Beekeeper's Apprentice; Dragonfly in Amber

I've had "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" by Laurie R. King on my "to read" list for a long time. I love Sherlock Holmes, and I've enjoyed some other authors besides Doyle who have used the great detective in their fiction. This one was really good. I originally started out listening to it as an audiobook (trying to give my eyes a break) but I spend so little time in the car (or cleaning my house) that I barely got through a third of the book before it was due and I couldn't renew it because it had holds. I was really enjoying the narrator, though, I'm sorry I didn't get to hear her do Sherlock and Mary's voices when they posed as gypsies.

At any rate! Sherlock is in his mid-fifties, retired and living in Sussex, tending bees, when he meets young Mary Russell. Mary has a keen mind and Sherlock finds a kindred spirit. Mary soon becomes his student, and the two of them rescue a kidnapped child of an American senator before things get really sticky.  

I also finished rereading "Dragonfly in Amber" by Diana Gabaldon. I enjoyed it a lot more this time around. I think, having read the books and watched the show, that I'm picking up on more of the subtleties in the books that I missed the first time around because I JUST WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!! and was too impatient to take my time with them. It's unfortunately a common habit I have with series like this. 
The book starts out in Scotland, 1968. Claire and her daughter, Brianna, meet Reverend Wakefield's adopted son, Roger, who is a historian, and Claire tells Brianna the truth about her real father and how she traveled through time. It doesn't go well, as you can imagine. The bulk of the book is Claire telling what happened after she rescued Jamie from Wentworth Prison: how they traveled to France to try to thwart Bonnie Prince Charlie's doomed invasion, hobnobbing with the rich and influential. Claire starts working in a hospital and meets several truly charming characters. Eventually they have to go back to Scotland to fight with Charles and hope that maybe they can change history by winning at Culloden.