They really are a great way to cover multiple places and times in history in one book. ...Rachel was fascinating for the Midwestern Catholic girl I am because it was all about the wealthy European Jewish experience (the family business was diamonds) from late medieval era to post-WWII.

I'm not sure I'd want to do all of mine in one book--I can just see myself writing 20 books about the same family.

Unless I decide to write 20 books about the same characters.

I read one of those... I think it might have been Sarum, and it covered about... now that I think about it, I'm not sure. A few thousand years, I guess, of an area around Stonehenge (I think). I had trouble with it, though, because I kept wanting characters to reappear, which, obviously... not.

I've read that too, Emily. Rutherfurd does the same thing in London, and there's a connection between the books (the Barnikel family).

I loved Sarum, but was bored stiff by London. I think mostly because that was the order I read them in, and they're very similar.

I read about 100 pages of Sarum, and was still in the Stone Age. I put it down.

I will admit to having read War and Remembrance, however, which seems to me to be on the same "Oh, isn't it convenient that we had a family member at this amazing historical event!" level.

I think what I liked about Roots was that there were no "family member at critical juncture of history" moments, other than the general having family members who were slaves. Rewatching The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman recently had me thinking the same thing. Yes, she was connected with many black men who were politically active, but to me, that said more about the character of the woman than any freak coicidence.

I read about 100 pages of Sarum, and was still in the Stone Age. I put it down.

The Stone Age part of that book is really the only part I remember. Well, except the bit about the cathedral... which I remember because of the Stone Age figurine that gets in there.

I read an obituary today that started with "...he never met a book he didn't want to read. He even understood Dune." I don't know why reading that pleased me so.

I am trying to figure out some good books to buy for my best fried. She adores Austen and rereads her every couple of years. She loved The Alienist and The Crimson Petal and the White. She is reading Dunnett but finding it a little slow. Any ideas, oh Literistas?