It's Monday! What are you reading? {August 9, 2010}

"It's Monday! What Are You Reading?"  is hosted by Shelia over at Book Journey.



What I finished last week

Rosner tells the story of a German artist and his Israeli model, the moral implications of their relationship and the lasting impact of the Holocaust.
{But it's so much more than that. You can read my post about Blue Nude.}

What I am reading now

"The Well-Educated Mind offers brief, entertaining histories of five literary genres - fiction, autobiography, history, drama, and poetry - accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The annotated lists at the end of each chapter - ranging from Cervantes to A. S. Byatt, Herodotus to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich - preview recommended reading and encourage readers to make vital connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing." {Yes, I had this one listed last week too.}



With the publication of her debut novel, Outlander, Diana Gabaldon dazzled readers with a love story that spanned two centuries. Hailed by critics for its spellbinding blend of history, passion, and drama, it is a unique evocation of eighteenth-century Scotland from the perspective of a modern heroine.

In Dragonfly in Amber, Gabaldon returns us to the same landscape. Claire Randall -- successful physician, recent widow, mother -- has returned to the Scottish Highlands with her nearly grown daughter to look up a young historian she met briefly some twenty years earlier. But why does she come back? What does she know about the rim of standing stones on nearby Craigh na Dun? And who is really the father of her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna?

The questions raised by Claire's reappearance lead her back to the far, far distant past: back to Jamie Fraser, the young Scottish warrior whose gallant attentions drew her from the security of her own life to the dangers of his. Together, Claire and Jamie struggle to save a country and thwart a king. Their love affair -- as brilliant as the span of a dragonfly's wing and as enduring as the glowing depths of ancient amber -- takes them from the intrigue-filled Paris court of Charles Stuart to the warring clans of a Scotland gripped by the fierce Jacobite Rebellion. Theirs is a story about the power of kings, the dangers of ambition, the agony of choice -- and finally, the terrible burden of too much knowledge.

In the hands of this masterful storyteller, history is neither dead nor fixed, but a thing coiled, fluid and alive. For Claire, the inexorable march of fate -- toward the Highlanders' doom on Culloden Moor -- raises questions that lie far beyond the timeless stones.



What's next?

For an exercise in the The Well-Educated Mind". I only need to read the first 10 chapters. We'll see once I start if I'll continue with the book.

So what are you reading? [Comment below!]