The 7th in the Outlander series, this book begins where the last ended, with the full outbreak of war between Britain and the colonies, the loss of Jaime and Claire’s new home in the Americas, and our hero’s decision to bring his nephew Ian back to Scotland while simultaneously recovering his printing press. Too old to fight for the American Revolution, Jaime plans to use the printing press to assure the outcome of the war with England while avoiding any possibility of coming face to […]
There Are No Spoilers in This Review of the New Outlander Book
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, book eight in Diana Gabaldon historical epic Outlander series, picks up exactly where the last book, An Echo in the Bone, left off. It could be read as a standalone novel, but why would you want to do that? Gabaldon belongs to that rarefied group of authors who create an entire world and tell a story that takes thousands of pages to unfold. Such authors’ works need to be devoured and savoured in their entirety to achieve their full […]
Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
Book of Ages was a 2013 National Book Award finalist in the non-fiction category. Historian Jill Lepore pieces together the life of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane and in doing so not only reveals the life of a fascinating “ordinary” 18th-century woman who happened to be the beloved little sister of a Founding Father, but also demonstrates her own prodigious skills as an historian. Lepore’s work is specifically about Jane but more broadly about history and historians, biography and novels, and determining whose lives are worth […]