Carol Dickinson
2017-02-06 10:16:38 UTC
Terrible 2 weeks. Had 26" of snow in 24 hours 2 weekends ago. Once again hubby did not get out the blower and remove same. Had his buddy come and "clean" the driveway. EXCEPT - his tractor isn't working so he came with a different plow and cleared the 40 feet to the wide part of the drive and then plowed PARALLEL to the house leaving a berm THREE feet high in front of all the vehicles (the garage is full - don't ask) and the 26" between each of the 4 vehicles. And of course, hubby did not "feel like" helping remove it. To be fair his legs are getting worse all the time and he basically spends his entire day sitting in the dark in the laundry room like a vampire reading "whatever" on his computer. Only AFTER this event does he finally confess he isn't doing the blower because with the bandages his feet don't fit in our tractor blower anymore. Of course he didn't tell me this until after the 26" so I could insist he tell me where he hides the key (I'm not allowed to use this tractor) and teach me how to use it since he doesn't know where the manual is.
So of course that leaves me to try to dig out manually. And after only 14 days I've managed to get a path in the backyard for the old dog to follow, my car cleared, and the dog car, but I haven't got either of his done. With my arthritis it hit me really hard so I've been doing a bit, then taking a pain pill and lying on the heating pad and reading, and then about the time the pain pill will wear off, I go do another bit. And then come back in and get stoned again.
SO knowing this will be my life for a while yet, I decided to read the entire 10,000 pages of Gabaldon straight through. In time sequence. Except I couldn't find my copy of Virgins so I started with Outlander. It was suggested on one of the fan Facebook groups to just read the first 2 and to chapter 15 in #3 "Voyager" and then read all the Lord John books, which I have just finished. So now I can go back to Voyager chapter 16.
When Gabaldon was here in Anchorage and was the final speaker at Left Coast Crime in 2001 I didn't know who she was and said so to someone standing next to me, who told me that she writes "romance". And I said "Oh, well I don't read that." And then she said that she also writes mysteries. So I found one at the bookstore and read it, and it happened to be the one I would be least interested in "Lord John and the Private Matter". I didn't find 200+ pages about a fellow trying to prevent a man from marrying his cousin because he thought the man had syphilis to be particularly exciting. Not subject matter I am thrilled with as "entertainment". And I didn't think it qualified as a mystery. It was 14 years until I discovered the truth about her books, and only by checking out the TV series based on them.
So for the first time this last 2 weeks I've read all those Lord John books in sequence since they all fit in the time period between chapter 15 & 16 of Voyager. I'd read them all before but scattered so I didn't really pick up that in fact they ARE well researched complicated mysteries. In the main books, John does not seem very complex and just pops in and out. I thought of hi as a convenient method of resolving certain challenges in telling the main story.
But in the ones where he is the main character he is a very interesting fellow, and I learned a lot of obscure history of the 18th century too. Part of my problem the first time reading was that John is in love with Jaime Fraser the red headed Highlander hero of the main books. And Jaime at least in this part of their history detests him, doesn't trust him, and never ever would be interested in a romantic relationship with a man. I knew there were references to Jaime in all the books but just a passing sentence or two I thought, but with the second read I can see its much more. And it explains a lot of what happens in the last 5 main books.
Anyway when read one right after another, since the mystery plots sort of carry from story to story although there is a resolution to each small mystery within each that carries along the larger mysteries, they make a lot more sense. For instance the solution to who killed John's father and why threads through 3 of the stories. (and I understand there is another piece that will be published in June) I just wish she had them published in some sort of logical sequence. They are short stories, novellas, and novels, and most are in anthologies with other Outlander short stories involving other characters (she calls these "bulges"), were not published in chronological order so one has to depend on her online list of dates the stories are set in. For instance Virgins is set in 1739 but she wrote that after she had written the character through to the American Revolutionary period.
But is has been a great way to spend 2 weeks alternating between shoveling snow and reading in bed while stoned on pain killers.
And now to get back to "Voyager", which isn't classified as a mystery as its part of the larger main story of Jaime and Claire, but is a mystery non-the less (involving the kidnapping of Jaime's nephew) with some mini-mysteries additional.
Don't anybody go read Voyager because I say its a mystery, unless first you read "Outlander" and "Dragonfly in Amber" first. If you haven't read those first, the story will be very confusing. It involves accidental time travel, romance, bodice ripping events some of which are rapes and others which read like soft porn, political intrigue, swashbuckling sword fights, the '45 Jacobite rising, witchcraft, murders, nail biting suspense, laugh out loud humor and whole lots more, but the mystery in Voyager can't really be appreciated unless you are familiar with the previous 2000 pages of the story, and the time travel stuff will make no sense. Her work does not fit in a single genre.
This is the only author I've ever read that I can read repeatedly. And discover new stuff every time. You can't remember 10,000 pages full of stuff. It seems new even if you've read it before.
So of course that leaves me to try to dig out manually. And after only 14 days I've managed to get a path in the backyard for the old dog to follow, my car cleared, and the dog car, but I haven't got either of his done. With my arthritis it hit me really hard so I've been doing a bit, then taking a pain pill and lying on the heating pad and reading, and then about the time the pain pill will wear off, I go do another bit. And then come back in and get stoned again.
SO knowing this will be my life for a while yet, I decided to read the entire 10,000 pages of Gabaldon straight through. In time sequence. Except I couldn't find my copy of Virgins so I started with Outlander. It was suggested on one of the fan Facebook groups to just read the first 2 and to chapter 15 in #3 "Voyager" and then read all the Lord John books, which I have just finished. So now I can go back to Voyager chapter 16.
When Gabaldon was here in Anchorage and was the final speaker at Left Coast Crime in 2001 I didn't know who she was and said so to someone standing next to me, who told me that she writes "romance". And I said "Oh, well I don't read that." And then she said that she also writes mysteries. So I found one at the bookstore and read it, and it happened to be the one I would be least interested in "Lord John and the Private Matter". I didn't find 200+ pages about a fellow trying to prevent a man from marrying his cousin because he thought the man had syphilis to be particularly exciting. Not subject matter I am thrilled with as "entertainment". And I didn't think it qualified as a mystery. It was 14 years until I discovered the truth about her books, and only by checking out the TV series based on them.
So for the first time this last 2 weeks I've read all those Lord John books in sequence since they all fit in the time period between chapter 15 & 16 of Voyager. I'd read them all before but scattered so I didn't really pick up that in fact they ARE well researched complicated mysteries. In the main books, John does not seem very complex and just pops in and out. I thought of hi as a convenient method of resolving certain challenges in telling the main story.
But in the ones where he is the main character he is a very interesting fellow, and I learned a lot of obscure history of the 18th century too. Part of my problem the first time reading was that John is in love with Jaime Fraser the red headed Highlander hero of the main books. And Jaime at least in this part of their history detests him, doesn't trust him, and never ever would be interested in a romantic relationship with a man. I knew there were references to Jaime in all the books but just a passing sentence or two I thought, but with the second read I can see its much more. And it explains a lot of what happens in the last 5 main books.
Anyway when read one right after another, since the mystery plots sort of carry from story to story although there is a resolution to each small mystery within each that carries along the larger mysteries, they make a lot more sense. For instance the solution to who killed John's father and why threads through 3 of the stories. (and I understand there is another piece that will be published in June) I just wish she had them published in some sort of logical sequence. They are short stories, novellas, and novels, and most are in anthologies with other Outlander short stories involving other characters (she calls these "bulges"), were not published in chronological order so one has to depend on her online list of dates the stories are set in. For instance Virgins is set in 1739 but she wrote that after she had written the character through to the American Revolutionary period.
But is has been a great way to spend 2 weeks alternating between shoveling snow and reading in bed while stoned on pain killers.
And now to get back to "Voyager", which isn't classified as a mystery as its part of the larger main story of Jaime and Claire, but is a mystery non-the less (involving the kidnapping of Jaime's nephew) with some mini-mysteries additional.
Don't anybody go read Voyager because I say its a mystery, unless first you read "Outlander" and "Dragonfly in Amber" first. If you haven't read those first, the story will be very confusing. It involves accidental time travel, romance, bodice ripping events some of which are rapes and others which read like soft porn, political intrigue, swashbuckling sword fights, the '45 Jacobite rising, witchcraft, murders, nail biting suspense, laugh out loud humor and whole lots more, but the mystery in Voyager can't really be appreciated unless you are familiar with the previous 2000 pages of the story, and the time travel stuff will make no sense. Her work does not fit in a single genre.
This is the only author I've ever read that I can read repeatedly. And discover new stuff every time. You can't remember 10,000 pages full of stuff. It seems new even if you've read it before.