Birth of a Nation

Into the Wilderness - Sara Donati

Set in America/Canada at the end of the 1700's - this has the scope and detail of Gabaldon's Outlander Series. In fact, we do meet up with Jamie and Claire Fraser (main characters of Gabaldon's books) -- I'm a sucker for that type of cross-over/homage. I loved 3/4 of the book, but the last quarter really dragged for me and I almost didn't finish it. Great historical detail about America at this time and especially a woman's place in America at this time.

It's enjoyable, but I won't delve into the other books in this series. It was almost too predictable for me after having read the Outlander Series. I also think that part of it is that Gabaldon is just a better writer. I'd recommend it if you've got a serious jonesing for Gabaldon's type of book, but it's definately no Outlander.

Pretty much everything Charlaine ever wrote

Yeah, the entire month of August was consumed with me reading all of the Shakespeare/Lily Bard series, all of the Aurora Teagarden series, and the the "Grave" books by Charlaine Harris....not proud of it, but rationalized that this was perfectly normal reading behavior for a grown woman as it was "Summer". As if "Summer" makes it okay to do things like that. Do crooks just say: Sure, I walked out with all that booze without paying, but (shrug), it's Summer. It's Summer. As in, I stole that laptop, but, it's Summer. Yeah, It's Summer.

Although, as I write this it's Fall and Fall doesn't seem to lend itself to any crazy words of self-defense. In the Winter you can go "stir-crazy" (see The Shining by Stephen King); in the Spring, people have been known to get "Spring Fever" (great excuse); Summer, well, (shrug) It's Summer. Is there any excuse in the Fall? I don't think there is...maybe I need to make one up.