Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander to be a Cable Series on Starz

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013 / Louise / Leave a comment

Fans of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon have longed for the books to be adapted for the screen since the first novel was published in 1991. The 7 books (with an 8th due later this year) defy genre categorization, containing elements of romance, fantasy/time travel, and historical fiction. Thy are epic in scale, rivaling George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series for sheer page-count.

Ron Moore, creator of ‘Battlestar Galactica’, is on board to helm the new “Outlander” series for the Starz cable network. Set to unfold over 16 episodes, Outlander tells the story of married World War II combat nurse Claire, who accidentally steps back in time to the year 1743 where she is “immediately thrown into an unknown world of adventure that sends her on the run and threatens her life.” The ‘Outlander’ series of books have sold over 20 million copies.

As a huge fan of these books, I was both thrilled and wary when Ms. Gabaldon announced at BEA 2013 that Outlander would finally be adapted for the screen. So often, books we love don’t measure up when made into movies or television series. Still, I’ll be watching!

Author Career Achievement Awards – 2012

April 27, 2013April 24, 2013 / Linda / Leave a comment

Romantic Times Book Review magazine announced the 2012 winners of the prestigious Career Achievement Awards. Fifty reviewers and editors chose these winners from a long list of nominees. They are:

Contemporary Romance – Jill Shalvis
Erotic Romance – Jaci Burton
Historical Romance – Mary Balogh
Inspirational – Mindy Starns Clark
Mainstream – Kristin Hannah
Mystery – Sara Paretsky
Paranormal – Maggie Shayne
Romantic Suspense – Cherry Adair
Science Fiction – Jo Walton
Series Romance – Diana Palmer
Urban Fantasy – Kelley Armstrong
Young Adult – Christopher Pike

Listen Up! with an Audiobook

April 22, 2013April 17, 2013 / Susan O. / Leave a comment

Don’t have time to read? Driving a long commute, or perhaps an out-of-state trip? Do you have trouble focusing on printed words? Try an audio book! Cheshire Library has a large collection of books on cd, from mysteries to romance, to fiction, non-fiction, science-fiction, and foreign languages, and we add at least one new selection a day. Here’s a list of just some of our newest additions in the past month:

Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts

Toms River by Dan Fagin

The Hormone Cure by Sara Gottfried

Suspect by Robert Crais [Cover]

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Pukka’s Promise: The Quest for Longer-lived dogs by Ted Kerasote

Rita Moreno: A Memoir By Rita Moreno

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte [Cover] Cristo by Tom Reiss

The Dogs of War by Lisa Rogak

When Your Parent Becomes Your Child by Ken Abraham

Car Talk: 25 Years of Lousy Car Advice

Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe

A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

The Butterfly’s Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget by David Wessel

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

Today’s Romance Novels

March 26, 2013March 21, 2013 / Linda / 1 Comment

Today’s romance novels are not the bodice ripping, sex saturated, moaning and groaning, air head woman vs. chest beating man, empty stories of the 70’s and 80’s. Today’s romances have evolved to complex plots, with smart, savvy heroines and sensitive, flawed heroes. The old romance books had the domineering man “rescuing” the passive woman. Today you’ll find strong, independent women who sometimes do the “rescuing”. While most of today’s books have the “happily ever after ending”, some stories end up “happy for now”, or “satisfied with my live as is”. Most romances today don’t center around just the two main characters. You learn about their families and friends, the town they live in, the world around them. Today’s romance reader is smart, educated, thoughtful, and complex. Today’s romances run the gambit from historical England, to the wild American West, to the military, to small town life. They can be inspirational, suspenseful, other worldly and a whole host of subgenres – so many that everyone will be able to find the right fit for their reading pleasure. It is a bit deceiving to label a book “romance”, when it fits quite nicely as a “literary” novel. Below is a list of just a few of the romance subgenres.