Dragonfly in Amber

Book two in the Outlander Series finds Claire Randall age 60, I'd say the addition is wrong, 23 years older back in twentieth century Scotland with her daughter Brianna Randall. No explanation is supplied but her 6-ft tall daughter has flaming red hair! To begin Roger Wakefield, a timorous orphan of 8 in book one is our narrator with Claires' part in italics.

Having visited the site of Jamie Fraser's grave Claire explains to her daughter the source of her sire's DNA and is magically transported back to his living presence in Eighteenth Century Le Havre and Paris. Compared to the cultured comforts of a Twentieth Century Inverness Manse life in a Paris pension is crude and ribald. There is nothing suggestive about their interactions.

Eighty-seven page chapters are somewhat intimidating to the reader but progress seems rapid.

I had not expected to encounter Hildegard of Bingen here nor had I previously read of her imposing physical height. Members of the French Royal Court figure prominently along with Bonnie Prince Charlie and his father James.

Murtagh is as loyal to his Scottish Laird as any Italian Capo to his Godfather and as willing to render any service required. No blood oath could be any stronger. Jamie trusts his wife, Murtagh, his sister and her husband—a childhood friend. His cousin and business partner Jared is not on that list. For all its rich dress and manners the French Court was a den of vipers and thieves fuelled by gossip. The truth is a valuable commodity due to its rarity.

The Bonnie Prince Charlie presented here is a more romantic figure than the one presented by historians. Given modern day secessionism in Scotland one wonders if the events that led to Cullodon were spurred so much by loyalty to a vain and pigheaded Prince who was barely Scottish or by a desire for independence from England that rallied round a Bourbon Heir.

For all that he is presented to us by his wife it is hard not to like Jamie Fraser. Larger than life and strikingly handsome despite his many scars he has a charisma and an appeal that shines through the words on the page. John Randall, on the other hand is an arch-villain we can picture as the villain of The Patriot or Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter, though he did not get to play the part in the TV Series.

It can hardly be accorded a spoiler to say that the Uprising of 1745 did not go well for the Scots. Therefore it is with a feeling oncoming doom that one reads the last quarter of this novel knowing the outcome as we and our heroine do in advance. The stupidity and pigheadedness of Prince Charlie that dragged his loyal retainers into this ill-begotten rout is well documented. The chapter I am reading is 150 pages, a thing most would consider book-length in and of itself.

In an era before sterilization and antibiotics treatment of the wounded was nearly as deadly as injury itself. Malnutrition, ill health, and lack of cleanliness contributed to poor outcomes for the wounded. We are spared the more gruesome surgical details but the need to have a strange women attend to a rough Scot's urinary needs was more painful than the disabilities that made such attention necessary. Having a women sew up a scrotum hacked by a sword thrust.... We learn of the initial battle itself as Jamie describes it to Claire after the fact.

And so drunk with a triumphal return to Scotland Charlie Stuart leads his men on a fruitless campaign into England squandering their strength before leading them to eventual defeat on the Moors of Cullodon. Knowing what is coming Claire's Scottish Laird sends her back to the Twentieth Century before facing his own doom.

With the heroic figure of Jamie Fraser laid in his grave just past his mid-twenties I am curious to see where book three takes us.

Outlander, A Novel

Claire Randall, a WW#2 nurse is on a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands with her husband of 8 years when she finds herself mysteriously hurled back in time nearly 2 centuries. When I decided to borrow the Outlander Series I'd no idea it ran to 7000 pages and book one was nearly 900.

I began reading this series out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about and must admit that a couple hundred pages in I'm hooked. Narrated by Claire it follows her Highland Adventures in Eighteenth Century Scotland in the process introducing us to the herbal lore she learned as a substitute for Twentieth Century medicine.

Claire and Jamie Fraser have a penchant for getting themselves into trouble on two occasions Claire because she will not take orders from her Scottish Laird.

Suicide Notes

I've read several Bromance Novels by Michael Thomas Ford and having liked them was looking for more of the same. This emphatically isn't. Jeff is in the Psych Ward on a 45 day hold after slitting his wrists. The novel is his daily journal describing the hospital experience. Details emerge as he comes to terms with his demons. Love that he nicknames his shrink Cat Poop and criticizes his fashion sense.

What follows could be spoiler material

No mystery that a gay writer talks about a gay teen. In dealing with this aspect of oneself a gay person must come out to himself first of all and then to the world around him. One of the most stressful aspects can be coming out to one's parents. Often those around one knows these things about one long before the individual admits them to himself. The most loving response I've read about a Mother's reaction was one who told her son that she was glad he'd finally figured it out, she'd know since he was eight.

Leaving Blythe River

This is the third book by Catherine Ryan Hyde I have read and the second that involves camping in the California Wilderness, this time by pack horse in mountainous terrain. The exact location is seemingly fictional. A coming of age story for the boy involved, a journey for his partners. It highlights some of the paradoxes of life—like hating and loving someone at the same time and learning to let go of the hate because of the harm it does you.

Cowboy for Sale

I keep reading these romance novels because they are offered for free. This one is as contrived and predictable as most and more in need of a good editor than usual. I just can't seem to care about these characters or buy into their lives. What plot there is seems to be an excuse to hang their love life.

A quarter of the book is devoted to previews.

Keji

This guidebook to Nova Scotia's South-Western National Park is in the main a teaser. Even the park website has only a rudimentary map to the front country campground. The guide lacks an adequate map of the park. It does provide a detailed description of every back-country campsite and the hiking trails that reach them. It also describes canoe route loops and the nature of every portage used to get from lake to lake and stream but refers back to the hiking guide for campsite descriptions save for island sites accessible only by canoe. There is a brief section on natural history and the cultural background of the area and a briefer description of the seaside adjunct which was tacked onto the park for want of a better way to administer the acquisition.

The Poetical Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson

Tennyson was poet laureate and the darling of the Romantic Age in England. Enobled by Victoria he was the son of a poor parish priest who had 12 children, the family living on in the manse after the father’s death until forced to move. The death of his friend Hallam figured highly in his life and verse. 

To ears accustomed to Blank and Free Verse it seems remarkable that everything here rhymes. To modern ears some of this verse can seem somewhat stilted but his ability to express himself in rhyming verse is nothing short of remarkable. The order of words in a sentence is altered to emphasize certain thoughts and facilitate rhymes in a manner that has come to be thought of as poetic expression. Think of the way Yoda talks in Star Wars. This is the poet of the Victorian Era.

After working our way through the early works and short poems we come to long form verse. The Princess is 80 pages followed by In Memorium written to mark the death of his friend, another 80 pages.

And so a year after I began the reading I reach the close though with a 6 month hiatus for travel. 

The book was my mother’s. Truly an antique printed at a time when copyrite dates were not yet part of the process. Leatherbound witth ancient platic wrapper long disintigrated enclosed in slipcover. Printed in fine type on onion skin paper with built-in ribbon bookmark.

The final log-form poem is a classic tale of a love triangle involving two boys and a girl in a small port town. In an age before modern communications sailors disappeared for decades at a time without any word reaching home. Some were lost without record, were shipwrecked on isolated desert islands inspiring tales such as Robinson Crusoe, or traveled the world on shipboard knowing little of the exotic ports of call they visited save the bars and brothels of the waterfront. 

Murphy's Law

The book was offered for free. I've shocked myself at the number of Romance Novels I've read since Harlequin offered 60 for free marking its 60^th Anniversary. I tend to stick to Bromances and Hetero stylings short on lengthy descriptions of foreplay and sex. As a celibate male I've learned more about French Kissing, fellatio, anal sex, and the missionary position than I thought possible and that's just the beginning. I've even learned to get some titillation out of the descriptions of bedroom gymnastics. Given the wide diversity of the genre and the sheer volume the books must be someone's guilty pleasure.

This is not a bad murder/mystery marred by a lack of editing, repeated, missing words, bad grammar. If women weren't insecure and men not fickle romance writers would lack plot devices. It's a cliché that the woman are beautiful; the men tall, broad-shouldered with narrow hips and slim waists, bubble butts. The covers modelling opportunities for bodybuilders. Bald, pot-bellied men have to be rich to attract a dame.

Ask Me Why

Midnight Bet

This novella returns us to Harmony and lawyer Rick McAllan. After a two-year absence Federal Marshal Trace returns to guard his bod if not his heart. Throw in his nutty dog-grooming cousin Liz and her neighbour the Vet and you have a romantic quartet. With its theme of murder mystery ongoing Harmony seems not so harmonious.

One True Heart

Last of the Harmony Series or book 8. A far-flung member of the McAllan Clan is picked up at the Amarillo airport by a young author/professor come to speak to the Harmony Library Book Club. Beyond the expected romance add a double murder/mystery with missing bodies and the hunt for a terrorist. This outing did not read as well as most others and the ending was not as satisfying.

Betting the Rainbow

Number 7 in the Harmony Series sees Ronny return from her world tour and settle into a remote cottage beside a small lake on Rainbow Lane. Rather than have the same characters involved in more adventures than anyone could reasonably sustain in one lifetime we keep meeting new people whose escapades occur against the backdrop of the Harmony we already know. Here we meet the assortment of hermits who are Ronny's neighbours. The soap opera that continues to be Reagan and Noah's courtship gets heated up and Texas Hold'em gets introduced into the mix. What books such as these do best is let the reader in on those secret peccadilloes that can exist even in a small town where everyone thinks they know everything about everyone else. “Betting the Rainbow” it seems, is a gambling term.

Can't Stop Believing

Entry Six in the Harmony Series continues with the characters we already know but enters left field with an oil baroness who “hires” the working class stiff with a dodgy past from the neighbouring ranch to play house with her in return for running her ranch which is in danger of going under. The writing style is eminently readable and the characters come alive on the page. Once more this Western Cowboy Romance is one part mystery/thriller.