About this title: Meditative essays from novelist Barbara Kingsolver, on life in the desert, working motherhood, landlocked hermit crabs, and other subjects. A sample: "In my first three years of high school, the number of times I got asked out on a date was zero. This is not an approximate number."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Harpercollins, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S. A
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780060172916ISBN:0060172916
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Date Published: 1996-04
ISBN-13:9780786206308ISBN:0786206306
Description: Fair. LARGE PRINT hardcover, as shown. Ex-library book, with clean pages, library stamps and stickers. Spine is loosening--reading copy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780060927561ISBN:0060927569
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
"barbara kingsolver is one of those (few, for me) authors whom i read and think to myself, i'd really like to sit on the porch with a glass of wine some evening or a cup of tea some morning, and just talk with her. she is so fascinated by so many different things, and i love finding people like that. reading her writing, then, for me, is always an experience that makes me want to live more, to think more, to know more. i can't ask for more than that from a book. and she delivers every time.
"'If you never stepped on anybody's toes, you never been for a walk.'" (a quote from her grandfather)
and a quote among many that speaks to me as marcy and i step closer to our adoption: "...life with children always bursts to fullness in the narrowest passages...""
"I enjoyed this book, especially as I wanted a quick introduction to Kingsolver. Her observations about nature and the desert are lovely and picturesque. Her parallels to human existence are, if nothing else, thought provoking and interesting.
However, she seems somewhat out of touch with reality of a sort; in her visit to the retired Titan ICBM silo, she goes off on its ugliness, the questionably quick way in which it was constructed and the danger it presented to the citizens of Tucson should one have exploded as it was heading towards its intended target. To all of this, I say "Applesauce!"
It would be nice to live in a pleasant herbal- fed utopian society where everyone could just work and love one another, but I think the idea of a commune died out a while back. While I enjoy her writing, the overwhelmingly leftist slant of her writing is extremely irritating. I don't mind celebrating the infinite power of women, but please give some of it a rest: another gender has more than a basic right to life here!
I also found myself disagreeing with her concerning crying children on airplanes: try and realize that there are some others who are there on a nurture expedition. You owe it to the rest of us to take care of the little darlings as best you can. If you really need our help, in an emergency, you can bet we will be there. Kingsolver emotionally confuses normalcy with special considerations and airplane travel is already bad enough.
Lastly speaking of how she believes in community values teaching children, I would agree with her except for one thing: the community values your kids learn end up coming from the lowest level of society these days. The people who pay for the cost of taking care and educating your kids are pretty much powerless in establishing anything which we might think is reasonable any longer. Hence, for the first time, I really do understand when someone without kids says he or she doesn't want to contribute with his or her taxes: public education has gone the way of all flesh."
"These essays were mostly written in the early 90s and more than a few deal with aspects of the First Gulf War and our country's response to it. They are strikingly timely today as we flounder our way through our return to Iraq.
But lest you think it's a "political" book, there are lots of fabulous essays on things like go-go boots, hermit crabs, and an incredible museum of Native American culture.
Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors and I think I like her non-fiction even more than her fiction (which is saying something -- I don't generally do non-fiction). She has a superb voice and mixes humor with serious reflection in ways that are just wonderful."
"I really enjoyed this book. Like "Small Wonder" it was a book of essays, but less militantly environmental.
My favorite of the essays was "Jabberwocky" where she discusses art as politics. AS in her other books her use of language is phenomenal and the bok provided excellent thoughts and quotes.
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