REVIEW: OUTLANDER by DIANA GABALDON

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Del publishing 1991

I thought it might be fun, since Diana's latest book in the Outander series is coming out in 2 weeks, to do a review of the 6 books leading up to the next one. 

Outlander is the very first in the series, and it also happens to be my favourite.  Most people (my husband included) would dismiss Gabaldon's work as "chick lit".  And though there admittedly is quite a bit of romping and manly highlanders in the mix, it is really  very rich, detailed historical fiction at its best.  This is, by far, my number one source for the ultimate in escape reading.  You feel as though you could actually live in DG's world.   For the past 8 years, there has never a week that has gone by that Jamie and Claire have not been a part of.  I am always reading a book from this series.  It is intelligent writing, it is manly enough that even many men have read and enjoyed it! 

The story begins in 1945 just after the war, where Claire is on holiday in Scotland with her husband Frank.  Theirs is a relatively happy marriage, as in it is not completely UNHAPPY.  Claire decides to take an early morning walk and stumbles accross a set of standing stones, not unlike Stonehenge but much smaller.  When she touches the stones she hears a deafening noise and feels as though she is being torn to pieces.  Badly disoriented she comes to on the ground and in the same place but something is eerily different.  Suddenly, without warning, a band of weirdly dressed men come upon her and demand to know who the hell she is.  And she replies with one of my favourite lines from the entire series with, "I'm Claire Beauchamp.  Who the hell are YOU?"  It does not take long for Claire to realize that she has some how been transported back in time to the 1700's in Scotland and that's where everything gets very interesting.  She meets a young Highland warrior named Jamie, and through no fault of their own they are thrust together in what will prove to be one of the greatest love stories ever told in literature (okay, this is just MY humble opinion.  ;) ) . 

The Outlander series is a fantastic read for anyone who has ever been in love, wants to be in love, or especially (as in my case) anyone who has been married for a long time.   On the pages of this beloved book are tests of the heart, soul and love that you will find yourself swooning all over the place.  And it will keep you turning its pages long into the night.  Will she be able to go back?  What about Frank?  What about Jamie?  WHAT THE HECK IS GOING TO HAPPEN???!!!!

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would!!  Pick up your copy TODAY.

RATING:  5/5

SUNDAY SALON

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....


This week was not the best week for reading, per se.  Every day I thought about reading, and I did actually read EVERY day, but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.  The new additions to my reading list at the moment was our Family Book Club's selection "Three Day Road" by Joseph Boyden.  Our official start date was Sept 1st, and I have created a reasonable reading schedule for everyone and even made a bookmark with the deadlines on there to keep everyone on track.  The only thing is, this book is SO GOOD that it is VERY difficult to stick to the 60 pages every TWO WEEKS!  But for a couple of people in our club they only tend to read a few pages a night, so we wanted to make sure that everyone could in fact get the book done by the deadline.  We could plough ahead if we wanted to, but my fear is that if I finished the book too far ahead of our meeting on November 28th that I would have forgotten about the story and wouldn't be as involved in the discussion.  I am thoroughly enjoying it, though! 

The other book I picked up this week is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."  So far I really like it, I adore the main characters and it is a very fast read.  Although it is a thickish book, the text on the page is large and therefore you can get through the book pretty fast.  Plus the story is grabbing and you get into it right away. 

I was at the book store (like I said) the other day and had a look at "Hunger Games" and "Catching Fire".  They look FANTASTIC!  And it was all I could do to not buy them.  SERIOUSLY.  The buzz in the book blog world about these books is off the charts, and this morning my beloved Book and Arts section in our local paper had a huge write up about them and the author.  Soooo, this week I may have to step into a Chapters and see if they fly into my hand and to the cash register.  And like most other book addicts out there, yes I DO hide my bags, and have been doing that for YEARS.  Like an alcoholic and liquor bottles, but it's BOOKS so it's OKAY... right?  RIGHT???!!!!!!  

This is a long weekend in Calgary, and we have been doing not much else other than hanging around at home.  It is very cool out today and I got very excited by the idea that maybe I could actually wear a SWEATER.  But alas, it is not quite THAT cool.  I am a HUGE fan of fall.  It is hands down my FAVOURITE season.  The leaves, going back to school, the cooler temps, sweaters, you know... the whole thing.  LOVE.

Have a WONDERFUL rest of your weekend everybody!!!!

WINNER OF PAULLINA SIMONS AUTOGRAPHED BOOKMARK!

THE WINNER IS:

MARJORIE!!!!

I have sent you an email as well, please email me your mailing address so I can mail you your prize!  Thank you SO MUCH to everyone that entered!

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY!!

REVIEW: THE LEGACY OF LUNA by Julia Butterfly Hill

(I apologize for the format of this post, blogger was giving me issues this AM and for some reason is not putting my paragraph breaks in.. grrrr!)

The Legacy of Luna

by Julia Butterfly Hill

Harper Collins c. 2000

What would you do to save the life of one tree?  When Julia Butterfly Hill climbed the branches of Luna, an enormous redwood in Northern California, she had one mission in mind... save Luna.  Little did Hill know that that single act would sear her into the pages of environmentalist history.  She would spend a total of 738 days living on Luna, her feet not touching earth for over 2 years.  All for the life of this one incredible organism and even more for the strong message the saving of this one tree conveyed.  But this story is so much more than that.  It is not a "tree hugging"  angry memoir, but rather an uplifting journey into the human spirit and a journey into Hill's very soul and we stand as witness to her incredible metamorphisis.

When I almost died in that mother of all storms, my fear of dying died, too.  Letting go of that freed me, like the butterfly frees itself of its cocoon.  I began to live day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath, and prayer by prayer.  Before I knew it, I had reached the hundred-day mark I swore I would never see.

The Legacy of Luna begins with Julia's brush with death in an automobile accident, and her year long stay in the hospital.  Upon release she stumbles upon this section of the redwood forest and there she finds out about how environmentalists are living atop this enormous redwood named Luna.  She decides without much preamble to take her turn in the sky, tree sitting among Luna's branches and living on the teeny tiny platform which was barely enough room for one, but would, at times, accomodate three people and their supplies.  Thinking she would only tree-sit for a few weeks, she begins to get reports that the millionaire logging company is not backing down on its plan for hacking down all of the hundreds of years old trees in the area, including the ancient and beautiful one Hill was living in.  Despite incredible physical pain, hardship, winter, little food, Hill perserveres and begins to understand how we are all connected not just as human beings, but as all living things on this earth. 

One thing about this book, is you will be inspired to do more. While living in Luna, Hill takes recycling to a whole other level. It is fascinating to read how ingenuitive tree-sitters must be with scant supplies.  It makes you look at how you live your own life and the often times incredible needless waste we accumulate day after day.

 This book came out before "greening" our world became the "thing" to do, before Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and before we found out that we must indeed to something, or we will quickly hit the point of no return for our beloved planet.  That's why, perhaps, this book was so powerful for me back then.  There was little in the maintream media at the time about such things.  And I had never heard of a woman actually LIVING IN A TREE FOR 2 YEARS!  Hill did, and her story will have you intrigued and flipping pages, even amongst, at times, her very new age take of life as we know it.

RATING:  3/5

THE WINNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE WINNERS OF JOHN HIGHAM'S BOOK 360 DEGREES LONGITUDE ARE:

(drumroll)

GABY317

BETH

LINDA ELLEN

JEMIMA

HIPPMOM

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!!!!!  I will email you all shortly, and then as soon as possible please reply with your mailing address so I can forward it to the publisher and have John's book on it's way to your mailbox!!!!!! 

Somebody stop me...

So, every Tuesday my 9 year old daughter goes to piano lessons.  It takes awhile.  So instead of trying to entertain my 2 year old daughter in the car, I usually take her to Chapters.  Here's the thing.

I have a lot of books.

I really have no business buying anymore books at the moment.

But this is what I found in my hand when I got back to my car.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

TEASER TUESDAY

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…
  
• Please avoid spoilers!

Here is my teaser:

In the end the answer is simple.  Elijah has learned to take pleasure in killing.

~ Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
   
For more Teaser Tuesdays click here.