Summer Reading....aka "In Bed With Jamie"

This is not a recommendation for your summer reading (after all it is September/October!) but if you want, you can use it for your upcoming winter reading season.  You see, I got my reading mojo back.  It began happening in late Spring, probably around Easter when my niece recommended the Outlander series to me.  The book she was holding was very thick, several hundred pages and she said there were others like it.  I trust my niece and my sister, for that matter, especially when it comes to books so I went looking for this series I had never heard of---which doesn't mean anything.  I have not been reading many books for several years.  You see, my reading has been confined to law books, motion papers, judicial decisions and other legalese type stuff.  Any recreational style reading was limited to vacations and that was not often.  Mostly, I read the mystery genre and with my short attention span, Myron Bolitar served to pass time, nothing more.

And so, I began my summer reading with Claire and Jamie and I was hooked.....I read all seven very hefty books in about the same number of weeks along with a few others. (more on them later)  For those of you who are or have been reading the Outlander series, you know what I am talking about---for the rest, take this recommendation with a word of caution.  These books are addictive.  It causes you to read into the night and even early morning....in the car, on a plane, everywhere.  The books go with you to the boardroom, bathroom and the bedroom, on trips, to movies, restaurants because you need to continue reading whenever you have time, while you eat or if you are delayed anywhere; minutes is all you need.  It becomes a part of your psyche.  Why?  I don't know; maybe that is why I am writing this, hoping it will lead me to a clearer understanding of my own obsession with these books.  I know it has made me a better reader but less content with the formulaic style of my usual summer book fare.

First, the story.  It is about a time traveling woman from the 20th century, Claire, who is a nurse, with her husband, Frank, are on a second honeymoon in Scotland in 1945 when she walks into a group of stones and time travels back in time to 1743.  She finds herself in the middle of a fight between the English and some Scottish Highlanders.  Of course, she is not dressed appropriately, talks funny and is eyed suspiciously by an English Captain and the Scotsmen.  Is she a spy? a witch?  It is then she meets Jamie and while trying to get back to her life with Frank in 1945, is forced to marry Jamie to save her life in 1743.  Yes, it is romantic and I guess I am a sucker for that, more than I was aware I think. Maybe it is where I am in life but the romance is quite lovely.  Yet, that would not be enough and it is not all you get from reading these books.  There is history, English, Scottish, French and American---quite a broad canvas that Diana Gabaldon paints.  She describes places, battles and events with such specificity that you can easily visualize what is happening whether it is a battle, a war, or the French Court. Even more stunning is the detail she provides about what people wore, ate and the weapons or tools used at the time and place.  If you like history, this series is made for you.  And the writing is good.  Her story-line is what I have described but she creates many other characters and back stories until you have so many people you like and care about and then the surprises.....there are many.  And so, here I am, in love with Jamie, caring about Claire, Fergus, Ian and Brianna and Roger and....... so frustrated that I caught up with my niece and sister and like them, I am waiting for the next in the series which will not be out for another year or so, thank you very much!!!

But, for just a minute, let me go back to Jamie---why is he so interesting?  His looks are different, not necessarily handsome, even if I am prone to red-heads.  He is the typical protagonist, strong, defiant, direct.  You admire him for his leadership skills and his morals, even when the situation allows a practical application leaving the principles of right and wrong unclear and ripe for selfish manipulation.  Jamie is never guilty of making decisions based solely on form over substance. Everything he does he explains with perfect rationale like when he chooses to leave his arch-rival alive not because Claire asks him to but because he sees where it will benefit Claire in a way she has not thought of but he has.  We all have our favorite strong male fiction characters but Jamie is different, at least for me. I think it has something to do with his pragmatic constancy, his sense of duty and his "blood of my blood," "bone of my bone" love for Claire.  Can this be real or is it only every woman's dream?  Would men like Jamie? Or would they find him unbelievable and impossible to relate to?  Even unbearable....
Enough---on to my other summer reading.

Other books I have devoured this summer include the Millennium Series with every one's favorite heroine, Lisbeth Sanders, along with another series written for teens and having a strong feminine lead, The Hunger Games.  Add to the already long list, The Prodigal Summer, The Passage (another door stop of a book), The Pillars of the Earth (not so much), and three Jack Reacher books beginning with 61 Hours.

Another chick-lit (a label that does not bother me) is The Prodigal Summer beautifully written by Barbara Kingsglover.  She draws you into her tapestry of land, foliage, birth, rebirth, death and loss.  It is life she is describing through her characters, their homes and surrounding woods.....in the birds, the oak seedlings, the coyotes and chickens, even the mice....everything in a few square miles from butterflies to bees, animals to humans.  Just a lovely book.

The Passage is something different.  The back-drop is the future and it is not pleasant.  Modern Man, looking for the ultimate warrior weapon, creates a virus that spreads to the general population by contact with infected zombie/vampire-like creatures who destroy life as we know it.  I understand if most of you turn away at this description but the book has more depth than my limited use of language can describe.  It questions choices and challenges the imagination exploring another time on earth, maybe not an end but a beginning.

And Jack Reacher---now there is one strong, silent type.  A real man's man character created by Lee Child in a series of books definitely written for men.  (shall we label it a male tale?) The specificity here is about the descriptive array of modern weaponry, loading and unloading guns and the details of machinery, trains and what-not.  These are written for men... and a few strong women.  I do think his latest, 61 Hours, is a cut above the rest ( I have only read two others, Without Fail and Gone Tomorrow).  In 61, the opening sentences place you on a tour bus during a winter storm somewhere in the Northwest and Child holds you tight from there right through to the end.  It was this introduction to Jack Reacher that made me check out the earlier books.  I like this guy but am not "taken" by him.  He has a moral code (ala Jamie) but no history, leaving him as more of a shadow figure than a fully formed human being. Maybe I shall have to start at the beginning with Jack.  I will let you know if I do.

The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins,...is another future world, where governments rule ruthlessly and the individual is nothing more than a dot in their universe. We watch an annual sport called the "Hunger Games" which reminds me of a modern day version of an old story where a village has to pick one of its own to sacrifice for the safety of the whole for a year. Written for a teen audience, probably a Christian one, it has a lot of soft love and cuddling but no one really gets it on. I liked the lead heroine, Katniss, in the first two books, (The Hunger Games and Catching Fire) but found her a bit whiney in the third (Mockingjay). All in all, a good read. (It is being made into a movie so you will see it on the big screen soon.)

No need to talk about Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett....except to say it was very disappointing and after the wealth of historic information and realized characters in the Outlander Series, Pillars was shallow and boring, unless you find specific descriptions of buttressed ceilings exciting. Enough said.

Finally, the Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson. All have been made into movies in Sweden, the third arriving stateside in October with an American remake on its way.  I will confess, I did not read the first one, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo because I saw the movie and heard that they are quite similar.  However, I read the final two, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  By the time I was deep into the third book, I realized I needed a guide to follow the very tricky espionage plot based on Swedish politics involving corrupt government officials. In other words, as the expression goes, you had to be there...and I wasn't.  I think the first book and movie might be the best of the three. For me, it went downhill from there.

You can throw in a couple of other books, lesser known and not too interesting that I whipped through and the four or five, I started but still lay there unfinished.  All in all......I am a reader in good standing, again.  Don't you agree?