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Dec 17, 2009

Eric rated it:

I gave this book a really awful and visceral yet irreverent review and people got all hurty. Sorry, gentle readers. So here's a revised review - still bad, but with fewer sharp corners and internet ugliness.

I really disliked this book. As I think about all the books I've read, this one is at the very bottom, or maybe tied for last with a sci-fi paperback I found abandoned under a desk in 9th grade, about synthetically reincarnated twin midget space whores and some kind of cat peopl More...

134 comments like (363 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2010

Holly rated it:

How To Commit Adultery Without Being a Cheap Slutty Whore: A Q&A by Diana Gabaldon

Q: I love my husband but I'm feeling kind of restless. But adultery is wrong. So what do I do?
A: Easy! Go back in time!

Q: What do you mean, Ms. Gabaldon?
A: If you go back in time, your husband hasn't been born yet. So you can have wild and crazy S&M sex with impunity.

Q: But won't I still be married to him?
A: Aren't you listening? He hasn't been BORN yet. So you More...

120 comments like (544 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Lisa rated it:

Contains SPOILERS ---
I was lying in a hospital bed with my leg broken, and once the library trolley came for a round of 'books, anyone?', my hand was in the air in no time.
Too late did the librarian notice the foreign literature on my bedside table and with a distraught expression try to recover 'Outlander';I said firmly: 'Oh no, Madam, I'll read that.'. Just enough time left for her to make up with a tome of controversial French literature on the genocide in Ruanda...
But as I More...

27 comments like (95 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2010

Kelly rated it:

Yes! I read this. I admit it! You caught me! Not only that... I loved it. It is a double sin I will likely have to one day repent for by reading piles of Doysteyvsky while I tear out my hair. In any case. Right, once again into the breach to defend myself!

This book is incredibly long. It's just a fact. All of them are. But they go by so incredibly fast. By the time I got to the third one? I read it in three days. The pages just keep turning. I read at double speed I was so engrossed More...

21 comments like (111 people liked it)

May 28, 2008

RandomAnthony rated it:

(Ok, first off, there are going to be minor spoilers/hints in this review…read at your own risk, although I’ll try not to reveal too much.)

Outlander is a damn good book. Sure, the book has a blue fake leather cover, costs four bucks, and screams “spinning rack at the airport bookstore”. I approached the text with suspicion but found myself invested in the language and storyline within the first hundred pages. Here’s why:

TEN GOOD THINGS ABOUT OUTLANDER

1. The More...

122 comments like (158 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2008

Julie (Mom2lnb) rated it:

Reviewed for www.thcreviews.com

I've read that Outlander was originally marketed as a romance novel because the publisher didn't know what else to do with it, but this book is no ordinary romance novel. It doesn't follow any typical romance formula and is a real genre bender that doesn't fit neatly into any one category. Outlander has a swoon-worthy hero and dozens of truly romantic scenes that should be sufficient to satisfy even the most discriminating romance reader, while it's tim More...

33 comments like (80 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalking rated it:

Re-read finished 1-16-12 (still the best damn book out there)

You can read my review as a guest reviewer here...

http://lupdilup-hotlistens.blogspot.com/...

or below...

The Outlander series audiobook review

My background with the series

I tried three times to read Outlander, the first book in the Outlander series. I could not get past the first 100 pages. I thought it was boring, the detail was tedious, and I was wondering why More...

33 comments like (28 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Stephanie rated it:

Oh Hello. Who are you, where did you come from and what on earth are you sitting on?

Hi there. Um, I'm Stephanie, I came from The United States, 2011, and I'm sitting on a time mower. I "borrowed" it from my friend Kemper, he was pretty tanked on the corn liquor and semi buried in taco wrappers...I don't think he'll notice. Who are you and when are we?

Claire, I came from 1945, Brittan. But from what I can tell we are in mid evil Scotland. It took me more than More...

39 comments like (27 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Chelsea rated it:

Man, after the pitch I've heard about this book from basically every (female) reader I've ever met, I was expecting something that was NOT THIS. Fairly offensive, needlessly graphic, and smutty in that skeevy way, rather than the hot way. At one point, Jamie punishes Claire for disobeying him by literally spanking her - which was treated as perfectly understandable, and was quickly dismissed. I know that I cringed throughout the entire thing, and found it hard to believe that any relatively m More...

13 comments like (58 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Latharia rated it:

I read the first 300 or so pages of the book. The first 200 had me hooked...and then the sex scenes started. I've got nothing against a sex scene or two ... but the main characters were having sex all the freaking time. And when it escalated to include violence, including a scene that I can only describe as rape (she says no, he forces her to have sex anyway), I closed the book & decided not to read anymore. I enjoy historical fiction ... just not this type of it, I suppose.

9 comments like (45 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lynn rated it:

People kept telling me how good the Outlander series was, and I kept putting off reading them because they're time travel romances. Time travel romances are always completely cheesy aren't they?

Well, I finally broke down and read "Outlander," and quickly discovered it's one of the most original novels out there. I was happy to see that Barnes & Noble recently moved them out of the "romance" section because they are way more involved than your typical girl-meets-b More...

1 comment like (52 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Carrie rated it:

I first read this book 3 years ago, and have devoured the 6 books in the series (so far) since. Since it's been a year since the last one came out, and I had recently OD'ed on YA lit, I decided to go back to the first book. I remembered why this is my favorite series. Even though I remembered the larger plot points, and know all the future plot points, I still couldn't put this down on it's second reading. I found myself falling in love with the characters all over again, and since Gabaldon writ More...

4 comments like (35 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2009

Shannon rated it:

It is 1945 and Claire Randall (nee Beauchamp) is enjoying her second honeymoon in Scotland with her husband Frank, a historian interested in tracing his family tree back to Jonathan Wolverton Randall, a Captain in the English army during the Jacobite period. They've been apart for almost all their 8 years of marriage, she working as a nurse, he working for MI5, during the war.

While exploring the countryside around Inverness she revisits a circle of stones on a hill and is transported More...

14 comments like (31 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Mimi rated it:

5++++++ stars

Anyone who's known me longer than 5 minutes knows this is my favorite book. I've always said I'll never write a review about it. I gave in, but I won't be able to write anything dispassionate about it, nor write about it reasonably, so I'll just say what I love about it...

I love Jamie, Claire, Inverness, Castle Leoch, Jamie, Dougal and Colum, the wedding, Jamie, the humour, the childhood stories, Jamie, Lallybroch, Jenny, Jamie, Ian, the kids, JAMIE!, the des More...

37 comments like (16 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2010

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" rated it:

Okay, there are tons of reviews on this book, and I can't add too much to the review ether that hasn't already been said. But, I promised to write a review for every book I read, so I'll do this in an different kind of way. How about a Q&A session about this book?

Question and Answer Session With Danielle Regarding Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

1. So, you finally read it. How does it feel to read this 850 page magnum opus?

I feel a profound sense of accomplishment More...

82 comments like (67 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Kate rated it:

The genius here is that historical fiction merges with science fiction, to produce a kind of double whammy of the historical.

The novel is set, initially, in 1946 Scotland, where a couple take a second honeymoon after the Second World War. Whilst not a huge presence in the piece, WW2 is something that feeds into the motivations of Claire, the protagonist, and informs the story. Through magic, science, coma, act of God or who knows what else, Claire Randall finds herself in mid eightee More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2008

Claire rated it:

I'm not going to give a synopsis or anything, but I will say that this is one of the best series I have EVER read. And I read a lot. Tons. So to say that really means something. Don't let the romance label put you off, this series is difficult to define. The historical content is accurate and amazing, the characters are amazingly real and complicated, the storylines interesting and unexpected - really, I just can't say enough great things about this series. I have re-read the whole series More...

2 comments like (33 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2008

Kirk rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

22 comments like (18 people liked it)

May 28, 2011

Mel rated it:

I know Outlander is the book everybody seems to love to hate here on Goodreads. I liked it very much. It’s one of those books which are hard to review but I can just say this:

It read like a combination of historical fiction, adventure and paranormal romance. My mass market paperback edition was 850 pages long and the contents could have been enough for two or maybe three books. That being said, the story almost never dragged (except for the ending).

If you’re looking for a More...

80 comments like (11 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2008

Alysha rated it:

Too bad here isn't a rating stronger than "didn't like" because I hated this book. In fact, I read the entire thing just so that someone couldn't talk me out of hating it by saying "Oh, it gets better at the end" or "you really needed to read the whole thing to appreciate it".

This book isn't about Scotland or time travel, it's about Jamie and Claire having sex in different locations and positions. Throw in a little wife beating, rape and repeated tortur More...

10 comments like (33 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

❀ Sharon ❀ rated it:

Outlander is the story of Claire who is from 1945 but accidentally travels back in time over 200 years and dumped right in the middle of a small skirmish between the English and the Scots. Lucky for her, she is saved by the Scots where she uses her nursing skills to tend to the wounds of a young, good looking Scot named Jamie.

Like mostly everyone else, I have put this book off due to the size, from people saying that the language is hard to understand and that the settings, etc, are More...

20 comments like (12 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2011

Jenny rated it:

I admit to picking this book up so I could see what the hype was about. And I can see some of it. The premise is very intriguing...what with the time traveling WWII field nurse coming into eighteenth century Scotland. I don't even fault the falling in love with the hot Highland guy. My problem comes with this neat premise turning almost exclusively into a shag-fest. I swear, the book could be cut by 3/4s and not lose a thing and possibly gain a notch or two. I'm sure Highland men are impressive, More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Werner rated it:

The description of the book above is inaccurate and misleading, in two respects: Claire's time travel isn't caused by touching a natural "boulder," but rather a magic-endued standing stone; and more importantly, Jamie isn't her illicit "lover," but her lawfully-wed husband. True, the fact that she has another husband in the 20th century raises the question of bigamy, and poses interesting time travel paradoxes; but I think Gabaldon, and her characters, take the position that More...

18 comments like (35 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Deborah rated it:

OK so I started reading this book and was only somewhat intrigued. The premise sounded interesting, so I kept reading. I guess if you're into historical scotland, it's pretty cool, I give it that. I kept up with it because it seemeed like an easy summer read. And so yeah, I tossed out reality, you know, the whole sci fi time-travel thing. I also hoped it would get better...and well it never did. It just kept on trotting along. I continued to suspend reality and just accepted what was happening More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2012

Shell rated it:

It took me a crazy long time, to convince myself to pick up these books. Convinced it just wasn't my thing, I ignored the numerous pleas from fellow book lover friends, to take on this series. Eventually of course, their tenacious badgering, and my over all curiousity won out in the end... And... Amazing. Beautiful, Magical, Heart wrenching, fantastic, awe inspiring, mind blowing, epic in its originality. My all time favorite books, ones I will forever keep, and read over, and over again.

7 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

K. rated it:

I will make a brand new shelf for this book and shall call it slippery-as-waterweed*...do you get it? I hope you do, otherwise I just wasted a really good, dirty joke.

If you like adventure, history and sex, you came to the right place because Outlander by Diana Gabaldon offers each in abundance. Och, ye'll get a lot o' fun oot o' this cheeky novel. Ugh, sorry, residue from reading through the night. And I'm no sure I'm entirely meself quite yet, I feel verra dreamlike and such, I cann More...

11 comments like (15 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2011

Callista rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2010

Jessica rated it:

*throws in the towel* Ok, that's it. I’m giving up.

It seems like Outlander splits readers into two camps. Either you love it, or you hate it. I wouldn’t say that I’m one of the latter but I do not find it in me to finish this book.

Due to a very time consuming job and a busy private live I went from reading 4 or 5 books per week to reading only 1 or 2 books per week which is, most people would say, more than enough but I guess my fellow bookers will agree with me when I More...

44 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2008

Eastofoz rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

22 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2010

Lori rated it:

UPDATE 1/10: Just re-read on Kindle, and love it as much as I ever did!!!!

I read this ages ago! This is the first in the Outlander series detailing the epic of Claire and Jamie Fraser. These are two of my favorite fictional characters of all time. Claire is an English nurse, just back from WWII, and she and her husband take a trip to Scotland. Claire visits a circle of standing stones, and the next thing she knows she's in 1740s Scotland! Of course it takes her a while to More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)