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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Barbara Kingsolver speaks artistically and realistically about the beauty and shortcomings of humanity. She puts America's flaws in words that I've never heard before, creating concrete messages that are hard to argue.
A few takeaways:
Reguarding "Life is Precious, or It's Not,"
This is the one chapter that incudes many points I disagree with. Media of all sorts will always present death in some way or another. We must learn to live with it instead of letting it ruin us. Yes, the loss of human life in any sense is heartbreaking, but it is inevitable in the world we live in. In our current state, unjust deaths will always occur, and humans will always do what they can to cope.
Reguarding "Taming the Beast with Two Backs,"
I love this whole chapter. I wish this essay was included earlier in the book because it made me much more attracted to Kingsolver's opinions on how one should present themself. I believe her views on how women present themselves expressed in previous chapters were much influenced by her mother and the society she grew up in. Kingsolver's fear of writing about sex shows that insecurity, and overcoming that fear shows her willingness to change.
Humans fear talking about sex because that suggests we are the same as animals, coincidin with the world instead of owning it.
Humans, by nature, are deeply in love with the people they pretend to be. Kingsolver asks us to look at the parts of ourselves which we despise and ask, "What can we do better?"
A few takeaways:
Reguarding "Life is Precious, or It's Not,"
This is the one chapter that incudes many points I disagree with. Media of all sorts will always present death in some way or another. We must learn to live with it instead of letting it ruin us. Yes, the loss of human life in any sense is heartbreaking, but it is inevitable in the world we live in. In our current state, unjust deaths will always occur, and humans will always do what they can to cope.
Reguarding "Taming the Beast with Two Backs,"
I love this whole chapter. I wish this essay was included earlier in the book because it made me much more attracted to Kingsolver's opinions on how one should present themself. I believe her views on how women present themselves expressed in previous chapters were much influenced by her mother and the society she grew up in. Kingsolver's fear of writing about sex shows that insecurity, and overcoming that fear shows her willingness to change.
Humans fear talking about sex because that suggests we are the same as animals, coincidin with the world instead of owning it.
Humans, by nature, are deeply in love with the people they pretend to be. Kingsolver asks us to look at the parts of ourselves which we despise and ask, "What can we do better?"
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
These essays didn't age well. Kingsolver sounds prissy and bewildered, and 2002 was a confusing time, for sure, but this book is just so off-putting. I really enjoy her fiction and wish I hadn't discovered that I don't like her lukewarm takes.
I'm not sure if this was just not the right time to read this book for me. I have never read Barbara Kingsolver and people love her writing. This is the 2nd time I tried to read this. I'm going to donate it.
This was a collection of essays which Kingsolver began writing after 9/11, and continued to write about current and ongoing political, social, environmental and economic issues over time and in recent decades. Her prose is eloquent and full of reverence for the earth and nature. This nonfiction book still opened my eyes a little more and made me think about the world in which we live in new ways and with a different perspective. I would recommend for anyone interested in healthy living, environmental footprints, socio-economics, and looking for a summarized understanding of living organically and holistically.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I have never read Kingsolver's essays before but I enjoyed them. Published a year after 11 September 2001, but they haven't dramatically aged in a way and I enjoyed reading her philosophy - eco-friendly, anti-war, all the good things. It made me curious to see if she has written anything recently about the current political climate, including in newspapers, something I want to research.
Small Wonders is a collection of essays with Kingsolver's thoughts on various topics related to nature & the environment. As is usually the case, some of the essays in the collection stood out as stronger to me than others. Overall the collection was simply okay.
A thoughtful, informed, passionate and grounded collection of essays by Ms. Kingsolver, created in the aftermath of and as a response to events of Sept 11, working through the impact and causes of the attack, as well as reflecting on what has real, lasting value in our lives as humans on planet Earth. This is a collection well worth the time to read and reflect upon.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This is an exceptional collection of work, written part as balm against the wounds of 9/11, part as assemblage of pastoral ethic against the self-serving amoral politics of our time. As such, much of it resonates as powerfully now as it did nearly 20 years ago.
Kingsolver covers a wide range of topics--more than one might think relevant to a post-Twin Tower memoir--but they have a coherence at once intensely personal (letters to her daughter and mother are particularly moving) and philosophically articulate. True, Kingsolver is quite traditional, even unapologetically folksy, in her beliefs. And for any enviro-conscious readers, her naturalist lifestyle feels by now quite old-hat and even out of date with the political assertiveness of our times. After all, absenting one's self from the debate hardly makes for an ethic of responsibility.
But Kingsolver demonstrates in many ways that her writing is very much that engagement. At moments heavy-handed and even quaintly preachy (as she speaks of the perils of television, for instance), she nonetheless forwards a way of thinking about what peaceful virtues--with a little reflection and privilege of choice--our lives might instead discover. Don't believe she is unprepared for the violence around us (far from it), but she finds no value in our unending machinations and political rhetoric which excuses it. Fundamentally feminist, politically left, and domestically conservative, Kingsolver walks a line which itself is somewhat bygone, though in her beautiful prose feels necessary.
Wisely, Kingsolver largely speaks for herself, recognizing that not everyone's experiences can ever be hers. Nonetheless, I felt myself nodding far more frequently than smirking, reading an argument for living I might envy though never fully embrace.
Kingsolver covers a wide range of topics--more than one might think relevant to a post-Twin Tower memoir--but they have a coherence at once intensely personal (letters to her daughter and mother are particularly moving) and philosophically articulate. True, Kingsolver is quite traditional, even unapologetically folksy, in her beliefs. And for any enviro-conscious readers, her naturalist lifestyle feels by now quite old-hat and even out of date with the political assertiveness of our times. After all, absenting one's self from the debate hardly makes for an ethic of responsibility.
But Kingsolver demonstrates in many ways that her writing is very much that engagement. At moments heavy-handed and even quaintly preachy (as she speaks of the perils of television, for instance), she nonetheless forwards a way of thinking about what peaceful virtues--with a little reflection and privilege of choice--our lives might instead discover. Don't believe she is unprepared for the violence around us (far from it), but she finds no value in our unending machinations and political rhetoric which excuses it. Fundamentally feminist, politically left, and domestically conservative, Kingsolver walks a line which itself is somewhat bygone, though in her beautiful prose feels necessary.
Wisely, Kingsolver largely speaks for herself, recognizing that not everyone's experiences can ever be hers. Nonetheless, I felt myself nodding far more frequently than smirking, reading an argument for living I might envy though never fully embrace.
3.5***
This is a series of essays Kingsolver wrote in the year following the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center. It started when “someone from a newspaper asked me to write a response to the terrorist attacks.” As she wrote – and wrote, and wrote – she found that writing at times “seemed to be all that kept me from falling apart in the face of so much death and anguish.” What we have here are the ways Kingsolver found to refresh her soul, to think about the joys in life, the small wonders, the possible solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and the activities that renewed her sense of peace and purpose and hope.
Kingsolver can come across as preachy, but she also writes elegant passages about the restorative power of connecting with nature. I am reminded of long walks in the woods, or taking my lunch break in the park, ostensibly to read, but more often just staring out at the scenery, absorbing all that green and fresh air.
There’s plenty of horrible in the world still, but reading this book of essays reminds me of those things that can help me relieve the terror, fear, anguish, and find joy and hope again. Recently, I’ve spent quite some time sitting by the guest-room window which has a perfect view into a robin’s nest in my backyard. As I write, her eggs are about 10–12 days old, and any moment they may hatch. It’s a marvel of life and I cannot stop watching it unfold.
I read this as a book, and it’s due back at the library now, but I think this is a collection that would be good to have handy to read a chapter or two every once in a while.
This is a series of essays Kingsolver wrote in the year following the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center. It started when “someone from a newspaper asked me to write a response to the terrorist attacks.” As she wrote – and wrote, and wrote – she found that writing at times “seemed to be all that kept me from falling apart in the face of so much death and anguish.” What we have here are the ways Kingsolver found to refresh her soul, to think about the joys in life, the small wonders, the possible solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and the activities that renewed her sense of peace and purpose and hope.
Kingsolver can come across as preachy, but she also writes elegant passages about the restorative power of connecting with nature. I am reminded of long walks in the woods, or taking my lunch break in the park, ostensibly to read, but more often just staring out at the scenery, absorbing all that green and fresh air.
There’s plenty of horrible in the world still, but reading this book of essays reminds me of those things that can help me relieve the terror, fear, anguish, and find joy and hope again. Recently, I’ve spent quite some time sitting by the guest-room window which has a perfect view into a robin’s nest in my backyard. As I write, her eggs are about 10–12 days old, and any moment they may hatch. It’s a marvel of life and I cannot stop watching it unfold.
I read this as a book, and it’s due back at the library now, but I think this is a collection that would be good to have handy to read a chapter or two every once in a while.