The Outlandish Companion
Page 74
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
Sharyn McCrumb
The Appalachian series:
If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-0
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
She Walks These Hills
The Rosewood Casket
The Ballad of Frankie Silver
McCrumb has a series of light contemporary mysteries, which I also like, but I particularly recommend the “ballad” novels, set in modern-day Appalachia, but with strong roots in the past of that region.
Dana Stabenow
Stabenow’s mysteries are well plotted, and star a fascinating central character—Kate Shugak, an Aleut investigator, living on her own homestead in Alaska—but are included here because of their skill in showing both the details and the emotions of a different culture.
Reginald Hill
One of the best of the contemporary British crime writers. Hill has two series, and a few single titles; I like them all, but am fondest of his Pascoe and Dalziel books, and his most recent series, starring Joe Sixsmith.
SCOTTISH FICTION
Iain Banks
The Crow Road Complicity Feersum Endjinn The Wasp Factory
Banks’s other books are probably good, too—he’s one of the most popular modern Scottish writers—but these are the ones I’ve read so far and can personally recommend. Some of Banks’s books are classified as science fiction, others as fiction. He has a wide range of style and character, and is an immensely talented writer.
M. C. Beaton
The series dealing with Hamish Macbeth is very light, quick reading, but with considerable charm and a sense of affection for the long, lanky, red-haired Highland policeman who is its hero.
William McIlvanney
At the other end of the literary scale, three of McIlvanney’s four books are about a Glasgow policeman, John Laidlaw (the fourth, The Kiln, is an autobiographical novel—also very good). Very lyrical, very gritty; not an easy combination to pull off. Very Scottish, too.
John Buchan
John Macnab Witch Wood
Classic Scottish tales.
D. K. Broster The Jacobite Trilogy
Three interlinked novels, set in and around the ’45.
John Greig The Return of John Macnab
A new telling of the Buchan tale; that is, a different (contemporary) story, but based on—and exploring some of the same issues as—the original John Macnab.
Irvine Welsh
Trainspotting
Marabou Stork Nightmares The Acid House Ecstasy Filth
Irvine Welsh is not for the weak. These books are simultaneously horrifying and hilarious. Also heart-wrenching. Trainspotting, Filth (and parts of Marabou), in addition, are written entirely in a heavy Edinburgh dialect, which some readers might find heavy going.
Ian Rankin
Knots and Crosses
Wolfman
Strip Jack
The Black Book
Mortal Causes
Black and Blue
The Hanging Garden
Rankin is sometimes hard to find in the United States, though getting more popular; some of these titles may be UK editions. Available through specialist mystery bookstores and online book services. The books listed above are a series of police procedurals, set in Edinburgh and featuring Detective John Rebus. Tough stories, but beautiful writing and good characterization.
ROMANCE
For those who most enjoy love stories, these are several fine writers of “straight” romance (that is, romance unmixed with any other genre elements).
Laura Kinsale Susan Elizabeth Phillips Judith McNaught Nora Roberts
I haven’t listed individual titles, because all of these writers are quite prolific.
STRANGE BOOKS
I couldn’t come close to describing these books. All I can say is that they’re unique, and I thought they were very interesting.
Jeanette Winterson
Sexing the Cherry
John Berendt Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Manuel Puig Kiss of the Spider Woman
Tom Wolfe A Man in Full
Until the next book—Happy Reading!
1My editor has been known to say on occasion, “These have to be word-of-mouth books, because they’re too weird to describe to anybody.”
Published by
Delacorte Press
Random House, Inc.
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New York, New York 10036
Copyright © 1999 by Diana Gabaldon
Custom Illustrations: Running Changes, Inc. Photographs: Barbara Schnell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gabaldon, Diana.
The outlandish companion: in which much is revealed regarding Claire and Jamie Fraser, their lives and times, antecedents, adventures, companions, and progeny, with learned commentary (and many footnotes) by their humble creator / by Diana Gabaldon.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-56804-5
1. Gabaldon, Diana—Authorship. 2. Gabaldon, Diana—Books and reading. 3. Randall, Claire (Fictitious character) 4. Fraser, Jamie (Fictitious character) 5. Historical fiction—Authorship. 6. Fantasy fiction—Authorship. 7. Time travel in literature. 8. Love stories—Authorship. 9. Scotland—In literature. I. Title.
PS3557.A22Z468 1999 99-22969 813′ .54—dc21 CIP
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