A Breath of Snow and Ashes

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This series has been amazing to read. I look forward to re-reading this series again (although not any time soon). Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I can't wait for the next book.

Pub. Date: September 2005
Series: Outlander Book 6

Synopsis: The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.
With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence -- with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.

Recommended Reading:
The Fiery Cross (Outlander Book 5) by Diana Gabaldon
Drums of Autumn (Outlander Book 4) by Diana Gabaldon
Voyager (Outlander Book 3) by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2) by Diana Gabaldon
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

Shopgirl

Shopgirl by Steve Martin


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was a complicated book. The writing was beautiful, filled with witty sarcasm, poetry and startling truths about life. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. The story was slightly boring, but I kept reading because the words were thoughtful - almost too plotted out.

I'm curious to see how this book plays out in the movie, I struggled with visualization alot reading this.

Pub. Date: October 2001

Synopsis: From the comic genius of Steve Martin comes a contemporary fable of life an love from the point of view of a shopgirl behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus. Mirabelle, a semi-glamourous young woman who is making her way through the romantic jungles of Beverly Hills/Los Angeles, is an aspiring artist who prides herself on her clothing aesthetic. Unfortunately, she doesn't always have the best taste in men. When she meets a young Turk named Jeremy, whose idea of a great second date is a visit to the Laundromat, she sees him through a haze of prozac and other anti-depressants, and through the prism of her own poor self-esteem. But then she meets Ray Porter and thinks he could be her Knight in Shining Armor. In fact, he does turn out to be a worldly, rich gentleman who is a kindly and even exciting lover, but he never really takes Mirabelle seriously. Together, Mirabelle, Ray, Jeremy, and a few other suporting characters populate this insightful piece that is sometimes quirky, sometimes comic, and sometimes languid as a summer day.

Recommended Reading:
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Everyman by Philip Roth
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Best Day of Someone Else's Life by Kerry Reichs

With Every Breath

With Every Breath by Lynn Kurland

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This isn't my favorite Lynn Kurland.

A fast paced story and a decent romance. Too many head injuries and blacking out/throwing up. At some point both the hero and heroine should have become retarded. Too much crying.

While I think Kurland hit every major character in her series, the name dropping was just that, a list of who's doing what for her fans and not necessary to the story.

The hero was a cookie cut-out of a few of her other characters, only slightly more wimpy than the others.

Those new to Lynn Kurland would be advised to not read this book first. Those who are already fans, let's hope this was a fluke and that new books will be up to her standard.

Pub. Date: May 2008

Synopsis: When medieval laird Robert Cameron pounds on Sunny Phillips's door, he isn't paying a social call. He's braved a trip onto enemy soil to fetch the MacLeod witch, a crone renowned for her healing powers. But the woman who opens her door to him is enchanting and young... and not from his century.

Recommended Reading:
Till There Was You by Lynn Kurland
When I Fall in Love by Lynn Kurland
A Dance through Time by Lynn Kurland
Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Mayhue
Highlander of Her Own by Melissa Mayhue

The Fiery Cross

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a hard book to review. Besides the fact that it's over 1400 pages and took me over a month to read... it's Diana Gabaldon. She writes fascinating accounts of history, trivia, mythology, a great love story, science fiction and people with great detail.

In some places I wanted to hurry through the details and get to the heart of the story, and other places I savored every word. That's the beauty of her writing, you have to read every word, absorb every detail because it will come back (maybe 700 pages later, but it does come back) and it has some importance.

I also love the fact that she doesn't waste time with back story, she throws you right into the action where the last book left off. She repeats a few of the important details, but for the most part lets the reader read between the lines or call upon their own memory of the previous books.

Pub. Date: November 2001
Series: Outlander Book 5

Synopsis: The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser's wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy -- a time-traveler's certain knowledge.
Born in the year of Our Lord 1918, Claire Randall served England as a nurse on the battlefields of World War II, and in the aftermath of peace found fresh conflicts when she walked through a cleftstone on the Scottish Highlands and found herself an outlander, an English lady in a place where no lady should be, in a time--1743--when the only English in Scotland were the officers and men of King George's army.

Now wife, mother, and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander, out of place, and out of time, but now, by choice, linked by love to her only anchor -- Jamie Fraser. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes...

Recommended Reading:
Drums of Autumn (Outlander Book 4) by Diana Gabaldon
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander Book 6) by Diana Gabaldon
Voyager (Outlander Book 3) by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2) by Diana Gabaldon
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

On Writing

On Writing by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stephen King is an amazing writer which made it a real treat to crawl inside his head. The biography parts of the book where interesting and added real value to King's writing advice. This book is must read - whether you're a fan or an aspiring writer.

The New Well Tempered Sentence

The New Well Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Summary: For over a decade THE WELL TEMPERED SENTENCE has provided instruction and pleasure to the wariest student and the most punctilious scholar alike. Now Karen Elizabeth Gordon has revised and enlarged her classic handbook with fuller explanations of the rules of punctuation, additional whimsical graphics, and further character development and drama -- all the while redeeming punctuation from the perils of boredom. For anyone who has despaired of opening a punctuation handbook (but whose sentences despair without one), THE NEW WELL TEMPERED SENTENCE will teach you clearly and simply where to place a comma and how to use an apostrophe. And as you master the elusive slashes, dots, and dashes that give expression to our most perplexing thoughts, you will find yourself in the grip of a bizarre and beguiling comedy of manners. Long-time fans will delight in the further intrigues of cover girl Loona, the duke and duchess, and the mysterious Rosie and Nimrod. The New Well-Tempered Sentence is sure to entertain while teaching you everything you want to know about punctuation. Never before has punctuation been so much fun!

Recommended Reading:
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire

The Guy Not Taken (Audiobook)

The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner


My review
rating: 1 of 5 stars
I couldn't get through the first story. The sister was too insane and the plot was, well, plotless. I decided to pass on the entire collection of stories.

Pub. Date: September 2006

Synopsis: Jennifer Weiner's talent shines like never before in this collection of short stories, following the tender, and often hilarious, progress of love and relationships over the course of a lifetime. From a teenager coming to terms with her father's disappearance to a widow accepting two young women into her home, Weiner's eleven stories explore those transformative moments in our every day.

We meet Marlie Davidow, home alone with her new baby late one Friday night, when she wanders onto her ex's online wedding registry and wonders what if she had wound up with the guy not taken. We stumble on Good in Bed's Bruce Guberman, liquored-up and ready for anything on the night of his best friend's bachelor party, until stealing his girlfriend's tiny rat terrier becomes more complicated than he'd planned. We find Jessica Norton listing her beloved New York City apartment in the hope of winning her broker's heart. And we follow an unlikely friendship between two very different new mothers, and the choices that bring them together — and pull them apart.

The Guy Not Taken demonstrates Weiner's amazing ability to create characters who "feel like they could be your best friend" (Janet Maslin) and to find hope and humor, longing and love in the hidden corners of our common experiences.

Recommended Reading:
Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner
Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner