Word is, via Galley Cat, that Oprah’s next book club pick is Ken Follett’s best-selling Pillars of the Earth, which is about the building of a cathedral in the 12th century. If that’s true, quite a departure for her. I had always harbored a secret wish that she would, at some point, select In This House of Brede – far-fetched, perhaps, but I actually thought it would be a decent fit for the audience. From the AP:

Follett, a 58-year-old native of Cardiff, Wales, is famous for spectacular thrillers such as “Lie Down With Lions,” “Eye of the Needle” and “World Without End,” published last month, and a sequel to “The Pillars of the Earth,” which came out in 1989.
Follett has called “The Pillars of the Earth,” a love story set in England in the 12th century, his favorite novel. According to his Web site, the book still sells around 100,000 copies a year in the United States alone.
“My publishers were a little nervous about such a very unlikely subject but paradoxically, it is my most popular book,” Follett writes on his Web site.
“It’s also the book I’m most proud of. It recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village and the people who live there. You feel you know the place and the people as intimately as if you yourself were living there in the middle ages.”