Kindred

Have been reading this as an audiobook, and I have learned so much, but my favourite thing is that all humans alive today have something like 3% Neanderthal DNA.

The author is also the narrator and they have brought Neanderthals to life in a way no-one has ever done before, in my experience. She talks about knapping quite a bit, coz it's an important technology, and I was amazed that I found it so engaging. I knew stone tools were very hard to make (I did 1st year archaeology at Uni and it's one of the first things they get you to try to do), but the complexity and different types of tools and the knowledge behind them, was breathtaking.

The author gives the Neanderthals a thinking, breathing, presence, and you get to learn about their world and the challenges they faced, using the latest discoveries and the new insights …

An engaging account of Neanderthal life, incorporating discoveries from recent research which shed a great deal of light on matters such as diet and weapons. I will confess the author went into far more detail than I really cared about on some topics (in particular, lithics) but others may delight themselves with such matters. My principal complaint about the book should probably be assigned to the publisher: a complete lack of notes or references. I understand that a book aimed at a lay audience might best be presented without distracting and possibly off-putting footnotes, but end-notes or even a bibliography of suggestions for further reading or an accompanying web site I think would have been appropriate.