Recently, An Echo In The Bone, the latest book in the Outlander series was released, and I found myself thinking, wow, it’s been a long time since Gabaldon wrote an Outlander novel, and… where did I leave off in this series? I couldn’t remember enough about it, so I thought the best way to remedy that was to start over. No easy task when you consider the size of these novels. But start over I did with the first of the series, Outlander.

Englishwoman Claire Randall and her husband Frank are on a sort of belated honeymoon in Scotland. Having been separated shortly after their marriage by war taking Frank into the army and Claire into service as a nurse, they have been reunited and are enjoying another start to their marriage. On a trip to Scotland to learn more about Frank’s roots, they explore the countryside where they come upon a stone structure high atop a hill in the Highlands called Craigh na Dun. Frank, a professor of history, is fascinated by the stones, as they are often used in worship by pagans of an ancient time. Claire is interested in the foliage growing around the stones, as she enjoys learning about herbs and their medicinal uses. One day, Claire decides to go to the stones atop the hill to look for some plants she spied on an earlier trip, when she is literally sucked into a time warp transporting her back 200 years to a time of warring Highlanders and Englishmen.

She is set upon by Captain Jonathan Randall, the very relative her husband Frank had been researching. She discovers that Randall is not a hero of any kind, but a vicious sadist intent on raping her. As she fights to get away, she is rescued, then kidnapped, by a clan of Scottish men, who whisk her away deep into Scottish territory, at the Mackenzie clan’s Castle Leoch. Along the way, she meets a man who will become very important to her — the outlaw Jamie Fraser, a young, fiery, handsome Scot, who also happens to have been beaten and injured to an inch of his life. Claire calls upon her experience as a nurse and her knowledge of herbs to aid Jamie, and is soon labeled as a physician at Leoch and made invaluable to the inhabitants of the castle.

The chief of the clan, Column Mackenzie and his brother, the war chieftan Dougal Mackenzie, are reluctant to allow her to leave Leoch, not only because she is a healer, but because she is an English woman, and they suspect she is working as a spy for the English or for the French, as she has chosen to identify herself by her Maiden name of Beauchamp, rather than link herself in any way to the terrible Captain Randall. The Mackenzies are determined to find out her true identity, and eventually lead her back to the English to attempt a trade of sorts in order to discover who she is working for and how she came to be in the woods of Craigh na Dun that day they discovered her.

It soon becomes clear when Captain Randall manhandles Claire violently, that she is not working with him. But Captain Randall demands that she be handed over to the English army, as she is an Englishwoman and it is their right to claim her. To avoid handing her back to Randall, the Mackenzies decide they shall make her Scottish, and wed her to Jamie Fraser.  Neither Claire nor Jamie really want to marry, but they can’t deny a strong attraction between them — one that explodes into a passionate love that will change their lives forever.

Claire now has to decide which man she will be faithful to — her husband Frank, whom she left 200 years in the future, or her new husband Jamie. Frank is safe, if a bit dull, but he offers her stability and security in a time of modern conveniences. But Jamie lights her up with a passion she has never felt before, and he fights for her honor and safety at every dangerous turn.

And there is a lot of danger in this time period — the barbarism of the Highland games is no joke. This is a time of ruthless violence. A time of theft and killing at every turn. Claire is afraid for her life, but at the same time, she has never been happier. She is in love and her skills are useful at a time when modern medicine doesn’t exist. This is a time of beauty, untarnished by tar roads and vehicles puffing their fumes into the environment. Even as her protectors and new friends are attacked and beaten, she doesn’t want to leave them. They’ve become her family.

This was a great book. It’s the reason I kept on buying the series. Gabaldon’s writing is rich in details that bring the time and the places to life. There is certainly a lot of filler in the book — historical facts and details that might not be necessary for the storyline, but which help establish an authenticity and feeling that connect the reader to the story. Of course, this is not a book for the squeamish, as there is a lot of detailed and gory violence in it; and this isn’t a book for the prudish, as Gabaldon has no qualms writing sex scenes and plenty of them. I can recall being in a creative writing class once and discussing the difficulties of letting go of your inhibitions and writing a sex scene that will really put you in that moment and almost make your reader feel uncomfortable, like they’ve walked in on a private moment they aren’t supposed to be a part of. It’s not easy to write like that, but I have to say Gabaldon dropped those inhibitions and gave it gusto. You want sex, you got it. But it’s not all sex. At least not the first half or the book, anyway. My husband used to joke the first time I read this book and we’d be reading our books before bedtime, when he’d lean over and look at my pages every few minutes to discover another sex scene or body part being exposed. It was annoying the first couple of times he did it, but after it turned out he was right near the 4th or 5th time, it became funny and we’d make it a sort of game where instead of him looking over to glance over the pages, I’d just call out, “Another one!” and we’d laugh. You could get mighty drunk if you played it as a drinking game ;)

Anyway… enjoyable read. I’ll be starting the next one (again) shortly.

The Callan sisters are not much alike. Clara Callan is the responsible sister who stays on in her family’s little Ontario town and takes care of the house after her parents have both passed on. Nora Callan is the adventurous sister, who craves a more exciting life and moves to New York to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. This would be like many a sister story you’ve read before, except this novel is set in the 1930s, during a time when being a single woman in her 30s was not as glamorous as it is made to be today.

Instead, Clara Callan is categorized as an old maid; a spinster schoolteacher who prefers to stay home alone and read a good book than go out and socialize and find a husband. She thinks she’s too old now, and the chances of her finding a husband to marry and have children with are gone. And she’s right — being an unmarried, 30-something woman in a small town in 1930s Canada doesn’t give her many opportunities to find love at this already “late stage of life”.

Nora has it a little easier. Having moved to the vibrant city of NYC, fresh off the swinging heyday of the 20s, she’s free to date and work and enjoy her life more than her sister is in the the traditional, Puritan village they grew up in. Nora soon makes a name for herself as a radio actress, and with her success comes suitors and admirers. Trouble is, they’re usually married men.  (more…)

Seventeen-year old Alex Jackson is a history nut who loves everything to do with soldiers and war. He spends his time creating models of famous armies, and in particular, recreating replicas of the terra cotta soldiers buried with the dead Emperer Qin Shi Huangdi between 210-209 B.C. near Xi’an, China.

Alex’s father, Ted, works as news cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and is offered an opportunity to travel to China and work with famous Canadian journalist Eddie Nowlan as they cover the historic 1989 visit of Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Knowing how much his son loves Chinese military history, Ted, decides to pull Alex from school for a few months to travel to China with him as he works on the story.

Alex is so excited, and before he knows it, he and his father have arrived in China and Alex is finally visiting the famous Terra Cotta army and the historic sites of the Forbidden City. With the help of his Chinese translator, Lao Xi, Alex even begins learning how to speak the language and behave appropriately in the new culture he is immersed in.

But Alex and his father don’t quite realize that they have arrived in China at a very dangerous time. It is the spring of 1989, and the students and civilians of China are beginning to protest the Chinese Communist Party, and demanding democratic reform within the government. What starts out as peaceful protests in Tian An Men Square escalates over months to student hunger strikes and civilian barricades that end in a government-ordered massacre as the People’s Liberation Army is instructed to end the protests and clear the square using whatever means necessary.

Being news journalists, Ted and Eddie are excited to cover the story, and they hurry out to the square along with Alex and Lao Xi to document the protests; but when the shootings begin, they are all separated from each other and must survive a night of death and chaos. They are in particular danger as the military is ordered to search out all foreign reporters documenting the massacre and prevent their footage from reaching the outside world. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed on June 4th and in the days following the massacre on Tian An Men Square. Alex himself is injured, and with the help of some Chinese students who pull him to safety, he must find a way to locate his father, escape China, and smuggle all the videotape footage he took of the massacre to the rest of the world.

This was a great story. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, because I’m not a fan of historical fiction, especially when it documents war or military events, but this story was riveting. Told from the point of view of Alex, I learned a lot more about the Tian An Men massacre and the brutality of it all. And it was brutal — what Alex sees and how he reacts to it is realistic and graphic, and I’m glad for it. I think if William Bell had written this story and toned it down for the YA audience, it wouldn’t have been nearly as good. Definitely a good read.

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I mentioned a while ago in a post about shopping for books and being a cheapskate that I was positive I had a copy of this book somewhere in my house. Turns out I was both right and wrong. I did indeed have a copy of the book — it was just in a big container of books stowed away in the garage. So once I pulled it out from amongst my old Sweet Valley Twins and BSC books, I finally read it again. Then I forgot to review it. Then I started writing the review and saved it as a draft. Then I forgot about the draft. And now I’m up at 4:00 AM, unable to sleep, and I remembered I have this and another book to review.

Anyway… this was a reread for a course I’m marking, and, as I’ve discovered with a lot of rereads lately, I liked it much better than I did when I first read it in grade 9. I guess it just made more sense to me now that I’m older. I can see why this book is a classic — it certainly raised a lot of controversial issues in the day it was published.

The story revolves around the Finch family: a little girl named Scout, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus. The first half of the book centers around Scout’s, Jem’s, and their friend, Dill’s, fascination with Boo Radley — a man living down the street who hasn’t left his house in years. Of course, this causes all sorts of myth to be created about the mysterious locked-in man by the children of the town.

The second half of the story centers around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl; and in the Southern USA of the 1930s, a black man was guilty until proven innocent. Atticus Finch is appointed as Tom’s attorney, and the family must now deal with the prejudice and anger from a town and the county full of white people raised through through generations of racism and class differences. Through the name calling and threats, Atticus attempts to teach his children to be compassionate to all people: whether they are black or white, poor or rich, smart or slow. He believes that all people should see the world through the eyes of the less fortunate, and not be too quick to judge.

It’s definitely a great story about compassion and honesty and understanding. Atticus epitomizes honesty and goodness, and through the eyes of his children, we see how blinding and wrong racism can be. At times, I thought the book felt a little too long in places (the first half in particular), but the story as a whole contains messages that are worthy of all readers’ time.

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Two young boys, Frikkie and Tengo, are living in South Africa on the cusp of the revolution set to put an end to apartheid. Frikkie is the privileged white nephew of the farmer who employs Tengo’s black family to work the farm. Frikkie comes to the farm on his school holidays and lives in his uncle Oom Koo’s large home, while Tengo can not go to school and lives in a mud hut not far from the farm.

As young boys, Frikkie and Tengo are inseparable: they play together, they explore the land together, they grow up together. But Tengo is a smart boy and questions everything around him. He questions why Frikkie can go into the big house and eat plenty of food (made by Tengo’s mother) off of expensive china, while Tengo’s family eats porridge off tin plates and is still hungry when the meal is over. He wonders why his family works so hard to keep the farm running, while Frikkie’s family benefit from all their work. But most of all, he wonders why Frikkie can go to school for free and earn a great education, while black people have to pay to go to school and receive inferior educations. (more…)

I would not have read this book if I didn’t need to for my new job. It’s not the sort of book I’d pick up to read — a story about a young man and his friends, and the exploits of their last year in high school before they will enlist and join in the effort that was WWII. The cover is also outdated, and didn’t really draw me in. If I had seen this in a book store, I wouldn’t have given it much more than a glance.

So knowing that I would not have read this book otherwise makes the enjoyment I had for reading it that much better. It is the kind of story that I, as a reader and writer, like very much: full of symbolism and parallel meanings woven together so that you must think it through to get to the bottom of the morals and author’s intent. The sort of novel that could be read easily enough from start to finish and come away from having enjoyed a good story, but also complex enough for one to discover much more if you are willing to think it through. (more…)

Victorine Laurent was raised to believe her mother died during her birth, and her father was unknown. Passed back and forth between two abusive aunts during her childhood, Victorine’s aunts finally bring her to Paris on her thirteenth birthday and leave her to be enrolled in the chorus of the Paris Opera Ballet. Without any family or prospects, her only hope in life is to become the mistress of a rich man who will take care of her, and Victorine soon finds herself servicing middle-class men on the side in order to support herself.

At first, it seems she is only destined to be one step above the cheapest of prostitutes. But one day, a friend introduces her to the young painter Edouard Manet who has requested that she model for him after seeing her at the ballet. Victorine agrees and what follows is a painting that shocks all of Paris with its blatant sexuality. Overnight, Victorine has become the most sought after courtesan in Paris and her fame spreads throughout Europe as she becomes Manet’s favorite model and poses for many more of his controversial modernist paintings. (more…)