Drums of Autumn

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Summary: Can't WAIT until my book arrives in the mail!
Review: I have been on bedrest since 9 December and will remain so until mid-March when my second child will be born. I anxiously await the arrival of Diana Gabaldon's newest edition to the saga of Jamie and Clair. Just over a year ago I purchased the original three of the series, having great difficulty due to the fact I'm stationed overseas with the military. Upon completing the books my husband unwittingly sold them in a yard sale and I was so upset I could barely speak! My biggest wish was to get the serious again for my birthday or Christmas. My Mom sent them to me and I have not been able to put them down, again. I have reread these terrific books. They are my means of escape. I love learning about the Scottish history, and can put myself out of my bed and into the pages of Mrs. Gabaldon's books. It is with exceeding joy I find her fourth book is out and as I complete the final pages of "Voyager" I await the arrival of "Drums of Autumn." I've never read a book more than once, and I know I will be reading these over and over in the year's to come. I congratulate Mrs. Gabaldon on her zeal and ability to write. I only wish I could finish the many paragraphs and stories I've written. Her ability to include so much research is commendable. It's given me renewed passion to find out more about my ancestors. If what other's have written is true, I expect "Drums of Autumn" to not be the last, and wait on pins and needles to find out how Jamie and Clair get back to Scotland ... afterall ... that is where she saw their grave markers, isn't it? Thank you, Mrs. Gabaldon, for new views on how to live our lives, with trust, honor, and courage!

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Summary: Another major winner
Review: Drums of Autumn carries the story of Jamie and Claire Fraser beyond happily ever after to the reality of the rest of their lives. In doing so, Gabaldon creates a believable and poignant portrait of a marriage that works. Their relationship continues to involve the reader because both Jamie and Claire grow individually within it. This is marriage at its best; offering love, security, and the freedom to be and become. These books are not romances, nor histories, nor adventure stories. They are, instead, accounts of one couple's struggle to find themselves through each other in their struggle to establish "a marriage of true minds" under the most unlikely of circumstances. Never maudlin, the series celebrates the best of love, marriage, committment, and mutuality. I am only sorry I have finished Drums of Autumn and will probably have a long wait until the final(?) book in the series is available

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Summary: Best Series of books I've read.
Review: This is the best series of books that I have read so far. They are very descriptive and full of vivid detail. The characters are so real. I would recommend these books to anyone who loves to read books. Not only fiction, but romance and historical novels also. They fit so many different categories that you can't really put them in just one

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Summary: You literally cannot put these books down.
Review: I have read the other reviews and I agree with all of them. Many aspects of the series have been touched upon by all the reviews. This series is the ONLY set of books that I could not put down. Like others I interested friends and co-workers to read the books, even men! through much assuring that it was NOT a trashy romance despite the location in the book stores. (Real men can buy a book from the romance section.) People I encouraged to read the books told me: they refused to answer the phone, the door, cut short evenings out (much to their spouses dismay) and generally ignored the outside world till there were no more books to read. Best books for anyone sick in bed, that can't stand convalescing. These books sparked heated debates on where the characters were going, why they did what they did, what they TRUELY felt instead of what they said. I had a friend tell me "Its just a book, calm down" till they read the series, now they want to know why its taking so long for the next one. It was agony having to wait for each publication and I envy those people that can go on to the next book as soon as they shut the cover of the last. Mesmerizing, enrapting, mind expanding, stimulating to want to know more; "Ah, there's where Lallybrook would be" while looking at a map of Scottish Clan territories. As you can tell I cannot laud these books enough, I would love to see them in movie format but only if it could be done as well as Interview with a Vampire, where the movie WAS the book with no poetic license shortcuts the movie industry loves to make (i.e. see Steven King). I do have one suggestion for casting, Tim Roth as Randall, it was deja vu when I saw Rob Roy. But finding a 6'5", charismatic, red haired, muscular, beautifully proportioned, handsome actor with enough talent to be able to play Jamie will be hard to find.

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Summary: Evocative and poignant--Gabaldon does it again.
Review: What is Honor, except a virtue that the modern world condemns ? As in all her books, but especially in the Drums of Autumn, Diana Gabaldon has explored all aspects of a virtue---this time that of Honor. Gabaldon's style strikes a deep chord within the reader as she creates each passage and builds it to a poignant crescendo. In her past three books of this series, Gabaldon has told stories in the life of Claire Randall Fraser, a woman who travels across two hundred years to the past and finds a soul mate, and then travels two hundred years back into the future in order to live in the present so as to preserve the life of their child. Gabaldon has again effortlessly interwoven times periods and lifetimes in an easy- to- read style as we again read about Claire and Jamie and now about their growing children. Because of her whirlwind style, we the readers are immediately a captive to the events of the story as we are taken on a journey of exploration of our inner souls. The people of this story are of our time period and they have real world concerns. Honor, is an unrecognized part of daily lives and oftimes has no place of prominence or appeal in present day lives. Or does it? How Claire and the others maintain their quiet glimmer of Honor in the present is a wonder any of us can relate to as we struggle to live according to our ideals. In the past timeline of this story, Honor was a more obvious part of daily lives. People died for it in duels and they died for lack of it on the gallows. I was mesmerized by this story because we saw that conflict occurred between men and women due to how each lived within their perception of Honor. Sometimes those conflicts resulted in emotional or physical injury to the ones they loved. Not a Romance or Historical novel in the strictest sense of the word, Claire's story in Drums of Autumn could be ours. For she and the people around her are only human in their mistakes and misconceptions as they love, hate, fight and forgive one another. Like us they are only trying to live their lives in such as way as they can live with themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Great!! Can't wait for Drums of Autumn
Review: I have read the other 3 but can't wait for the new "Drums of Autumn". I have started a reading group at work (I provided the books, and everyone else reads) and you can guess which is the favorite series. One person in the group has read them all in less than a week! My order is in for "Drums of Autumn". I can understand why it takes so long for each book to come out, all you have to do is pay attention to the detail. I hope that Diane writes for many, many years to come.

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Summary: An old-fashion romantic
Review: Being young in age I never thought that these books would be so incredibly addictive. I have always loved reading but when my mother started reading these books I could see way everyone loved them so much. Now that my mother is done reading these books I have started to read them by myself. They strike a cord that makes look forward to Drums in Autumn and most like the MANY more after that!

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Summary: If Tom Clancy had a heart and wrote about life in the 1700's
Review: Fortunately, like Claire, I can travel through time which allows me to meet the November 15th deadline which you have in your review guidelines on this book. Ms. Gabaldon's triple whammy--excellent historical research, contineously fast-pased plot, and endearingly realistic characterization make this book definitely worth our wait. You can really lose yourself in her books, and the length of them makes for a wonderful reading experience. Worth the times

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Summary: I can't wait to see what Jamie and Claire are up to next!
Review: Anything with romance, mystery and suspense is worth my while, and let me tell you, Diana Gabaldon provides us with that and much, much more. She brilliantly paints us a picture, so real her characters are people we know intimately and would recognize on the street. The facinating history of that time period in Scotland was a big PLUS as well. I've just got to ask . . . . has anyone thought of making a mini-series or movie from the Outlander books??? I can just see it. Who would play Claire? Who would play Jamie? Watch the tv series "Highlander" sometime and tell me what you think of it's main character "Duncan McCloud". He'd make a great Jamie if we could dye his hair red. I'd love to hear from other lovers of Diana's books and also receive recommendations for books that are similar

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Summary: Can't wait for it!!
Review: Haven't read it yet but the rest of her books have been outstanding. The sort of books that make you want to take a vacation and just settle down and read all day. May she have a long and productive life