For the book group at our library, we met on Saturday, April 11, 2026 to talk about the book The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice by Simon Parkin and published in October, 2024. I found a fabulous interview with Simon Parkin on YouTube.
Lyn Buchmann is a member of our book club. She had a scheduling conflict when we met on Saturday. However, she submitted this heartfelt reaction to the book which I will feature here:
Jill Mahlik who is a librarian here attended the book group on April 11, 2026. We were discussing how impactful it is to learn the stories of the ordinary citizens who are impacted by war (s). Whether it is a work of fiction or non-fiction, these types of books build empathy and understanding in us, the readers. Jill Mahlik recommended the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett. This was new to us. The exchange of recommended books is a wonderful by-product of book club!
Century Trilogy by Ken Follett
Fall of Giants
Follows the fates of five interrelated families–American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh–as they move through the dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Winter of the World
This novel continues the stories of five interrelated families who struggle with social, political, and economic turmoil in the mid-twentieth century, during which they witness the rise of Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War, and the horrors of World War II. It picks up right where the first book left off, and continues up to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs. Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until she commits a deed of great courage and heartbreak. American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific. English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism. Daisy Peshkov, a driven American social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set, until the war transforms her life, not just once but twice, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war, but the war to come. These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as their experiences illuminate the cataclysms that marked the century. From the drawing rooms of the rich to the blood and smoke of battle, their lives intertwine, propelling the reader into dramas of ever increasing complexity.
Edge of Eternity
East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department, and finds himself in the middle not only of the seminal events of the civil rights battle, but a much more personal battle of his own. Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he’d imagined. Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes a prime agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tania, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw and into history.