Book Review - The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M Auel

The third book of the best-selling Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel picks up immediately after the end of the second novel The Valley of the Horses. The heroine of the series, Ayla, and her new lover Jondalar have just encountered a band of people whose identity is based on mammoth hunting. The meeting is shocking for Ayla because until this point in her seventeen years of life, she has never seen another living human except for Jondalar. From the age of five, Ayla had been raised by a cousin species of humans, known in the novel as Clan that are presumably Neanderthal people.

Ayla's upbringing leaves her without any cultural knowledge of how to live among her own kind. Her first experiences among the humans are bewildering and frightening. The group of mammoth hunters who take in Ayla and Jondalar designate their home as the Lion Camp, and Ayla takes this as a good sign because her totem animal is the cave lion that acts as her spiritual guide in life.

The people of the Lion Camp are also captivated by Ayla because she is beautiful, skilled as a healer, and rides a horse. The author does an excellent job in the novel of imagining the beginnings of animal domestication and how people might react to seeing for the first time a horse that obeys a human. Auel's approach to the process of animal domestication is plausible, and the way her narrative demonstrates the benefits that the animals brought to humans is compelling. Ayla's horse allows her to scout prey for the hunters more quickly and the horse helps to carry more meat back to the camp.

In this third novel, Auel gets to delve into an illuminating exploration of how early people might have lived upon the ice age steppes of Europe and Central Asia. Through Ayla's eyes that know only the culture of the Clan with its strict gender roles and unquestioning obedience to a group leader, the culture of her own people presents an astounding contrast. All that she was prohibited from doing among the Clan, Ayla is free to do among the mammoth hunters. She can hunt; speak her mind, laugh, and cry. She is also introduced to art, music and communicating with written symbols. These abstract concepts were unknown to the Clan. Throughout the narrative, the ability of humans to experiment with new ideas and innovate were presented in contrast to the Clan ways that are based on memory. Among the Clan, things are done as they were always done. They are not questioned and as a result they are not improved. This is not to say that the Clan lacked extraordinary skills. The healing arts Ayla learned among the Clan are highly effective, which brings her respect among the mammoth hunters. However, her association with the Clan is also controversial because most humans consider the Clan to be animals and call them by the derogatory term flatheads. The prejudice against the Clan is a source of conflict between Ayla and many characters in the novel.

Auel presents the mammoth hunter society as having looser gender roles, which she illustrates to be a strength. Because women and men can cross over gender lines to cook, hunt, gather, butcher, and so forth, they are more productive because everyone can pitch in on certain tasks when needed. The cooperative mindset of the prehistoric people is also an important theme of the novel. Although people certainly have their own interests and talents, they exist within a society that tacitly expects everyone to work together for survival.

Because readers of The Mammoth Hunters will be coming from the perspective of an individualistic and patriarchal culture, they will find this novel especially enthralling as it presents a society that respects and values women, bases hereditary on matrilineal descent, and depends on cooperative efforts. However, the prehistoric people in the novel are not selfless communists. They seek to improve their status and collect more valuable goods. They trade in possessions and skills and frequently gamble.

Amid the finely detailed portrayal of prehistoric human society, the gripping emotional drama of Ayla commands the narrative as always. A wrenching love triangle emerges among Ayla and Jondalar and her new suitor Ranec. As this romantic storm brews, most readers will likely wish for Ayla to stick by Jondalar, but because Ayla is such a endearing and powerful character, you, like me, will probably decide that you will follow Ayla wherever she travels. Being mad at her is impossible. She is a strikingly vivid character, both larger than life and totally familiar. Ayla represents a literary triumph for Auel, who I believe has delivered yet another brilliant novel. I praise Auel's writing so highly because her characters became real for me. I think about them when I am not reading the books. I worry about them. I wish I could talk to them. In The Mammoth Hunters, Auel has created that most blissful of reading experiences: one that is emotionally tangible.

For readers who like adventure, drama, romance, powerful spirituality, and contemplating the mysterious origins of humanity, The Mammoth Hunters is highly recommended. I rate it five tusks of mammoth ivory.

This book review was written by Tracy Falbe, who is the author of The Rys Chronicles. She invites book lovers to visit http://www.braveluck.com and discover the pleasures of epic fantasy. Book I of her series is a free fantasy ebook.

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How to Make a Scrap Book

Three years ago, I decided to do something with all the "stuff" I had saved from my children's school days. My daughter was 26 and my son was 30. They were married and had families of their own. Someone invited me to a Creative Memory party, and I was hooked. I don't think they knew I had saved their treasures. Some days when I missed having them close by; I would go through the boxes. I had made a lot of mistakes in my life but saving all of their collectables was one of the best things I ever did.

If I can do this, anyone can. I am not particularly creative or artistic. This is how I completed the process. It's time consuming but actually very easy.

The first decision is deciding what kind of book you want to make and who will be featured in the book. Some scrapbooks are basically like photo albums with comments. Others are filled with treasured items. Some people work on their books a few pages at the time, delaying final completion until a certain event like graduation. Others like me put one together in a few months.

Once you have decided on the type of book, you should know how many pictures and how much memorabilia you want to include in the book. Most of the books are large so you want to make sure you have enough to fill it. The amount of items you have will determine the size of book you decide to make. They range from very small to very large.

It is now time to go shopping for the scrapbook and other supplies needed to complete the job. Supplies can be purchased from specialty stores, craft stores, discount stores or independent dealers such as Creative Memories. You do want something that will last for a long time.

After you have purchased the supplies, sort out the pictures and collectables. You will need a lot of room to do this. Once you know exactly what you have it is easier to decide how it will be arranged. I did mine from birth to current time. I have seen scrapbooks that focused on one life event. Anything you have pictures for could be turned into a book.

When you have decided on the order, it is time to start preparing the pages. There are pre-made borders and artwork you can use or some people draw their own. Usually the pages have a theme, such as first birthday. To fit more pictures on the page you will have to do some cutting to eliminate unimportant backgrounds. This is known as cropping.

After you have the items and pictures cut out, you then glue or tape them to the page. You want to secure them so they will not move. You may want to add more borders, artwork, or comments. I added some of my memories from the time periods involved.

You can utilize both sides of the page, as I did, to increase the amount of space or use the front side only. When you are finished with the page cover it with a plastic, protective covering. These are hard to get off once they are on, so make sure you are finished with that page before applying.

Special effects like locks of hair or the first tooth can fit into pockets that you attach to a page. You can also purchase sheets with pouches made to hold items like report cards and valentines. I even included the outfits my children came home from the hospital in.

After you have completed all the pages and covered them with the protective covering, it is time to put them inside a binder. The binders come in different sizes and they are adjustable. It's a little tricky getting the binder to fit together but with a little effort it can be done.

Most scrapbooks have a place in the front cover to write who the book is to and the date it was completed. It's important to note this. The books can be heavy once completed. I recommend purchasing a tote bag just for the scrapbook. This protects the book and makes it easier to transport.

The last step is to give the book to the person it was intended for. I promise it will be one of the greatest gifts they ever receive. Who would not want to receive a memory book devoted totally to them?

The biggest mistake I made when making the first two scrapbooks was not allowing enough time to complete the project. I had planned to give them as Christmas gifts but did not purchase my supplies until the fall. It takes hours to go through stuff, cut the pictures, arrange them on the page, glue them, cover them, etc. I stayed up all night several times so that I could complete the project on time.

Making the scrapbooks was a very positive experience for me. It allowed me to go back and relive a lot of memories I had forgotten. Sometimes I cried but other times I laughed. I picked up the phone to call old friends. It made me more aware of how fast life goes by and how easy it is to lose touch with people in our lives.

My children were overjoyed with their gifts. For them to be able to go back and read report cards and old love letters was priceless. In some ways it helped them pull their childhood together - some of the missing pieces finally made sense. They talk about the day they will share these with their children. Both of them agreed the scrapbooks were the best gift they had ever received. For me, it was the best gift I ever gave.

I am a personal life coach, writer and speaker. As the owner of Life Transitions, I specialize in helping the abused rebuild their lives.

I am passionate about women's issues and especially enjoy helping them develop their full potential. Life gives us many chances to start over again, like a cat with nine lives. For more information see my Web Site http://www.margaretnortonlifecoach.com Blog with me about abuse at http://www.whentiesbreak.blog.com

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E-Book Cover Maker

E-Book covers are images containing a 3D representation of a book, folder, binder, etc., that are frequently used by authors, marketers and publishers of E-Books or other intangible (non-physical) products such as ezines, downloadable reports, private members' sites, etc.

There are a lot of different ways that you can use these graphics. Here are a few ideas:

1. You can use them on your web site as an illustration or just to jazz it up.

2. You can use them as part of header graphics on your web site.

3. If you have several different E-Books or intangible products, you can allow visitors to choose between them by clicking on the appropriate E-Book cover. You should remember however that some visitors may struggle to read small graphics, so it's a good idea to provide some text links as well, or at least some mouse-over text explaining the graphics.

4. You can use them in advertising materials - for example, as part of your banner advert designs.

5. You can use them to advertise other people's E-Books. For example if you are an affiliate of an E-Book seller, and that seller doesn't have a cover graphic, you could create a cover to use on your site or as part of your own home-made banners. In this situation, it's polite to ask the E-Book seller if they are okay with you doing this before starting.

6. You can use them in your own products. For example if creating an E-Book or report, you could put the E-Book cover graphic on the first page or in page headers.

7. If you use a E-Book compiler that supports splash graphics (e.g. Activ E-Book Compiler), you could use the cover as your splash graphics , or incorporate into a larger splash graphic design. (A splash graphic is graphic which is shown when an E-Book or program is loading).

8. You can create E-Book covers for others. There's a lot of demand for E-Book covers, so you create covers which you sell, or in return for a link to your web site. You may be able to find people who need this service on sites like Elance, RentAcoder or perhaps internet marketing discussion forums.

By S. Tanna. Easy-to-use and affordable software for creating your own ebook covers - http://www.coverfactory.com/ - Create as many high-quality box shots and ebook covers as you want! Quickly!

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