So… finally my uni exams (or exam, to be exact) is over for this year. I’ve been reading about the great fathers and mothers of media research such as Lazarsfeld, Merton, Adorno, Hertzog and Fiske for a loooong time now, and it’s great to finally be able to put those books away and instead pull out some good old-fashion chick-lit!
I have just started re-reading Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children novels. These novels are about a young girl, Ayla who lived during the stone age. Sounds like a bore, you say? Well, it’s not. The stories of Ayla begins when she’s a litte girl, who’s family has been killed. The Cro-Magnon girl is adopted by a group of neanderthals, and is raised by them. It’s a story about feeling different and left out, but still being able to see the similarities between the different creatures on this earth. The author of the books has done a lot of research on the era in which the books take place, and describes aspects of Ayla’s life such as hunting, craftsmanship, clothing, family relations and so on in great detail, which makes the story come to life in a very entertaining way.
The Mammoth Hunters, 3rd book of the series
There are some things I do not apprechiate very much about this series, though. For one there’s a loooooot of romance, especcially in the later books, when Ayla starts hanging out with men of her own kind. This takes up to much space in the plot, and becomes a bit dreary after a while.
Also, it is a bit annoying to read over and over what a bright and brilliant person Ayla is and how everyone loves her, and, not to forget, how many things she has invented. Ayla tames horses and wolves before anyone else thought of doing so, she thinks of new ways to hunt, new ways to make clothes, new weapons, new kinds of medicine…yeah yeah, she’s smart, we got it!
Even so, I do recommend these books, they’re a fun read and you learn a lot of stuff about an era long before our own.
