Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Earth's Children series ~ by Jean M. Auel

Marg (in Australia) did a spotlight feature on the Earth's Children series for Historical Tapestry, saying,
"September 30 is the 30th anniversary of the release of The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel, the first book in the Earth's Children series."
Wikipedia, on the other hand, says the publication date in the United States was May 4, 1980.  At any rate, it's been ages since I read the first book in the series.  I have on my shelves the next two in the series, but their thickness (544 pages and 723 pages, respectively) keeps stopping me.
  1. The Clan of the Cave Bear, 1980
  2. The Valley of Horses, 1982
  3. The Mammoth Hunters, 1985
  4. The Plains of Passage, 1990
  5. The Shelters of Stone, 2002
  6. The Land of Painted Caves, 2011
The series is about Ayla, a Cro-Magnon girl adopted by Neanderthals, who later searches for her own people.  Beyond that, I'll let you read what Marg has to say.  But first, tell me how many of these you've read.

11 comments:

Marg said...

Whoops! I was basing my 30 years on a Google News alert I received saying that it was 30 September. Oh well. Other than that the content of the post doesn't change!

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Maybe it was published THERE on that date?

Helen's Book Blog said...

I remember reading these books ages ago! I loved the Clan of the Cave Bear and felt the books got progressively worse as they went along. But I definitely recommend the first book. Students in my library seem to enjoy book one as well

Shelley said...

I just listened to the first one on audio this year and really liked it! I was mostly just curious about it because I remember the buzz when I was younger. I do plan to read more.

raidergirl3 said...

I discovered the books around 2001, and finished the first four just in time for The Shelters of the Stone to be released. It couldn't have been better timing. Loved the books.

In the staff room, we called these the prehistoric sex books, to differentiate between these and the Scottish sex books, The Outlander books.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Raidergirl3, do you work in a library or a bookstore?

raidergirl3 said...

High school staff room. I teach HS physics. Teachers read a lot of books. :)

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Yes, we do, don't we? Although I usually teach Religions of the World at Chattanooga State, this semester I'm teaching two developmental writing classes.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Speaking of physics (you were, anyway), have you read Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku? I highly recommend it to you. Here's my review:

http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/01/physics-of-impossible-by-michio-kaku.html

I got to know you (and Dewey, as I said a few days ago) when we did the "Something About Me" reading challenge back in 2007:

http://somethingaboutmechallenge.blogspot.com/search?q=raidergirl3

Here's where I mentioned Dewey recently:

http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2010/09/books-of-decade-top-ten.html

Marg said...

Found where I saw the article with the date of 30
September - it was from USA Today

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Marg, it's probably accurate. My information was from Wikipedia, which is compiled by an anonymous person. At least we are sure of the year!