Oh, the giddiness, the giddiness!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...it's finally here -- the middle of September, my new favorite month! It's always been a great month (the beginning of fall, school, and the football/chili season are all big draws), but this year, a couple of books have put it over the top and I have been waiting for this for months.

First up is Dan Brown's highly anticipated The Lost Symbol, due out in just four days, on Tuesday, September 15. Now, I know that there's a lot of fuss about Dan Brown not being the greatest author to ever touch pen to paper and about his tendency to vicariously romanticize himself in his books through Robert Langdon, since many argue that Dan Brown sees Langdon as himself. I wouldn't put up an argument about that. Still, his stories are consistently interesting, entertaining, and have a fast pace that keep me hooked from the get-go.

I will definitely finish The Lost Symbol in less than a week. How can I say this for certain? Well, first of all, Brown's books are fast reads. More importantly, though, is that I need to be done because of the book that comes out one week after Brown's latest and which, I have to confess, has had me completely giddy since I heard about its release date last year: After four long years of waiting, Diana Gabaldon's seventh book in the Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone will be released. My mom got me hooked on this fascinating fantasy-romance-historical fiction series in the early 1990s. Since then, every four or five years has been punctuated for me with a burst of excitement as each new installment has been released. This book has been a long time coming. I've put my family and friends on notice that I will be taking myself out of commission for a few days so I can immerse myself in the world of Claire and Jamie. I love talking about all kinds of books with patrons who come through the library on a daily basis, but I have noticed a particular enthusiasm for this series by those who have read it. One gentleman even told me a few months ago that his wife and some of his friends were on a trip to Scotland to find Jamie! Since a trip to Scotland is not in my immediate future (it will probably have to wait until after my trip to Prince Edward Island with my daughters to find Anne), I'm going to travel through time and distance vicariously when this book comes out...soon!