50bookchallenge, 15000pages

[gwynhefar]

Book #28 -- Jean M. Auel, The Valley of Horses (Earth's Children, Book Two), 544 pages.

Book #29 -- Jean M. Auel, The Mammoth Hunters (Earth's Children, Book Three), 688 pages.

Book #30 -- Jean M. Auel, The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children, Book Four), 784 pages.

Book #31 -- Jean M. Auel, The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, Book Five), 800 pages.

What can I say? These are my version of the trashy Harlequin romance.


Book #32 -- Kristina McBride, The Tension of Opposites, 279 pages.

Two years ago, when they were both fourteen, Tessa's best friend Noelle disappeared. Since then, Tessa has lived her life on hold, eschewing any normal teenage experience which feels to her like a betrayal of Noelle's memory. Then comes the phone call. Noelle has been found. But the girl calling herself Elle is nothing like the Noelle Tessa once knew. Can Tessa help her best friend without losing any more pieces of herself, or is Elle's risky behaviour going to drag them both down?

This is an incredible book about how people react to and recover from traumatic events, and the effect that process has on the people closest to them.

Progress toward goals: 129/365 = 35.3%

Books: 32/100 = 32.0%

Pages: 11187/30000 = 37.3%

2011 Book List

cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven

Comments

[wyyknot.livejournal.com]

Funny - I've re-read the Auel books this year. Done them on audio actually on my long drives to and from work. I have Painted Caves in hand but haven't had time to start it yet. I still like Valley of the Horses best - but Shelters of Stone isn't bad. Plains of Passage I still find rather boring.

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Valley of the Horses is my favourite, followed by The Mammoth Hunters. You're right about Plains of Passage - a few good scenes but overall it left me yawning. Shelter's of Stone was ok. I'm interested in the new one but there's a long list of holds on it in the local library.

Earth's Children

[polycarpa.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say they were all that trashy! I think they're pretty great. They perhaps could have done with less graphic sex, but you have to more or less expect that in any modern fiction, at least not be surprised or shocked by it. But then I'm the kind of person who really enjoys several pages on the proper way to chip an arrowhead, and for that matter, being Asperger's, speculation on the effect of brain physiology on personality, brain function, and culture.

Re: Earth's Children

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Well, the flintknapping and spear-making got old for me after awhile, but you're right - I did like the speculation on language and culture, etc. I think the graphic sex always stands out for me mostly because my grandmother gave me the books when I was 16 saying she thought I'd like them. Apparently she "forgot" about all the sex :)