The Last Matriarch

Sharman Russell has returned to what she does best: write about the human condition in beautiful, poetic prose with humor, generosity, and a candor that makes you feel she was put on earth to express your thoughts for you. I wondered how she knew all my secrets as I read the story of an independent, though not stereotypical, woman in a tribe 12,000 years ago. She reveals a woman's perspective on her role in the group, her husbands, her children, her in-laws. Never saccharine-sweet, never a political diatribe; just clean, pure prose about a woman and her prehistoric neighborhood. I recommend this book especially to mothers, but I think men will appreciate it, too, for the light it sheds on "what women want". Whether you care about what happened to large land mammals or not, you will remember this book for its poetry and humanity.