While I'm Recovering...

It's been over a month now, with my new titanium shoulder. Still limited to stretching exercises, but will begin the strengthening ones in a week or so. With the flu season in full swing, I chose to stay home and out of contact with germs. Besides, I can't drive quite yet, so I've had to fill my time with lots of books. I just gave away the last 6 books I've read, and have started a series of six books this week.

I'm reading Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series and fully enjoying them. Am nearly finished with the second in the series, "the Valley of Horses" and have found her writing beautifully illustrating the ancient history of humans in a lush, full, and vibrant way. I'm not terribly interested in history by itself, but historical novels do bring meaning to history for me. Auel's attention to detail is, on occasion, a tad overwhelming. She is especially fond of plant life and their healing properties and she goes into great depth describing the plants, the environments the plants reside in, the time of year to harvest the medicinal parts of the plants, and the multiple uses for each of the plant parts, harvesting methods, and appropriate way to use each part in healing. All of that is fascinating, even though I'm not a healer of that type.

Of course, the meat of the stories revolve around early people, their way of life, cooking, tool making, and surviving in earliest times. Aurel' personalizes each character with rich descriptions while giving them names that are somewhat mysterious, since they are not of our own or other English speaking cultures. I'm sure many of you have already read this series as it's been out for quite awhile. My friends recommended this author probably 15+ years ago! At least I finally followed the recommendations and am now fully involved!

If you haven't read Jean M. Aurel's books, I highly recommend them!