Lorette's Reading List

Outlander

By Diana Gabaldon

 

Now, this is a novel. I've read this one before, but have never gotten around to reading the rest of the series. I decided that this whole set of six books would make good summer reading, and decided to start over with the first one. The seventh in the series is due to be published this fall, so I need to read faster.

If you haven't read these, and like historical romance, I'd highly recommend this. The main heroine, Claire, is poking around a set of standing stones in 1945 Scotland. When she accidentally touches one of the stones, she's whirled back through time to 1743, in the Scottish Highlands right before the rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie. She has loads of perilous adventures, and due to her smart-ass personality, gets in a lot of trouble along the way. She meets rogues and outlaws, and ends up marrying into a large Highland clan for protection.

The whole thing is completely preposterous, but Gabaldon writes it so well that it ends up being a real page-turner. This is a terrific book, and I've already gotten well into the second book of the series.

627 pages.

Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country (Guenevere Novels)

By Rosalind Miles

Hmmm. What to say about this one? I sort of liked the story, though it's been done a few too many times. It's part of a trilogy of Guenevere stories, and I'm a sucker for trilogies.

In the end, I'd have to say that I wouldn't buy the rest of the set. So many books, so little time to read those that don't grab me by the throat. I liked Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, much better.

515 pages.

You might have noticed that there's been a gap between the last post and this one. One might think that reading that last book threw me off for months, but I just forgot to post. I'm not even going to try to catch up. I'll try to do better in the future, but there have been a few hundred or so pages that missed getting counted because I was too lazy to put them in here.

Terminal

By Robin Cook

This was one of the worst books I've read in a long time. One of my patients in the hospital finished it right before he was discharged, so he gave it to me. The plot surrounds a medical student and his pretty nurse sidekick, who discover an evil scheme involving faked research, intentionally-caused cancer, and a conspiracy to extort research money from the unsuspecting victims. The plot is as thin as water, and there is not one believably-written character. Don't waste your money.

445 pages

The Boleyn Inheritance

By Philippa Gregory

 

This was an enjoyable read. It continues the story of Henry VIII's many wives, this time as he marries and discards Anne of Cleves. It's relatively predictable, given that the story is well known and has been told many times, but Anne is not one of his more famous wives, so it's interesting. As romantic historical fiction goes, Gregory writes some of the best. I have several of her other novels in the queue.

592 pages

Hawaii

by James Michener

Lordy, where to start with this one. I liked this in some ways, hated it in others. I learned a lot of Hawaiian history that was new to me, but Michener's writing style drives me a bit nutty. Any book that starts off with "millions upon millions of years ago" and ends in the 1950's is guaranteed to get on my nerves after awhile. It ends up being a bunch of short family stories within the grander epic story, which left me feeling like I really didn't care about any of them very much. Michener handles this format by making apparently everybody who ever lived in Hawaii related to the same three or four families, which I'm sure isn't quite the case.

At any rate, I finally finished it. I almost threw it into the recycle bin a few times, but now I can move on to something more enjoyable, preferably less epic.

937 pages.

A World Undone

by G. J. Meyer

I actually started this one in 2008, but what the heck. It's my blog. It's also close to 800 pages, so I'm counting it.

This is the story of the 1st World War, and Meyer manages to cover a complex period of world history in a style that is easy to read and understand. In each section, he provides background stories of the major players in the war, enabling the reader to follow the complicated politics of Europe that led to the bloodbath called the Great War. Once you finish reading this account of the "war to end all wars", you will more easily realize how the world was set up for a second great disaster in World War II.

Meyer includes a helpful chronology in the beginning of the book, as well as a list of the major characters. There are a handful of photographs, and only a few maps. Probably my only criticism of the book is that more maps would have been helpful.

The last sentence in the book follows a background section entitled "The Fate Of Men & Nations", in which Meyer describes what happened to the major characters in the Great War over the next decade and a half. After discussing Winston Churchill's eventual warnings about the rearmament of Nazi Germany, he ends the story by saying, "But that is another story." I can only hope that he plans to write that story as well.

777 pages.

Dead Until Dark

by Charlaine Harris

This is the official first book of 2009. Dead Until Dark is the first in a series by Charlaine Harris. If any of you watched True Blood on HBO this past fall, you'll recognize this story. It's the story of a cocktail waitress named Sookie Stackhouse in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and of her adventures with vampires and murderers. It's a great story, there are some hilariously funny moments, and Sookie is an entertaining heroine. There are 8 books so far in the series, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of them.

292 pages.

First Post!

I joined Ravelry's 52 Books in 52 Weeks for 2009. We'll see how long this lasts. I'm currently finishing up a book that's been in hibernation for quite a while, A World Undone, the Story of the Great War. It's by G.J. Meyer, and it's quite a bit more engaging than you might think from the title. The point of this blog page will be simply to keep a running list of books that I finish, either with or without a short review. Stay tuned!