It's finally here - I can't wait! The new Jean Auel book!

One of my all time favorite book series is the Clan of the Cave Bear Series by Jean Auel. If you have never read these before I highly recommend them. Start with the first one and work your way through them. They are a series of books about the life of a young woman named Ayla (who could've been the first real Cowgirl EVER) and the story is set in early human history during the tail end of a gap in time between ice ages. These books, along with being a good story, are crammed full of all kinds of well researched information about how pre-historic humans lived, they are even edited and used in some countries as text books on early human culture.

It's starts with this one. The Clan of the Cave Bear (photos from amazon.com of which I am an associate of and authorized to use these photos).

And then the series progresses as follows...

The Valley of Horses is one of my favorites while the first book is awesome this one is really good too, and because of the involvement of horses I suppose I liked it even better! Jean spared no expense at researching this book and even her knowledge of horse behavior surprised even me.

The Mammoth Hunters is good as well, although not one of my favorites, but there is still some really cool things that happen in this book and its definitely worth reading.

The Plains of Passage is my most favorite. In this book I feel that Jean Auel's writing skills really shine the brightest. It's a journey for the reader's mind as well as the characters in the book, its interesting - emotionally moving and just fun to read.

The Shelters of Stone is probably my least favorite of all the books simply because, one, I think it followed such an awesome book and I was expecting more of that. And two because its about the complex social society of early humans, and at times gets a tad redundant and boring. However, really cool things happen in this book as well - and it is worth the purchase and read.

 AND THIS, The Land of Painted Caves, would be the new one, due out at the end of March - available for pre-purchase through amazon.com right now.

Originally Jean stated that when she went to research and write the Clan of the Cave Bear book she ended up with enough material for not one book, but 6 books. So everyone has been thinking all this time that this was the final book - but lately she has been going around doing promo interviews for The Land of Painted Caves, and has been talking about a 7th and final book - so I suppose we will all have to wait another 10 years to see how the story ends.

For now I am happy to be able to read again about Ayla and her adventures. I have read and re-read the series probably about 5 times and when I finish reading the series I almost feel kinda sad because reading that much about a certain story line and a group of people, you get to know the characters in the books, and they become almost like friends. So this new book is like getting to find out what all my prehistoric friends have been up to. 

There was at one time a Clan of the Cave Bear Movie, but please, do yourself a favor and read the book first. The movie is not real true to the book, the acting is not real great, but it does bring to life and put faces on the characters which I really liked. 

PLEASE NOTE: I don't recommend the the movie or series for younger children (I don't care how "mature" they are. Younger kids should not have to process that stuff, just the way I feel) - there is some violence and sex. I started reading these books in High School and was mature enough then to understand what was going on enough not to be shocked or scared by it (don't let that spook you though, the violence is fairly limited in each book).