Preview: Meet Your Hosts

Steph: You found Prehistoric Book Club. Set down your hand axe, light a fire in your hearth, and settle in with Steph and Cat for a close read of Clan of the Cave Bear. Welcome to Prehistoric Book Club. I'm Steph.

Kat: And I'm Kat.

Steph: And we're your hosts. We are two old friends, as in we have been friends for a long time, but I guess we are also two old friends.

Kat: Let's just say we remember dial tone phones. They were attached to the wall. We're diving deep into a book series we both love, Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel. Starting with the first book in the series, Clan of the Cave Bear, you've probably read it. It sold over 6 million copies in North America alone. Or maybe you remember your mom or your aunt or your older sister reading it. We've both read it more times than we can count. And for this podcast, we're reading it again and talking about it chapter by chapter.

Steph: Yeah, it's like a book club. Or maybe it's more like one of those rewatch podcasts where you go back to shows like The OC And Felicity. In each episode, we recap the action of a couple of chapters, so if you haven't read the books in a while, you can still keep up. And then we talk about what we noticed as lovers of good writing and great character development.

Kat: And we look back at the research the author did back in the late 70s, what she was reading about Neanderthals and how they lived.

Steph: And then we also look at how that science has moved forward since then. What's changed since these books were written, and what did they get right against all odds?

Kat: Everyone. Not everyone. But this series is generally thought of as historical fiction, and that's where you'll likely find it in most bookstores. Though Jean herself considered them to be science fiction, just playing with different sciences than we're accustomed to and reading them through that lens. She's not wrong. If you like a sweeping epic with incredible world building, lots of family and extended family drama, a fierce female lead who's full of innovation and incredible courage, then you probably already know these books. If you don't, you're in for a treat. Over the course of the series, we're going to see different models of leadership and community building. Some we'll love, others not so much. It's also set in the Stone Age, at a time of great planetary upheaval and climate change, and not long before the massive extinction of the megafauna and the Neanderthals. There's a lot here about how to have survival in your spirit, something we all need a little more of these days.

Steph: So yeah, think of us as your wise Gen X crone's hanging out in your local bookshop, pressing a little piece of the old wisdom into your hands before you leave. If you haven't read these books before, you are about to meet one of the most charismatic and winning protagonists I think ever created. And to be honest, I'm a little bit jealous because I can't even remember what it was like to meet Ayla for the first time.

Kat: It's a little like discovering an ancestor who has every quality you've ever wanted to discover in yourself.

Steph: I think the best way to engage with this podcast is probably to read ahead of us and even, you know, finish the book in a few days if you're that kind of read. We do spoil things sometimes. After all, it's been 46 years since publication, and I think a lot of the discussions work best when you already know the material.

Kat: So get your copy of the book now and start reading and meet us back here on Tuesday, September 1st for the first handful of episodes, and after that we'll release weekly on Tuesdays. If you need a copy of Clan of the Cave Bear, check your local independent bookstore or used bookstore, or visit me at Beggars Banquet Books in downtown Gananoqua, Ontario. We also ship right across Canada. You can find us online@beggarsbanketbooks.com if audiobooks are your jam, I highly recommend Libro FM a portion of all their sales go to support the independent bookstore of your choice, and in a few months they'll have ebooks too.

Steph: Well, I can't wait to get started releasing these episodes, so I'll see you here on September 1st, and all of you out there listening as well, I hope.

Kat: Please, yeah, give us a listen. We think we're great.

Steph: We're very impressed with ourselves.

Kat: We are.