From Goodreads:
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.Historical and Romance are my two least favorite genres, which I should have considered before investing 16 hours into a 32 hour audiobook. I love the narrator, but the book was just too slow for me. Listening to the dirty parts on my morning commute was an interesting experience, but those parts were always ruined by the characters pillowtalk (Jamie talks about how he saw a girl get raped once... NOT GOOD PILLOWTALK). Beyond that, Jamie and Claire seem to go back and forth between treating each other like children. When Jamie spanks Claire for disobeying him, it wasn't sexy, it was uncomfortable. And even though the book did an admirable job of trying to convince me it was appropriate for the time period... I'm a modern reader and can't get past it. Not being able to root for the romance has kept me from being able to finish.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
From GoodReads:
Simon, Jane, and Barney, enlisted by their mysterious great-uncle, arrive in a small coastal town to recover a priceless golden grail stolen by the forces of evil -- Dark. They are not at first aware of the strange powers of another boy brought to help, Will Stanton -- nor of the sinister significance of the Greenwitch, an image of leaves and branches that for centuries has been cast into the sea for good luck in fishing and harvest.Their search for the grail sets into motion a series of distubing, sometimes dangerous events that, at their climax, bring forth a gift that, for a time at least, will keep the Dark from rising.Again, this one is just slow. There's nothing technically wrong with the narrator, but I dislike his voice. I may pick up the paperback and finish the story in the future, but I was dreading getting in my car to listen to this one.
From Goodreads:
One of them is a bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist. The other is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Together, they form the League of Comic Justice, battling evildoers in the name of . . . Okay, we made that line up. What they do form is a writing team of pure comic genius, and they will have you laughing like idiots.Philip Horkman is a happy man-the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop, and on Sundays a referee for kids' soccer. Jeffrey Peckerman is the sole sane person in a world filled with goddamned jerks and morons, and he's having a really bad day. The two of them are about to collide in a swiftly escalating series of events that will send them running for their lives, pursued by the police, soldiers, terrorists, subversives, bears, and a man dressed as Chuck E. Cheese.Where that all takes them you can't begin to guess, but the literary journey there is a masterpiece of inspiration and mayhem. But what else would you expect from the League of Comic Justice?I just couldn't get into this one. I occasionally laughed, but it's stupid humor that takes everything too far. Besides that the two main characters are completely obnoxious and I couldn't get into the story at all.
Posts
I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DIDN'T FINISH OUTLANDER!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteJust kidding.
I read that book and didn't like it very much but I finished the damn thing!!!!
(I also posted a book review today of a book I wasn't in love with)
I DNF'd Outlander TOO. Even though my mom was like "YOU MUST READ THIS." meh. I'm not a historical fan. :P
ReplyDeleteThe only one I've heard about is Outlander and despite how much people like I know it's not the book for me. I'm VERY choosy about my historicals. I give you a lot of credit for making it 16 hours through, much more than I could have done!
ReplyDeleteI respect your decision to not finish Outlander although I am slightly disappointed! I LOVED Jamie! So So Soooo much! I can see where others may have struggled with him, and I do remember that the book was kind of long which is one of the reasons that I've never reread it. But I also can't believe that you would get 16 hours into something and then walk away! I can't figure out if that impresses me or not.
ReplyDeleteWow, expect some backlash over Outlanders, It's got some hard core fans. I read and liked it, but it didn't change my world. The second book has lingered on my tbr shelves for several years now. The other two books on your list are ones I haven't heard much about, so I think I'll stay away from them. I don't dnf much since I usually know when a book is going to be good, but I think its good any time we can walk away from a book that isn't capturing our attention- there are far too many books out there begging to be read!
ReplyDeleteI want to do some of these posts. What I really mean is I wish I wouldn't finish stupid books. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've been curious to read Outlander, but I can never muster up the motivation to get to it. I think the issues you found are things I would be iffy on, too. We'll see...maybe someday!
ReplyDeleteI DNF from time to time, usually because the book just didn't grab me.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's a visceral dislike of the book, and sometimes just profound indifference.
I try to pin down the reason and note it down in my reviewing notebook, but sometimes there isn't one. Sometimes I write: "I can see where this book is headed and I don't want to go there."
I know Bittner loves Outlander, so I'm going to read it eventually, but it'll probably be one that I'll have to read while reading other books at the same time, which is something I don't do very often. But I think I'll have to because it's so long!
ReplyDeleteI've only DNFed a few books but I'm getting better about it. I normally hate to not finish a book but I'm realizing that I need to just move on sometimes. And I like the posts because readers can see why you just weren't pulled in by the book. I think I only have 1 DNF post so far, but I'm sure I'll have more in the future!
I loved Susan Cooper's series, but I started with "The Dark is Rising" instead of Greenwitch, which helped a lot, I think. Greenwitch feels like it's written for a younger audience than the rest of the books and I also had a harder time reading that one than the others.
ReplyDeleteI didn't finish Outlander either. I did that skimming thing where you skip around to try to figure out what happens but don't actually read it. There were parts I liked: hot men in kilts and the protective guy thing and the time travel. But there was a lot of rape, and even more at the end of the book.
ReplyDelete