They got me
Ellen recommended a book she and some friends have read and loaned it to me. OK, I'll give it a go. Well, I came home Christmas evening and literally read until I was exhausted; picked it up again today and finished it. What a intriguing book! It is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - it is hard to describe; part mystery, part romance (not the bodice-ripper type, but gothic romance type), it is simply a well-written story. What fun. What an enjoyable way to spend a holiday.

I picked up a series of books I read years ago - the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon; The Outlander, and Dragonfly in Amber, were the two I read. I skipped to the last book without realizing it - A Breath of Snow and Ashes; now I'll have to go back and read the middle books. These books require a slight bit of suspense of disbelief - as the main characters are time travelers, who rather accidentally go back from post-WWII into Scotland in the mid-1700s. But, as Jeff (my second husband) used to say - if you buy the premise, you buy the bit - and as Frank (the current husband says) - don't over think it - the books are historical fiction with adventure and romance thrown in. The last one, a nearly 1,000 page tome, took me a week to read. After laying off fiction for about 10 years, I started up again while waiting for airplanes, and I'm finding the absorption into a book to be a real stress reliever. Once again, I find that, while the books are not religious in nature, at least religion is respected. I do suspect Gabaldon is preparing another book - she certainly left room for more books in the series. It really begs the question, however, if you travel back in time and change something, does it change the future? If it changes the future and that new future doesn't include you for some reason (your presence keeps your great-great grandfather from marrying your great-great grandmother, for example) what then? (Oh, wait, I'm over thinking it.)

Now, I'm re-reading London by Edward Rutherfurd; see, I can circle back to stuff I enjoyed years ago - pays to be getting old and forgetful :)