2 posts tagged “outlander”

So my friend the Devil Librarian came up with a fairly brilliant idea about a thematic online Book A Month. 

Outlander

Diana Gabaldon

This one was fortuitous because I had just finished Outlander by Diana Galbaldon.  This is the story of Claire and Jamie, two people forced into marriage after knowing each other about a month.  It's the story of their romance and their love and their passion set against the backdrop of the Jacobite Rising of 1745.  It's also the story of how Claire, who stepped through a stone circle while collecting flowers in the Scottish Highlands after World War II, has to come to terms with the time shift and how very different life is from the 1940s to the 1740s.  She has to reconcile her understanding of genealogy (Frank, her husband in "her time", is very into his family history) with the reality of meeting people who were, to her, names on a chart, especially when one looks very much like Frank. 
It's very much a story about time - historical fiction and romance, fantasy, realistic fiction.  The series - well, at least the first 3, they go downhill after that - are very good reads with wonderful descriptions of all the time periods they cover.  Brain candy, yes, but also stuffed with the occasional gem of a line.

Worth reading.

Respect has room for secrets but not for lies.
- Diana Gabaldon

Well, I'm rereading one of my favorite books, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  It is, for the most part, brain candy, and then, every so often, like the bubblegum in a blow pop, a gem shows up.  This one, while not outstanding writing, is an idea that I've never heard or seen, but is one so basic that I had to reread it several times. 

One of the things I've learned about myself is that I used to want to know everything about someone.  If I let you in to my world, I wanted to be your complete confidant, the person to whom you told everything.  Now, I didn't necessarily tell you everything about me; actually there was no way I was telling you everything, you know, my walls. 

I've come to understand that secrets are ok.  That no one needs to know everything about anyone.  (say that sentence three times fast) That as long as there's respect, secrets are expected and accepted. 

But it took brain candy to put it into words.
Go figure.