got lost in 18th century scotland again, oooops!

so so so, hi, and welcome to my favorite topic!

want to know kiiinda where i’ve been spending my free time lately? no? well i’m still going to tell you! i have been totally lost in rereading my very. favorite. book series. of all time. and boy, does it feel good good good. i actually didn’t read a single thing aside from pregnancy books the entire time i was pregnant with maddalena [too distracted!], and then still didn’t read a single book for the longest time after she was born [really too distracted!]. so finally! here i am!! reading books i’ve already read. now, if that’s not true brittany fashion, i don’t know what is. 😉 but! i have good reason! reason being… they’re amazing.

[a little beauty & the beast interlude there because, you know, belle is my spirit princess!]

i’ve mentioned it a few times before, but the outlander series, by diana gabaldon, is my very, very favorite book series. [and ps. i love that every time i mention this tidbit, a few outlander co-obsessors surface, officially finding an extra special place in my heart!!!] but, i mean, let’s be honest here, okay… when you spend six years reading seven ginormous books about a love that transcends time. and. SPACE! well, it’s more like a relationship, right? a beautiful, blossoming and totally normal relationship, where one might go around casually referencing jamie and claire in every day conversation with people who are pretending that one doesn’t sound com-pa-letely ridiculous referring to [who they think are] fictional characters all the time. but that’s the thing with books! when you’re in them, you’re IN them, you know?

anyway. yes! six years ago i started reading outlander while a tiny, black, fluffy bearcub of a baby minnie gnawed on my pink purse handles in my in my college apartment bedroom. i’d never heard of the books before, so i kept my expectations on the low end, but my aunt had sworn they were good… and so! i started reading… and once i made it through the first little bit, i just could not stop. i got to the end of it and dove right into the second book, dragonfly in amber [my aunt had mailed me the first two in the series]. i finished that book and drove straight to the bookstore with fresh and gloooriously dramatic tears still in my eyes to get the third book, and so on and so forth. my roommates thought i was crazy, i’m pretty sure, because i was one thousand percent obsessed. [and okay, right now i can totally picture them going, “brittany, we already thought you were crazy, el-oh-el!” i know, guys, i know! thanks for loving me anyway!], but i really enjoy just being totally all in something, and i was. i was all in. so… over the next couple of years i read all seven of the books. seven. huge. books. of love and war and history and yummy, powerful, bold deliciousness.

so, okay… a brief synopsis! outlander starts like this: war in the 1940s has kept english nurse, claire, separated from her historian husband, frank, for six years of their early marriage. when the two finally reunite, they take a second honeymoon to scotland to, you know, reconnect. it’s there, however, that claire stumbles upon some mysterious standing stones and accidentally falls 200 years back through time to the year 1743. woops! initially, claire falls into the less-than-ideal hands of an english soldier who looks confusingly like frank… that is, until a bunch of kilted scotsmen come along, including one smokin’ hot highlander named jamie. they take claire with them, as she’s obviously extremely lost and vulnerable… and aaah, i’m already getting all tingly! inevitably, she finds herself a bit torn between the time she came from and the husband she had just reunited with, now far, far, far away… and the undeniably passionate chemistry that’s unfolding with one tall drink of scottish water. did i mention he’s good with horses? he is. he’s good with horses. oh and he’s wounded. oh! and she’s a nurse. oh! and he’s all scottish and “i’ll protect you” and stuff. okay. perf.

and oh, hey, here’s another summary i’ve come across, as outlander was recently referenced on the show orange is the new black. i’ve not seen the show, but apparently the character “‘taystee,” spots the book and says something like, “outlander!” you ever read this? lady travels back in time to scotland… hooks up with this big sexy outlaw type, and they be getting’ it day in and day out. yo, it’s hot!” i find that to be pretty accurate, as well.

these books are super long, too, filled with details and love and stories and language and history. [the author has a couple of PhDs and a ginormous brain, i can only assume, because how! how does she write so much and so beautifully and so historically accurately and for so many years?!] so, you definitely have to be ready for a committed book relationship. and naturally, as our friend ‘taystee has already mentioned [that name is killing me, by the way, what is that name??], and like any good 18th century scottish highland sexy scenario would have it, i’m sure… there are some serious hanky panky scenes in there! so, you know, it might make you blush a little. or giggle. or just be all like “??!!?!!” because some of it’s kind of shocking for those of us not used to some of the… ways… of the 18th century. which, i would imagine… is most of us. but hey, a lot of it’s hot, too, i’m not complaining.

also! the 8th book has just recently come out in june! and don’t you just knooow that big beauty made its way right here into my loving arms via my front door’s bff, the UPS man. yay! i have been looking forward to this book coming out for what feels like an eternity… but… after all these years and words and pages, i decided to do what i’ve wanted to do for some time now, and i have started reading them all from the very beginning! it’s been the best decision ever, because i’m currently four books in and totally in love all over again. i have so. many. feelings. very real, very many. and even though book eight is going to be staring a gi-normous hole straight through me until i make it back through books four and five and six and seven once again, i keep reminding myself not to rush through since there’ll be a 9th book to come in another few years! whew! and sidenote: i almost cried the other night when i realized that i’d probably be 30 when book nine comes out, so let’s just really not think about that too long.

and hey, remember that time our house flooded in that big nashville flood of 2010? well, i do 😉 and it’s funny because thinking back to that time, i really only got upset enough to shed tears over two specific things: one, my totaled car [rip black pathfinder!] and two, my ruined collection of outlander books. i am so weird sometimes, although i think there was a straw/camel’s back aspect there, too. but honestly! i was just so upset to have lost all my books, and though i realized that a silly bunch of books could easily be purchased again, we were pretty much in a place where we had to purchase everything again, so i certainly wasn’t going to prioritize book replacement of all things. and i was just sad. so, i guess at some point after that my sweet mommy had herself a fancy little idea, because the following christmas, after an absolutely crazy year, santa claus brought me a whole collection of brand new outlander books all over again… complete with hand signed bookplates for each book signed by the author, diana gabaldon herself! theee diana! birth mother of my beloveds! naturally, i cried. she even sent one for the then unfinished book eight, which amazingly enough, has successfully survived the last three and a half years, and is now officially stuck inside my new, unread eighth book! so, you better believe these books now live on the highest shelf in the house, because they do. they do, indeed.