*NikkiBell*
Livin’ that DVC & AP life!
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2005
- Messages
- 13,552
Hi All!
After much deliberation and discussion, our next book club selection is....
Fall of Giants
by Ken Follett
Over the next several weeks, we will read and share our thoughts on the novel in this thread. Anyone who is interested in joining us is welcome. You could be a first time poster or a regular visitor to the DIS. Either way, we'd love to have you!
Please check this post in the near future for updates including a reading schedule and any other goodies that may come our way.
See you soon!
Nikki
Novel Synopsis
from Ken-Follett.com
Published worldwide on 28 September 2010, and debuted at #1 on The New York Times' hardcover fiction bestseller list!
Fall of Giants is a magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in the Century trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families – American, German, Russian, English and Welsh – as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man’s world in the Welsh mining pits…Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House…two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription and revolution…Billy’s sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London….
These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.
As always with Ken, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.
In future volumes of the Century trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves – and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Ken brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.
Official Book Trailer
US Version
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/features/fallofgiants/index.html
UK Version
http://www.ken-follett.com/video/100720_fall_of_giants_uk.html
Author Notes
Ken Follett is one of the world’s best-loved novelists. He has sold more than 100 million copies. His last book, World Without End, went straight to the No.1 position on bestseller lists in the USA, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
He burst into the book world in 1978 with Eye of the Needle, a taut and original thriller with a memorable woman character in the central role. The book won the Edgar award and became an outstanding film starring Kate Nelligan and Donald Sutherland.
He went on to write four more best-selling thrillers: Triple; The Key to Rebecca; The Man from St Petersburg; and Lie Down with Lions. Cliff Robertson and David Soul starred in the miniseries of The Key to Rebecca. In 1994 Timothy Dalton, Omar Sharif and Marg Helgenberger starred in the miniseries of Lie Down with Lions.
He also wrote On Wings of Eagles, the true story of how two employees of Ross Perot were rescued from Iran during the revolution of 1979. This book was made into a miniseries with Richard Crenna as Ross Perot and Burt Lancaster as Colonel 'Bull' Simons.
He then surprised readers by radically changing course with The Pillars of the Earth, a novel about building a cathedral in the Middle Ages. Published in September 1989 to rave reviews, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for eighteen weeks. It also reached the No. 1 position on lists in Canada, Great Britain and Italy, and was on the German bestseller list for six years.
For more, visit... http://www.ken-follett.com/biography/index.html
Reading Schedule
Obtain Copy of Book by October 27
Read Prologue by November 3
Read Part One by November 30
Read Part Two by December 30
Read Part Three by January 15
(This schedule will be adjusted, if necessary, according to how quickly or slowly we absorb the text. This is the largest book club selection we have conquered so far - move at your own pace and enjoy it! Don't stress!)
Book Club Discussions
One of the best parts about the DIS Unplugged Book Club is that we can share ideas about our reading here online. In order to keep our discussions moving, I will post conversation starters about each section. Feel free to post a reply with your thoughts or other ideas you had while reading that relate to a topic of your own.
If you read ahead of the above schedule, please change the text color to white so you do not give away parts of the plot that the rest of us have not read. Remember, your participation in the discussion will make this a more rewarding experience. Post away! Don't feel as if you need to wait for me to bring up a topic to discuss it. This is your group and there isn't such a thing as a reply that is too little or too big!
Discussion Point 1 - What Do You Already Know?
After much deliberation and discussion, our next book club selection is....
Fall of Giants
by Ken Follett
Over the next several weeks, we will read and share our thoughts on the novel in this thread. Anyone who is interested in joining us is welcome. You could be a first time poster or a regular visitor to the DIS. Either way, we'd love to have you!
Please check this post in the near future for updates including a reading schedule and any other goodies that may come our way.
See you soon!
Nikki
Novel Synopsis
from Ken-Follett.com
Published worldwide on 28 September 2010, and debuted at #1 on The New York Times' hardcover fiction bestseller list!
Fall of Giants is a magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in the Century trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families – American, German, Russian, English and Welsh – as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man’s world in the Welsh mining pits…Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House…two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription and revolution…Billy’s sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London….
These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.
As always with Ken, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.
In future volumes of the Century trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves – and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Ken brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.
Official Book Trailer
US Version
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/features/fallofgiants/index.html
UK Version
http://www.ken-follett.com/video/100720_fall_of_giants_uk.html
Author Notes
Ken Follett is one of the world’s best-loved novelists. He has sold more than 100 million copies. His last book, World Without End, went straight to the No.1 position on bestseller lists in the USA, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
He burst into the book world in 1978 with Eye of the Needle, a taut and original thriller with a memorable woman character in the central role. The book won the Edgar award and became an outstanding film starring Kate Nelligan and Donald Sutherland.
He went on to write four more best-selling thrillers: Triple; The Key to Rebecca; The Man from St Petersburg; and Lie Down with Lions. Cliff Robertson and David Soul starred in the miniseries of The Key to Rebecca. In 1994 Timothy Dalton, Omar Sharif and Marg Helgenberger starred in the miniseries of Lie Down with Lions.
He also wrote On Wings of Eagles, the true story of how two employees of Ross Perot were rescued from Iran during the revolution of 1979. This book was made into a miniseries with Richard Crenna as Ross Perot and Burt Lancaster as Colonel 'Bull' Simons.
He then surprised readers by radically changing course with The Pillars of the Earth, a novel about building a cathedral in the Middle Ages. Published in September 1989 to rave reviews, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for eighteen weeks. It also reached the No. 1 position on lists in Canada, Great Britain and Italy, and was on the German bestseller list for six years.
For more, visit... http://www.ken-follett.com/biography/index.html
Reading Schedule
Obtain Copy of Book by October 27
Read Prologue by November 3
Read Part One by November 30
Read Part Two by December 30
Read Part Three by January 15
(This schedule will be adjusted, if necessary, according to how quickly or slowly we absorb the text. This is the largest book club selection we have conquered so far - move at your own pace and enjoy it! Don't stress!)
Book Club Discussions
One of the best parts about the DIS Unplugged Book Club is that we can share ideas about our reading here online. In order to keep our discussions moving, I will post conversation starters about each section. Feel free to post a reply with your thoughts or other ideas you had while reading that relate to a topic of your own.
If you read ahead of the above schedule, please change the text color to white so you do not give away parts of the plot that the rest of us have not read. Remember, your participation in the discussion will make this a more rewarding experience. Post away! Don't feel as if you need to wait for me to bring up a topic to discuss it. This is your group and there isn't such a thing as a reply that is too little or too big!
Discussion Point 1 - What Do You Already Know?
). 
That seems fast! I wish I saw it in the store. They only had the hardcover.
I miss the good old $9.99 or less for all from my Kindle 1 days. These days, I wouldn't consider reading such a weighty tome in the paper version. The Kindle is just too joyous to read and easy to carry.
)
