#diana gabaldan

[vimesbootstheory]

Reviews for books covered in episodes 111-120 of the Overdue podcast. Spoilers for "Across a Hundred Mountains" in particular. Discussion of death, gore and genocide (including infant death) for "Blood Meridian" discussion.

1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 2. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne 3. The Passage by Justin Cronin 4. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman 5. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 6. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 7. You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers 8. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 10. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

. . .

12. Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

13. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay -- I don't trust the kind of person who can read this book and not fall at least a little bit in love with Roxane Gay. All the best parts of Bad Feminist are the bits that are the most personal, the closest to Roxane's own story, the standout being the entire section on competitive Scrabble. These are also the parts that are the most novel and have the least well-tread ground, and the flipside of this is that outside of those exceptions, I can't say that I learned much from this book. It's a more moderate approach to feminism than I'm used to, which is fine, it just means that it didn't push me out of my comfort zone at all, and maybe I wanted this book to push me out of my comfort zone. But then again, that's not Roxane's job. It was nice just to have some of those familiar feminist sentiments in front of my eyeballs in print. I will say, my eyes glazed over when she discussed pop culture material that I was unfamiliar with, but that is perhaps a byproduct of this maybe not being intended to be read cover-to-cover, but more as you would choose to read certain blog posts over others when browsing a blog. In any case, I was familiar with most topics she covered, so this was a rare issue.

14. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

. . .

17. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

18. How Not to Write a Novel by Howard Mittlemark & Sandra Newman -- I love a craft book on writing, so I pretty much devoured this. A funny, if dated, read -- did not love the occasional transphobic joke, they were jarring reminders of how far we've come just in the past ten years. A lot of the tips were pretty obvious -- avoid being a racist, give your main villain motivation beyond just being evil, etc. Some are actually a little outdated, e.g. it used to be very in-vogue to advise writers to start immediately when things get exciting, maybe even in media res, but now wise writing advisors know that you have to develop your character a little first or the reader won't care about the action. There was the odd tip that made me tempted to pick up a hard copy and highlight, though it ultimately didn't happen frequently enough for me to take the trip to the bookstore.

I liked the what-not-to-do example passages, though after a while I started to become tempted to skip over them, since I was generally more interested in the idea being criticized than how the execution of that idea would read. I did roll my eyes a bit at the very 00s-brand feminist choice to default to she/her pronouns; please, for all that is holy, embrace the singular they. My himbos and enbies are writing books too, my guy.

19. Looking for Alaska by John Green

. . .

25. The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice

26. Sabriel by Garth Nix -- I don't tend to really get into high fantasy, so it's a saving grace of this book that it has some necessary diversions from the usual formula, and it ended up being a pretty fun read, reminded me a bit in tone of the HDM series (though HDM is better). I enjoyed Sabriel as a character, even though I wish we'd been able to see her interact with a greater diversity of characters, I wasn't a huge fan of either of the other two main characters, found them to be watered-down versions of better characters. For a better Mogget, read the Bartimaeus series. I've heard this book accused of being a clear example of a female main character as written by a man, and for the most part I don't see it, although her complete dearth of important female influences in her life is a glaring exception. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, especially the concepts involved with necromancy and Death, less so all the Charter stuff.

27. Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

. . .

32. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

33. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater -- This was a light, charming read. I like how it's fanciful and ridiculous (thanks to Richard) all plastered over with a semi-sensible finish (thanks to Florence). Very cute. Weird to think of people not being aware of penguins to the point that they would not recognize one if it paraded past them on the street, though it must have been the case at the time of writing.

34. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 35. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

36. The Borrowers by Mary Norton -- A cozy tale, I liked it. The world-building for the borrowers is constantly amusing; I knew to anticipate all the fun little scaled-down equivalencies -- swimming in soups, using thread spools as stools, that sort of thing -- but the sociological world-building ended up being more interesting. I loved reading about the pride and entitlement of the Borrowers, and how they assumed that human "beans" were dying off, simply because they hadn't seen many in that house in particular. Loved the family-to-family differences based on where in the house they'd settled in. The ambiguity of the ending was an unexpected joy, in a funny way. I usually hate ambiguous endings but this one worked for me, even if the existence of the sequels spoil the ambiguity.

37. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 38. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines

39. Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande -- My favourite part of this book was the language. Grande has deft control over telling a story with simple, effective, unobtrusive language. It's an easy read, despite very heavy content. Juana is an emotionally compelling character, as is her mother, albeit in a different way. You can't help but wish that the world would let up on her, and indeed, at times it feels like the book is laying on the misery a little thick.

You can't really talk about the ultimate impression of this book without talking about its "twist" so SPOILERS:

My experience with the Fight Club-esque twist is that it took me... maybe about 2-3 Adelina chapters to figure out that there was something screwy going on with her identity. I had two competing theories: either a) Adelina was Juana, or b) at some point, Juana died with Adelina in her debt, so Adelina takes up her quest to find her father. It was too convenient, otherwise, why two characters would be searching for the same thing with such a lopsided share of attention given to Juana over Adelina. An odd turning point was when Adelina meets not-Miguel, the TBI sufferer, which honestly still doesn't really make sense to me. Yes, it's possible that a man with the same name and similar memories would exist, but the first time I read it, I assumed that Adelina was lying and choosing to let her father move on. Alternatively, both of my running feelings were wrong and Adelina had run into Juana's dad without knowing who he was. If I had been Grande's editor, I would have removed this encounter, as I think it's the weakest element any way you slice it.

40. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

41. Outlander by Diana Gabaldan -- The most frustrating part of this reading experience came after-the-fact, from trying to have a discussion in good faith with Gabaldon fans about legitimate criticisms of the book. There is a fair amount to praise about this book, but it's got its problems. In my experience, Gabaldon fans won't hear about the latter; to hear them talk about it, you'd think all the events of this book really happened, and Gabaldon was just a faithful scribe putting it all on paper. So, let me be direct about this: This all came out of Gabaldon's brain, and she chose to write this story. Writing a book that revolves mainly around rape drama and corporal punishment, featuring a villain whose arc serves as a walking argument for queer men being sexual deviants, involves specific authorial choices that Gabaldon was under no obligation to make, and she is answerable to criticism for these choices. Deal with it. Coming back to things to praise, I enjoyed Claire as a character a lot. Though I was sometimes frustrated with her, it was mostly for Doylist reasons, e.g. why was she written in such a contrived way that she would feel almost instantly acclimated once she time travelled into the past? I love a good fish-out-of-water time travel arc and I felt robbed of that. Though I didn't love all the focus on rape as drama, I did appreciate Gabaldon giving time to how rape is just as traumatic for men (though if it had been a woman doing the raping, would it have been as sensitive a portrayal? I can't exactly know)... but then there's the caveat of Jamie's sexual harassment by the Duke being treated as a joke. The running theme is good points with caveats, is what I'm saying. Here, I'll end with a plus with no caveats: I liked the adventure aspects of the story a lot, especially the final heist to save Jamie, that was a lot of fun. The novel ends on a good note.

42. The Giver by Lois Lowry

. . .

63. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

64. Everything and Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges -- Read Borges' contribution only. Clever and conceptual, with a strong thesis. I'd read more of him.

65. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

66. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë -- This book is my favourite of the loose genre of "idle rich British people entangled in romance plots based entirely on lack of communication" that I've defined in my head, on the merits of its feminism. This book sold me very quickly on Helen, and I was instantly on her side when her neighbours decided to try to tell her how to raise her own kid and made out like she was being unreasonable for not allowing randos to dictate how she should parent. Ridiculous. Couldn't help but continue to root for her throughout her torment of a marriage. She can be a little holier-than-thou but that's alright, it just gives her an interesting flaw. I find the epistolary format to strain my patience a little, and its place in the final third-ish in particular provoked incredulity. Gilbert is a dumbass and doesn't deserve Helen at all. This book gave me Opinions about the relative merits of the Brontë siblings and that was something I really didn't need.

67. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

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96. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

97. A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison -- If you've never read anything written by an edgy teenage boy, I could see how one could find Ellison's writing unique and interesting. Since I've read a lot of that niche of fiction (rarely on purpose), this all seems very mundane. It reads like a Fallout fanfiction written by a sexually frustrated youth about the age of the titular Boy. The efforts to shock prompted more than one eye-roll. The casual take on sexual violence read like someone's teenage rape fantasy, and gives the reader the impression of an uncomfortable peek into what Ellison jacks off to when he's feeling particularly restless. The fate of the residents of the underground society was pretty predictable. I liked that there were talking dogs, though. Fallout doesn't have talking dogs.

98. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

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116. The Stand by Stephen King 117. Grendel by John Gardner 118. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut 119. Persuasion by Jane Austen 120. Beowulf by Unknown 121. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

122. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy -- Wow, am I ever glad to be finished this book. This was exhausting to read. I'll get the good out of the way fast: it's undeniably excellent prose. The descriptions are extremely vivid and well-phrased. You can't exactly say that McCarthy didn't achieve maximally gruesome descriptions of death and dead things. The thing is, it's too much. I don't consider myself a wuss when it comes to gore, but when it becomes so overwhelming that it feels like the author is including me in his weird little fetish without my consent; and, on a bigger note, when the onslaught of gore is SO constant that it actually becomes boring, that's when you've gone too far. Because yeah, a good chunk of this book is pretty damn boring because there's nothing in it but description after description of people being killed in grotesque but minimally inventive ways. It's not even a case of desensitization, I don't think, because it doesn't sensitize you to the deaths to begin with. At no point does the narrative treats the victims of violence as actual people, they're more like horror movie set dressing. Early on, I had a glimmer of hope that maybe it would end up being unintentionally funny; this was hinted at when the gang stumbles upon, of all things, a tree filled with dead babies. I literally laughed out loud. OK edgelord, I get it, you're very grimdark. Seriously, dead babies are an extremely stale shorthand for shock value -- remember those old dead baby jokes? I found that I couldn't even muster any anger at the fact that there are zero significant female characters in this book, since a) characterization of all the characters was pretty lacklustre, such that I frequently forgot characters' names, and b) I wasn't exactly going to root for a diversity win in a troupe of scalp hunters. I knew going into this book that it would be brutal, but at the very least I had thought that it would have something Important to say about the genocide of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, in the end the politics were a little too Bioshock Infinite, oh-no-both-sides-are-too-extreme-actually fuckin nonsense.

123. Fifty Shades Darker by EL James 124. Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James 125. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

[cindavis]

Nothing Is Lost, Sassenach, Only Changed: #Outlander , ‘America the Beautiful’  #OutlanderPremiere #AmericaTheBeautiful

[rebelcourtesan]

5, 14, 30

5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most. 

Diana Gabaldan’s Outlander series.  I’m in love with how she breathes life into scenes, characters, and can write these wonderful sensual scenes between lovers just as she can write devastating assault scenes.   

14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book? 

That would have to be my upcoming novel, Gamers.  I had to figure out how to set up the character’s stats and create their character sheets and level them up.  I put together the mechanics which is a cherry picking of Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, then I had to revamp them to better suit the characters and make the process easier.  

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written. 

My latest favorite is a line form an angry Hordak from my Home fic.

"You're going to find out how the Fright Zone earned its name!"

[its-suanneschafer-author]

Day 20/20. So my readers can get to know me better, I’m posting a question a day for 20 days Question 20: My favorite book series of all time? Answer: Outlander by Diana Gabaldan. I read every 500,000+ word volume in the space of one month (and no, I didn't do anything else!

[runwithskizzers]

I'm reading OUTLANDER for the first time.

I had some thoughts about the first half of the book. 

[thegirlwhofellintotherabbithole]

"I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower's stem."

- Diana Gabaldon