Fall of Giants (Ken Follett)

Title: Fall of Giants
Author: Ken Follett
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 850
Source: Book club borrowed
Genre: Historical Fiction
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Fall of Giants is an epic novel spanning 13 years from 1911 to 1924. It follows a group of intertwining families as they live through the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the fight for women's suffrage. Billy and Ethel Williams are a brother and sister living in Aberowen, Wales. Billy starts work at the coal mine at thirteen as his father did before him and Ethel works as a housekeeper at the Earl's estate. Lord Fitzherbert and his wife, a Russian princess, have grown up with all the privileges that their titles provide. Lady Maud (Fitz's sister) is a staunch activist and soon finds herself falling for a German aristocrat, Walter von Ulrich. Gus Dewar is an American who carves out a career working in the president Woodrow Wilson's campaign while Lev & Grigori Peshkov are two orphaned Russian brothers living in Petrograd and trying to find a way out of Russia and to America.

This was a fascinating work of fiction that interwove historical figures and events with fictional characters and stories while portraying a real sense of the political motives of the war. There were plenty of fascinating parts of this novel that drew an incredible picture of the time.

At the very start of the novel we are introduced to the Welsh coal mines and the lives of the miners who spend so much of it underground. I found this part of the novel really well written and incredibly interesting. Also the early parts of the novel depict the lives of Lord Fitzherbert and his family and the way of life of the English aristocracy. I'm currently watching Downtown Abbey which I absolutely adore and which is also set in the same time and centered around a Lord's estate. Since that TV show depicts uniforms and clothes in such particular fashion I was able to more easily picture and interpret scenes in this book. It really enhanced it for me.

One of the things that I loved about this novel is that you are able to see stories from many different countries involved in the war. It clearly explains political motives and events sequences that lead up to the countries declaring war and their agendas as the years go by. But because you are so invested in the characters you can see it from all points of view. I thought that Follett did an incredible job of providing an interesting mix of politics and war strategy with the personal effects of war on characters in the novel.

It is a large book and some people will be put off by that. But I highly recommend you give this book a try. I'm quite surprised that it didn't seem to get as good reviews as his other books (Pillars of the Earth and World Without End). Yes I loved those books but this one is different, set at a completely different time and should be reviewed in it's own context. This is much slower pace as it delves a lot deeper into politics and the like so if you're not into history you may find this a little too slow for your liking. But personally I think this novel was fantastic and well worth a read.

Read It

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

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New Look

I felt my original design was too cluttered and I haven't always loved the colours so I've switched over to a much cleaner design and layout.

It's quite funny, switching my blog design feels a little like changing hair colour. It gives you a real boost.

Hope you like it!

In Defense of Food (Michael Pollan)

Title: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Author: Michael Pollan
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 201
Source: Library
Genre: Non-Fiction, Food
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I didn't know too much about this book. I'd seen it on a couple of blogs and so decided to grab it from the local library as I'm always keen to try new and interesting non-fiction. I'm happy to say that this one didn't disappoint. With it's manifesto "Eat Foods, Not Much, Mostly Plants", In Defense of Food is an investigation into the downfalls of the western diet and how we can turn our backs on the now over-abundance of artificial processed foods that have become the staple of the western diet.

Although the book is specifically targeted at the American diet there is a resonance in all western countries as you can certainly see similarities with the diets in Britain, New Zealand (and I would assume Australia although I have never lived there only visited).

I'll be honest, there is nothing ground breaking in this book. All of the suggestions towards the end of the book aren't new and are certainly mantras that I already try and live by, for example, don't eat foods whose ingredients are not recognisable or don't eat anything that doesn't go off.

But I think the reason I liked this book so much is that it wasn't a diet book which told you to eat this and not eat that. It was an investigation into the western diet and it's effects, the history of it, what happens when other cultures start to adopt the western diet and most interestingly the concept of 'nutritionism' where we have become so consumed with individual nutrients (folic acid, vit C, omega 3s) that we have forgotten to take nutrients in the context of the food we eat them. In the words of Pollen 'food is more than the sum of it's nutrients'.

It really is a fascinating book and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the history of food, or wants an informative look into the western diet.

Interestingly I went to a raising chickens course last night run by my local community which encourages more sustainable urban living and the woman who ran the course was talking about chicken feed. One of the things she mentioned was white bread and white rice. She explained that they were just fillers and had no nutrition and that humans shouldn't eat so much of it let alone give it to your chickens. She explained how chickens were omnivores and needed a variety of food but mainly they needed a variety of plants, worms, bugs and whole grains. And immediately I thought of this book as Pollen also touches on the issue with industrialised food production where our animals are fed a limited diet which in turn reduces the nutrition that they can provide us too; either through their eggs or through their meat. It was a real eye opener to see some of the things discussed in the book in practice in the community.

Read It

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

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November New Releases

Good reads have posted their new releases for November

NEW RELEASES BY GENRE

fiction

historical fiction

The cover for A Love by any Measure is beautiful and I tend to love novels set in Ireland. It's such a stunning place. Plus The Time in Between looks really interesting! So I've added those two to my list. How about you? Any you'd like to read?

Friday Music

 
You really can't go past the original, Adele is stunning and this is one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard. But this rendition is really well done.