Author: Alice Sebold

I know I read a previous book by this author but apparently it was before this version of my website. My recollection of that book was that it was good and, maybe, just a little creepy.

There is no question that this one is creepy. In the very first chapter you learn that Helen has murdered her mother, Clair. The two did not have an easy relationship and it would seem that both of Helen’s parents had some sort of mental illness and by the end of the book you had to wonder if perhaps Helen had inherited some of those traits.

I wasn’t happy with the ending but in some ways it was a perfect way to close the story.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Isabel Allende

I’ve had this book on my to-read list for ages but never came across it. Libby (my library download app) didn’t have it and neither is it on the shelf in the library. But while at the Cancer Centre in Vancouver it was sitting on the shelf so I grabbed it even before I was ready to start reading.

I have always loved Allende’s writing style and this is no different. Is it memoir or is it an autobiography? Pat and I had that discussion and I’m no clearer now on the definition.

The author is telling her life story to her daughter who is in a coma. It reads like fiction but it is a true story. Her daughter eventually dies without coming out of the coma so the second part of the book is written knowing her daughter won’t read it. Allende talks a lot about the novels she has written and some of them make a lot more sense when you know the background to them.

The book was worth the wait and however much I’d like to keep it for my own bookshelf I will return it to the library here.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Brianna has returned to Scotland to do more research on Jamie’s life and also because she has developed a love interest in Roger Wakefield. Brianna decides to go through the stones when she finds a newspaper clipping showing that Jamie and Claire perished in a house fire; she wants to warn them in the hopes that they can change history. Roger guesses at Brianna’s plan and goes through the stones himself about a month later.

Jamie, Brianna, Claire and Ian all eventually meet up at Fraser’s Ridge but Roger has a much harder time. When he finally does get the Ridge he is mistaken for the assailant who has left Brianna pregnant. Rather than murdering him, Jamie sends him off as a slave to one of the native tribes. As part of the bargain to free Roger, Ian must stay behind with the Iroquois.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *

Author: Diana Gabaldon

After twenty years in the present, Claire and Jamie’s daughter, Brianna, have returned to Scotland to do some research on the men who might have survived Culloden. Claire and her researcher, Roger Wakefield, find evidence that Jamie didn’t die at Culloden as he had planned to do. Claire decides to go back through the stones in an effort to find him.

Once through the stones she finds Jamie but before they have time to settle anywhere circumstances lead them back to Lallybroch and then onward to Jamaica. Caught in a terrible storm at sea, in an unworthy vessel, they end up alive on the shores of America.

Goodreads Rating: * * * * *