"the year of living biblically: one man's humble quest to follow the bible as literally as possible" by a.j. jacobs

this is the best non-fiction book i've read in quite some time. a.j. jacobs, a new york agnostic jew, decides to live by the bible for a full year. we're all familiar with the ubiquitous ten commandments, but the bible has hundreds of rules that are a lot less straightforward than "thou shalt not kill".

who knew that the bible forbid the wearing of clothes made of wool and linen? and not only that, but there is an association of people who will test your clothes for the offending mix. huh.

jacobs' year takes him to a creationist museum, the wailing wall in israel, a mega church, a hasidic dance party and many other wonderful and fascinating sites. he consults rabbis and pastors and other clergy on his quest to divine the interpretation of biblical passages that could be taken literally or metaphorically.

a touching, hilarious and insightful memoir, "the year of living biblically" had me up past my bedtime many nights.

"outlander" by diana gabaldon

a quote on the first page of this book proclaims it's "a feast for ravenous readers of eighteenth-century scottish history, heroism and romance". i'd never have thought this niche existed.

the first of a many part series, the book's protagonist is claire randall, an englishwoman readjusting to normal life after world war ii. married before the war, she was separated from her husband at its beginning to work as a combat nurse. claire and her husband are reunited after the war and go on a second honeymoon to scotland. roaming around the scottish highlands one day with a local, claire is taken to a stone henge-ish rock formation where she touches one of the rocks and is hurtled 200 years back in time. scotland in 1743 is rough and war-torn and she is soon caught up with a clan and catapulted into a new life of adventure.

despite it's 850 pages, i breezed through this page turner. there's a lot of fighting, intrigue and sex. yes, sex. lots and lots of sex. so much sex that i was almost embarrassed to read it in public. this novel’s a bit trashy, but well-written and immensely enjoyable. i’m not going to rush to read the sequel, but it was a good respite from my usual literature.