I absolutely LOVE this weeks blog homework set by @lyxzen ! "In honor of National Author's Day in the US (November 1): Tell us about your favorite author or book!" (@charmaine @missy)
Excerpt- “Prologue”: 1991 Diana Gabaldon
"People disappear all the time. Ask any policeman. Better yet. Ask a journalist. Disappearances are bread-and-butter to journalists.
Young girls run away from home. Young children stray from their parents and are never seen again. Housewives reach the end of their tether and take the grocery money and a taxi to the station. International financiers change their names and vanish into the smoke of imported cigars.
Many of the lost will be found, eventually, dead or alive. Disappearances, after all, have explanations.
Usually."
When I was about 17 one of my neighbors started telling me of a book series she had read in her early thirty's. She described a time traveling English woman who gets transported back in time to the Scottish highlands.
Being a lover of men with beards and accents and of the outdoors I couldn't help by being captivated by her tales.
In my teen years I read book after book after book, reading 500-600 pages in just over 6 hours. I couldn't get enough of the written word! I purchased the first book in the series "Crosstitch by Diana Gabeldon" and finished it in a day!
This book captured me from the very first few chapters! Full of intrigue, suspense, a strong witted sassy English woman and who can forget the dashingly handsome young Scotsman Mr Jaime Fraser.
There's no easy way to describe all of what encapsulates the Outlander series and when Diana herself was asked about the books this is what was summarized!
What Is OUTLANDER?
"Frankly, I’ve never been able to describe this book in twenty-five words or less, and neither has anyone else in the twenty years since it was first published. I’ve seen it (and the rest of the series) sold—with evident success—as <deep breath> Literature, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical NON-fiction (really. Well, they are very accurate), Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Military History (no, honest), Gay and Lesbian Fiction, and…Horror. (Really! One of my books beat both George R.R. Martin and Stephen King for a Quill Award in 2006.) Anyway, the only way I’ve ever found of describing this book to anyone is to begin telling them the story. So here goes….
In 1946, after WWII, a young Englishwoman named Claire Beauchamp Randall goes to the Scottish Highlands with her husband, Frank. She’s an ex-combat nurse, he’s been in the army as well, they’ve been separated for the last six years, and this is a second honeymoon; they’re getting re-acquainted with each other, thinking of starting a family. But one day Claire goes out walking by herself, and comes across a circle of standing stones—such circles are in fact common all over northern Britain. She walks through a cleft stone in the circle….and disappears. Back into 1743, where the first person she meets is a gentleman in an 18th-century army officer’s uniform. This gentleman, Jack Randall, looks just like her husband Frank—and proves to be Frank’s six-times-great-grandfather. Unfortunately, he also proves to be a sadistic bisexual pervert, and while trying to escape from him, Claire falls into the hands of a gang of Highland Scots, who are also trying to get away from Black Jack Randall—though for other reasons.
In order to avoid being handed over to Captain Randall, Claire is obliged to marry one of the young clansmen. So she finds herself trying to escape from Castle Leoch and her Scottish captors, trying to get back to her husband Frank, trying to avoid being recaptured by Captain Randall—and falling in love with Jamie Fraser, the young man she’s been forced to marry. The story rolls on from there…
What I used to say to people who saw me sitting outside a store with a pile of books and asked (reasonably enough), “What sort of book is this?”, was, “I tell you what. Pick it up, open it anywhere, and read three pages. If you can put it down again, I’ll pay you a dollar.”
I’ve never lost any money on that bet.
-Diana"
This book series inspired me to travel to Scotland and Ireland and in 2011 I did just that! Here are a few quick snaps from my holiday :)
The books have sold over 20 million copies worldwide! AND it's been turned into a TV show!! I'm so beyond excited about this. If you haven't read the books or seen the TV show I highly recommend you do so! Seeing these characters and these places come to life in the flesh and on screen is amazing!
Without a doubt one of my favourite book series I could read over and over and over again!! <3
xxx
Kettle
