Drums of Autumn

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Started February 2007, Finished March 2007. The first 200 pages were classic Gabaldon writing. Although I did feel that I missed something and had to check that I hadn't skipped a book, Gabaldon skipped the build-up her previous books have had and dug right into the action. So far this book is going more into historical romance than historical fiction, but still filled with Gabaldon's fantastic writing. I loved the combination of Claire's story with Brianna's story.

Pub. Date: August 2001
Series: Outlander Book 4

Synopsis: It began at an ancient Scottish stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past—or the grave. Dr. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice.
Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became a legend—a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in the American colonies. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century—their daughter, Brianna....
Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the circle of stones and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history ... and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past ... or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong....

Recommended Reading:
Voyager (Outlander Book 3) by Diana Gabaldon
The Fiery Cross (Outlander Book 5) by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2) by Diana Gabaldon
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander Book 6) by Diana Gabaldon
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini


My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book...wow. That's all I gotta say. It made me think, it made me cry, it made me angry... I loved every page of this book. I loved that the author didn't spell things out, but wrote so simply and elegantly that the reader easily reads between the lines.

Pub. Date: April 2004

Synopsis: Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara — a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons — their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows us for redemption.

Recommended Reading:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards