecting of her life as a healer and a doctor. I wonder if that will continue in subsequent books. No, please, don't tell me!

Finally, there were all the relationship stories. Claire and Jamie, Brianna and Roger, Jamie and Roger, Roger and Stephen Bonnet, Jamie and Stephen Bonnet, the families living on Fraser's Ridge. Some sex and romance but not as much as in earlier books. At least they didn't stand out as much.

I loved reading about Jemmy growing from a baby to a toddler with thoughts, ideas and dreams for himself. There are also reappearances of some other characters from earlier books and explanations regarding a few other characters who don't exactly reappear.

What am I going to read next? Books and Beer Club is reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss for it's March meeting. I got a little nervous when I saw that this book is part of the Kingkiller Chronicle series, but since fantasy, especially fantasy/science fiction is never a favorite genre of mine. It's another long book, over 600 pages. I've just started it today. Will I be able to finish it by the last Wednesday of the month? It's highly rated on both Amazon and Goodreads so I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it enough.

What am I reading now?

I'm sure you're curious as to what I'm reading now.

I'm reading The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon from a 7-Book Bundle that I found in Overdrive. (It's been easier to renew than any of the individual books.) I'm in the very middle of the fifth book of the series, The Fiery Cross. I started the series last July, when one of my book clubs decided to read the first book over a 2-month period. I haven't stopped. I guess that's another reason why I feel like I'm not reading as many books as I used to read. These books are l-o-n-g!

I'm not sure why I avoided the series for so long. "Oh, time travel? I'm not really into that." And for some reason I thought religion played a focal role in the stories. Yes, religion does play a role. But not at all in the way that I thought. And while it is a time travel book, there's probably less comparison between "then" and "now" than I would have included had I attempted to write a similar story.

After completing the first book for book club and summarizing it by writing, "This is the kind of book I would have loved in college..." implying that I wouldn't like it now, I've been stuck into the series for months!

At the same time, I've got  A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer (1995) checked out of the library and waiting for me on Overdrive. Like the Outlander bundle, it's also due in 10 more days. At some point in the next day or two, I'm going to have to stop reading Outlander and start reading "It."