Finished: Beyond the Sea of Ice (First American Series Book #1)

Beyond the Sea of Ice by William Sarabande (Book #1 of the First American Series)

I give this book 5 stars (Loved it)

I have read books 1-4 of this series before. I recently found them in a closet and wanted to read them again.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of things that I had forgotten happened. The last half of the book really kept me wanting to keep reading. Not that the first half was boring or anything.

If you enjoyed the Earth Children Series by Jean M Auel, you will like this series!

Here's the synopsis:
When humans first walked the world, when nature ruled the earth and sky, a proud tribe is threatened by a series of natural disasters.  A bold young hunter named Torka, who lost his wife and child to a killer mammoth, leads the survivors over the glacial tundra on a desperate eastward odyssey to the save their clan.  Through attacks of savage animals and encounters with strangers not unlike themselves, they must brave the hardships of a foreign landscape and learn to live in an exotic new world of mystery and danger.  Toward the land where the sun rises they must travel.Beyond The Sea Of Ice,  toward a new day for their clan--and an awesome future for the American.

Finished: The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M Auel

This is the 6th and last book of this (AWESOME) series. I was so excited to finally get it. I am only about a chapter in, but it's already got me hooked.

I read some reviews for this book and a lot of people didn't like it. I am going to form my own opinion though. I have been waiting for this book for a long time.

Finished!: After reading the book (a lot of which I skipped through*) I was dissapointed. It was nice that the series ended, but it was not very thrilling. I kept hoping for something suspensful to happen, but it was pretty dull. The end of the book really got me angry. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I will be brief. Ayla's husband really turns into a jerk. I could not believe it. Other than that though, it was a pretty tame book.

* The reason I skipped through a lot if it was because;
1. There was a lot of telling what happened in the last 5 books. Since I already knew what happened, I really didn't need to be reminded of it (over and over and over)

2. The descriptions of things just got too long and drawn out. I really don't need a paragraph on how a blade of grass looks.

Here's the synopsis:
Thirty thousand years in the making and 31 years in the writing, Auel's sixth and final volume in the Earth's Children series (The Clan of the Cave Bear; etc.) finds Cro-Magnon Ayla; her mate, Jondalar; and their infant daughter, Jonayla, settling in with the clan of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonaii. Animal whisperer and medicine woman Ayla is an acolyte in training to become a full-fledged Zelandoni (shaman) of the clan, but all is not rosy in this Ice Age setting; there are wild animals to face and earthquakes to survive, as well as a hunter named Balderan, who has targeted Ayla for death, and a potential cave-wrecker named Marona. While gazing on an elaborate cave painting (presumably, the Lascaux caverns in France), Ayla has an epiphany and invents the concept of art appreciation, and after she overdoses on a hallucinogenic root, Ayla and Jondalar come to understand how much they mean to one another, thus giving birth to another concept—monogamy.

Here is my previous blog post with the other 5 books: http://glueybluey-bookblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/recently-re-read-earth-children-series.html

Finished: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

This is a really good book. I'm not normally into murder mysteries, but this one has caught my attention.
It is a very good read.

When I started I didn't know anything about Aspergers. The author did a great job explaining it.

Synopsis:

Jacob Hunt is a teenager: brilliant at maths, wicked sense of humour, extraordinarily organised, hopeless at reading social cues. And Jacob has Asperger's. He is locked in his own world - aware of the world outside, and wanting to make a connection. Jacob tries to be like everyone else, but doesn't know how. When his tutor is found dead, all the hallmark behaviours of Jacob's syndrome - not looking someone in the eye, odd movements, inappropriate actions - start looking a lot like guilt to the police. And Jacob's mother must ask herself the hardest question in the world: is her child capable of murder?