Best Selling Author Releases New Book (And it's Kind of a Big Deal)

This week's column comes courtesy of Readers' Advisor David Whittingham.

In the library world, it’s a major event when Jean M. Auel comes out with a new book. Her Earth’s Children series has been wildly popular. It started back in 1980 with Clan of the Cave Bear. But unlike many authors, Auel publishes a book about once a decade (It has been nine years since her last book).  The sixth and final book in the series is The Land of Painted Caves and it was released on Tuesday.

The Earth’s Children series is consider speculative historical fiction, though pre-historical might be more fitting. The series is set 30,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic era in Europe, a time when both Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons coexisted.

In the first installment, Ayla, an orphaned Cro-Magnon girl is taken in by a tribe of Neanderthals. From there the series turns into an epic coming of age story with a lot of history, science and later, romance. The books are thick and meaty, but considering more than 30 million of Auel’s books have been sold, they are considered well worth the time.

We currently have a waiting list for The Land of Painted Caves, but the following authors write similar books that you might like.

Kathleen O’Neal Gear - The Dawn Country 

Sue Harrison - My Sister the Moon

Cecilia Holland - Kings of the North

Edward Rutherfurd - Rebels of Ireland

Judith Tarr - King's Blood

Joan Wolf - A Reluctant Queen

And, if this isn’t your thing but you are looking for a new author, stop by the Readers’ Services desk on the third floor of the Des Plaines Public Library. We’re glad to help.