Three Cheers for Ken Follett!

Okay, after the negative tone of yesterday's posting, some of ye socks asked what book I would actually recommend for holiday reading.

I am pleased to respond: World Without End, the recently-published sequel to Ken Follet's awesome The Pillars of the Earth.

This book is also set in the fictional medieval English village of Kingsbridge, with characters who are descended from those in TPOTE. For you genealogy addicts in the dryer, I have compiled a genogram that might help sort out the principal characters in both books:

http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~oldpinecastle/shiring.gno

If you don't have GenoPro installed on your computer, you will have to download it from http://www.genopro.com/ to make any sense of the file.

The sequel begins with four youngsters who witness a double murder in the woods beyond Kingsbridge. Caris is the daughter of the town's alderman and leading wool merchant. Gwenda is a peasant whose father brought her to town to pick pockets. And, brothers Merthin and Ralph are the sons of one of her targets.

Almost a thousand pages follow this incident, detailing the four main characters interwoven lives. I won't spoil the fun by revealing all the twists and turns their paths take. Suffice it to say, you will not be disappointed if like me you are susceptible to well-composed tales of love (won, lost, unrequited, and otherwise), violence, intrigue, plague, and human spirit.

And, no you can't "borrow" my copy, Philemon.

A Halloween Reading Recommendation

For you socks who are too mature for trick or treating or other shenanigans this evening, I would like to recommend some good leisure reading.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is an awesome book.

You may recognize the author's name from his prolific number of spy thriller novels, some of which have been made into movies like "Eye of the Needle."

But, with TPOTE, Follett broke out of that mold to try a new genre: historical fiction.

This is the tale of a medieval village in England that is transformed through the construction of a cathedral. It includes some of the most interesting characters in modern fiction. And, most importantly, it illustrates the struggle between church and state (God's law versus man's law).

Who knew?!

Anyway, it's a lot more edifying, uplifting, and thought provoking than the tripe horror movies all the cable channels will be serving up tonight.

So, check it out! (Literally! Go, check it out of the library!)