Blog No. 201

This is blog #201! Wow. Who knew I had so much to write about. It's interesting to look back through my posts and see what I've done and where I've been over the past few years. I may have to have the blog-o printed out in a book format...just as a keepsake/scrapbook.


Part of being a writer means continuous writing to keep the mind fresh, which was the original reason behind creating this blog. Sometimes I have good ideas for blogs; other times I just get too busy with paying writing jobs to spend time with recreational writing. This week, I actually have a list of topics I want to write about.

I finished the epic "Fall of Giants" earlier this month. This book is a long-awaited one -- nearly three years elapsed between "World Without End" and this one. Apparently, I wasn't the only one waiting; "Fall of Giants" debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list.

The first book in a planned Century Trilogy, this Giant book spans from the early 1900s to about 1920 -- the years of World War I, womens suffrage and the Russian Revolution. It introduces you to people from five countries: Wales, Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. These rich characters are from many different walks of life, yet their stories are intertwined in the fabric of history. Each person (or family, in some cases) is affected by events around the world. You'll be captivated and feel as if each character is a real person who lived through the era.

It's amazing how intricate the book is. There's feminism (in both Britain and America), Russian Bolsheviks during the revolution, the Labour, Liberal and Conservative parties in Britain, and more. You'll meet Welsh miners, English aristocracy, a German spy, Russian royalty and revolutionaries, and American politicians and bootleggers.

Follett takes the reader over political landscapes around the world and into the battlefields of World War One as never before. It's a history lesson that will teach you more than you learned in high school about names like Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill, Lenin and Tolstoy. Follett dramatizes events so well that you feel like they "could have" happened.

This book is a must-read. At 985 pages, it's pretty hefty. I'm a fast reader and it took me nearly two weeks to finish, which has to be a record.