The Giver was on my list as well. Loved that book.
Grace in the Wilderness by Aranka Siegel is another good one. Very thought provoking, told in the view of a teenage girl surviving the Holocaust, being imprisoned in camps, and then the years following the liberation.
Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse. It's a children's historical novel, but another one that stuck out to me.
“America,†the girl repeated. “What will you do there?â€
I was silent for a little time.
“I will do everything there,†I answered.
Rifka knows nothing about America when she flees from Russia with her family in 1919. But she dreams she will at last be safe from the Russian soldiers and their harsh treatment of the Jews in the new country. Throughout her journey, Rifka carries with her a cherished volume of poetry by Alexander Pushkin. In it, she records her observations and experiences in the form of letters to her beloved cousin she has left behind. Strong-hearted and determined, Rifka must endure a great deal: humiliating examinations by doctors and soldiers, deadly typhus, separation from all she has ever known and loved, murderous storms at sea—and as if this is not enough, the loss of her glorious golden hair. And even if she does make it to America, she’s not sure America will have her.
Earth's Children Series including...(yes, in THIS ORDER)
The Clan of the Cave Bear
The Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
The Plains of Passage
The Shelters of Stone
The Land of Painted Caves
I found these books browsing my school library, and I'm pretty sure they were NOT supposed to be there! Some interesting caveman smut and all. Still interesting none the less, the entire story is set 30,000 ago, in the last Ice Age when there were more than one "type" of humans wandering about. Interesting views on the conflicts between them, the flora, fauna, and it all really just revolves around the life of one girl/woman Ayla. This kinda covers it, really:
As a whole, the series is a tale of personal discovery: coming-of-age, invention, cultural complexities, and, beginning with the second book, explicit romantic sex. It tells the story of Ayla, an orphaned Cro-Magnon girl who is adopted and raised by a tribe of Neanderthals and who later embarks on a journey to find the Others (her own kind), meeting along the way her romantic interest and supporting co-protagonist, Jondalar.
The story arc in part comprises a travel tale, in which the two lovers journey from the region of Ukraine to Jondalar's home in what is now France, along an indirect route up the Danube River valley. In the third and fourth works, they meet various groups of Cro-Magnons and encounter their cultural contexts, including bona-fide technologies. The couple finally return to southwestern France and Jondalar's people in the fifth novel. The series includes a highly-detailed focus on botany, herbology, herbal medicine, archaeology and anthropology, but it also features substantial amounts of romance, coming-of-age crises, and — employing significant literary license — the attribution of certain advances and inventions to the protagonists.
In addition, Auel's series incorporates a number of recent archeological and anthropological theories. It also suggested the notion of Sapiens-Neanderthal interbreeding. Although in recent years the sequencing of Neandertal mitochondrial DNA first indicated that it was highly improbable that Neandertals contributed to the human genome,[1] further research of the human genome has revealed conclusively that Neanderthals did in fact interbreed with non-African humans.[2](Wiki)
I personally loved the books (caveman smut aside), but I wouldn't recommend them to the age I was reading them at! :rofl1:
Circles of Stone is similar to the Earth's Children series, but probably more up most people's alley. It tells the story, not so much description, travels through the ages, less awkward caveman sex, etc, etc. Much more spiritual.
Evoking the narrative sweep of The Clan of the Cave Bear and the spiritual resonance of The Celestine Prophecy, Joan Dahr Lambert creates an extraordinary novel of prehistoric life...
In this compelling adventure, the stories of three wise women -- each called Zena, yet born thousands of generations apart -- unfold in a compassionate and moving saga that celebrates the remarkable growth of the human spirit.
Ranging from the African savanna more than one million years ago to the fertile shores of the Red Sea to the magnificent limestone caves of the Pyrenees mountains -- where the first artists painted the firelit wonders of their existence -- scene after breathtaking scene draws us into their lives as they negotiate a world they do not understand. In this world, an ostrich eggshell becomes a wondrous device for carrying water and the earth's upheavals reveal a lush, lifesaving oasis to a starving tribe.
With striking detail, Circles of Stone reinvents the incredible lives of our distant ancestors. As the human heart and soul emerge in a volatile dance of experience, language, and meaning, Circles of Stone becomes an unforgettable, supremely entertaining read.
Well, I guess it's obvious what sort of books I enjoy. ALL the historical fiction.
