Friday Favorites from the Past : Clan of the Cave Bears

Oh I remember being almost repulsed when I first came across this book. My neighbor (the same one who introduced me to Confederacy of Dunces) was positively raving about this one, and I thought she was positively raving mad! I could not imagine how reading about cavemen could possibly be the least bit interesting. I was wrong! It's been years since I read this gigantic chunk of fictionalized anthropology and fell in love with a little girl named Ayla and cheered, cried, and sighed my way through her adventures living in the world of Neanderthals. Jean Auel's research into Stone age tool making, living skills, societal culture and norms is world renowned and exquisitely easy to read. If you haven't read Clan of the Cave Bears, don't pass it up. I still see copies at book sales all the time, so it's readily available. To make it even more fun, this was the first of 5 books in the "Earth's Children" series. So look for Valley of the Horses, (a fascinating account of how man might have tamed these beautiful animals), Mammoth Hunters (this one I had to suspend some belief on but I think the science is still accepted - I'm not the expert tho), Plains of Passage, and Shelters of Stone. Each one can be read on its own, but read in succession, they're really fun. Enjoy your weekend. I think I'm going to spend the 4th quietly re-reading the U.S. Constitution.