Book Review: Dragonfly in Amber

Dragonfly In Amber (Book 2 of Outlander Series)

by Diana Gabaldon

747 pages

Wow oh wow. I love this series. LOVE it. (see Outlander review here) Alright, here's the jist of this one:

At the beginning of the book, Claire is in 1968 and has lived in her correct time for 20 years, none of those years being in Scotland. Frank has died. She has a daughter, the spitting image of Jamie, with whom she finally returns to Scotland with to reveal her true, yet bizarre, time travel story. Of course her daughter doesn't believe her and is all upset and angst-y. So *flashback* while Claire tells the story of how she came to be back in present time, pregnant with Jamie's child.

Claire is back in 1744 and is married to Jamie. Jamie has survived some serious injuries (thanks to Claire) and they've now decided that they must try to stop the Rising of '45 (with Bonnie Prince Charlie and all that) and the battle of Culloden from happening. So, they head on over to France, Jamie takes over his cousin's merchant business while he's away, and they make nice with members of High Society. Jamie makes friends with Prince Charlie to become closer to him and hires a boy, affectionately renamed Fergus, to pickpocket letters to Prince Charlie and other influential people from mail carriers. Through the pick-pocketed letters and their correspondences with people, Claire and Jamie think that they've prevented Prince Charlie from coming to Scotland and initiating the Rising. While all this is happening, Claire is pregnant and a very bad person from the first book comes back into their lives.

Through a series of unfortunate events, Claire loses the baby and Jamie is put into prison (again). Claire manages to get him out but they must go back to Scotland, not really knowing if they'd accomplished their task or not. Once back in Scotland, life at Lallybroch goes on quite nicely for a while until a letter is received saying that Prince Charlie is coming over to Scotland to take over the thrown and it is signed by several clan leaders, including Jamie. Outraged by the Prince forging his signature, Jamie really has no choice but to join in the battle and back the Prince and help him win. Once again, Jamie and Claire are thrown back into a life of traveling, outlaw, battles, and injuries.

In the end, the Battle of Culloden is inevitable but Jamie knows that if he's going to die, then Claire must go back through the stones so she will be safe. Also, they discover that she is pregnant again. Yet another reason for her to go back. Their goodbye is heart wrenching, especially when Jamie tells her that he knows that she has the worse end of the bargain since he will go on to the battle and die, yet she will be the one living with her heart broken. Oh, this definitely brought on my tears! Finally, Claire goes back through the stones. Frank is still there, after three years of her being missing, and continues to be with her even after discovering that she's pregnant.

Come back to current time (1968) and Claire is finishing her story to her daughter, Brianna, and a historian, Roger. Roger believes her and has been helping her find out what happened to the Lallybroch men after Culloden. Claire has been sure this whole time that Jamie died at Culloden but Roger discovers a piece of text indicating otherwise. Pseudo-spoiler alert! (or maybe not since there are several more books in this series...) Jamie didn't die. Somewhere back in the 18th century, he is still alive. Will Claire risk going back again to find Jamie?!?! Duh duhn duhnnnnnnn....

9.5 out of 10 stars. Outlander was slightly better because this one did have some slow parts. Still, it took all of my willpower not to pick up Voyager (the next in the series) when I returned this one to the library. I have to read other books for the WBC!!

2666 by Roberto Bolaño: My first review!

Title: 2666

Author: Roberto Bolaño

number of pages: 898






Okay, I'm going to be straight with all you out there on the interwebs, I got the idea to read this book mostly because I saw a picture of a celebrity carrying it through the airport. But, not just any celebrity! It was Robert Pattinson *swoon* (I love Twilight even though it's not exactly great literature, and I will probably review it someday on here) ANYWAYS, I saw the book in the oh-so-handsome Rob's hands (see pic below) and just had to know about what he was reading. So I did a little researching on Amazon and Barnes and Noble dot com, and decided that I would give it a go. Wow, am I glad I did!


This almost 900 page book is actually very manageable because it's broken down into 5 parts. These parts are The Part about the Critics, The Part about Amalfitano, The Part about Fate, The Part about the Crimes, and The Part about Archimboldi. Each part is about different people in different situations and reads like it's own book (which makes sense since the late author originally wanted this book to be published as five separate novellas).

The Part about the Critics focuses on four literary critics in Europe who become friends because of their common love of a German author named Benno von Archimboldi. Archimboldi is not a particularly widely read author by any means, but he is critically acclaimed and is mentioned for the Nobel Prize. The kicker here is that barely anyone has EVER met Archimboldi or even knows what he looks like. This part goes through all the critics, their love lives, and their hunt to find Archimboldi which leads them to a town name Santa Teresa in Mexico. There, they meet a professor of the University named Amalfitano and find out about hundreds of murders of women have been taking place for years.

The Part about Amalfitano covers his life, how he ended up in Mexico, his family, and how the murders affect his life.

The Part about Fate I originally thought was going to be about fate, as in the inevitable outcome of events, but turns out it's actually about a reporter named Oscar Fate who is in Mexico (from New York) covering a boxing match and how he becomes interesting in covering a story on the murders.


The Part about the Crimes is exactly what it sounds like. It goes through all the murders of women over the past few years, whether they were solved or not, the defects in the investigation system, and who all has been convicted.

And finally, the Part about Archimboldi. This was probably my favorite part. It tells the story of Archimboldi from childhood until present and what a great story it is. You finally figure out why he decides not to be in the public eye and why he ends up in Mexico.

The novel doesn't end with a clear cut, everyone lives happily ever after ending, but it does leave you satisfied with how everyone becomes connected and realizing how small the world can really be. The writing is just amazing because there really was never a point where I thought "ugh, this is so pointless" and Bolaño does not overuse any particular word or statement (which tends to happen in a lot of longer novels, ahem, Stephanie Meyer and chagrin). I felt like his writing changed a little with each character also, so everyone had their own "voice." A great example of this was when a woman was telling a group of people about a dream that she had had. It went on for about 3 pages and when I got to the end of the dream story, I looked back and realized that there wasn't a single period used that WHOLE time yet it made perfect sense. Genius!

I would definitely recommend this book. Don't let the hugeness dissuade you! It's worth it!

8.5 out of 10 stars