Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Like a choice vegetable from her lovely garden, Kingsolver offers here a still fresh assortment of essays. She approaches divisive issues with a grace and reasonableness that is all too uncommon in our time. I was left considering my own excesses and longing to appreciate the goodness of life with greater attention
These essays felt incredibly timely despite the fact that their subject matter is 9/11. The first couple drew me in, but I found the musings on nature a little monotonous after the first 2 essays, which is SUCH a city kid thing to say, but you have to be who you are. While I do enjoy Kingsolver, I think her style is more poignant for me in fiction. The writing is in fact excellent but the essays as a group lacked texture.
SO much of Kingsolver's thoughts on the environment, food, gardening, conscientiousness, faith, caring for goods/people/places/our world, politics, etc, resonate with me. Girl is my soul sister. She's from Arizona, too, which just adds to the connectedness I feel to her. These essays are poignant and powerful and we as Americans would all do well to think more like this and act more wisely to keep our planet alive and thriving.
Individually beautiful and lovely essays ... felt a lil drony and repetitive all in one book though, definitely skipped through parts but I enjoyed
This was not the book I thought I was going into. I found it polarizing; while there were some parts which were okay and a few parts that were beautiful, I was mostly bored, annoyed or angry reading this.
I found the huge sections extolling nature unending and quite tedious. I also disagree that we need to revert to some sort of agrarian hellscape to survive as a species (why is this never the future horror in postapocalyptica?). Gratingly, she advocates growing your own vegetables, locally sourcing everything, making your own cheese/butter, having chickens, not watching TV or having a cell phone. She unintelligently and harmfully blames video games and movies for the Columbine school shooting (harmful since she fails to address the actual problems: bullying, lack of mental health treatment and guns which actually caused the violence). Her propensity for throwing away terms like Holocaust and ethnic cleansing is offensive and undermines the validity of the points she's trying to make.
The parts of this I liked (and those I really liked) are mostly the parts about raising a daughter, being a daughter, how she was raised and feminism.
I found the huge sections extolling nature unending and quite tedious. I also disagree that we need to revert to some sort of agrarian hellscape to survive as a species (why is this never the future horror in postapocalyptica?). Gratingly, she advocates growing your own vegetables, locally sourcing everything, making your own cheese/butter, having chickens, not watching TV or having a cell phone. She unintelligently and harmfully blames video games and movies for the Columbine school shooting (harmful since she fails to address the actual problems: bullying, lack of mental health treatment and guns which actually caused the violence). Her propensity for throwing away terms like Holocaust and ethnic cleansing is offensive and undermines the validity of the points she's trying to make.
The parts of this I liked (and those I really liked) are mostly the parts about raising a daughter, being a daughter, how she was raised and feminism.
I get the feeling that Barbara Kingsolver wrote this book mostly for herself. Sure, there are the great environmental, feminist, and pacifist morals, which I must note now that I did often strongly agree with, but they are overshadowed by Kingsolver reveling in her own writing.
At several points, Kingsolver takes on an insultingly self-righteous and condescending tone, and in these sections most of what I got out of the book was "gardens, hope, nature, I'm better than you, peace." She's got it all--the humble brag, the outright boasting, the subtle jab at everyone who isn't her. Halfway through, I thought it would be fun to place sticky notes on sections I found particularly disgusting, and soon ran out of sticky notes.
Mostly, it's the superior tone that puts me off. Kingsolver seems to believe that she does most things better than everyone else and urges everyone to do the same--eat from vegetable gardens, support local growers, don't take many airplane flights--even though 1) a lot of people can't afford those organic or pesticide-free foods, 2) most of us don't have the time or land to plant our own vegetables, and 3) she mentions taking so many flights that she has "enough frequent-flyer miles to go to China."
And anyway, I'm here to read about your ideas and your suggestions and then judge them for myself, not have them shoved down my throat and denounced if I don't agree with them. Admittedly, I do often agree with them, so I'm not as offended as, say, a reader who doesn't have such strong beliefs regarding feminism would be. Even so, at some really low points, I did groan out loud (out of both exasperation and anger).
Kingsolver seems to ignore those not-so-little things that could weaken her case: staunchly supporting global warming without even mentioning scientific evidence (or lack thereof), check; completely disregarding the cost of those "healthier" foods, check. Coupled with her bragging (she has an entire section devoted to telling us how badly she thought of herself in high school, then gleefully telling us that she was actually very pretty and was valedictorian, even though this has nothing to do with her point whatsoever), this book was nearly intolerable.
So, if you agree with every single thing she says, by all means go for the book. It's eye-opening, in an infuriating way. But remember, if you think you'll so much as question one idea she has, you'll probably start to feel irritated by Kingsolver's smug tone before long.
Note: This is the first book that I have ever quite literally thrown down in disgust.
At several points, Kingsolver takes on an insultingly self-righteous and condescending tone, and in these sections most of what I got out of the book was "gardens, hope, nature, I'm better than you, peace." She's got it all--the humble brag, the outright boasting, the subtle jab at everyone who isn't her. Halfway through, I thought it would be fun to place sticky notes on sections I found particularly disgusting, and soon ran out of sticky notes.
Mostly, it's the superior tone that puts me off. Kingsolver seems to believe that she does most things better than everyone else and urges everyone to do the same--eat from vegetable gardens, support local growers, don't take many airplane flights--even though 1) a lot of people can't afford those organic or pesticide-free foods, 2) most of us don't have the time or land to plant our own vegetables, and 3) she mentions taking so many flights that she has "enough frequent-flyer miles to go to China."
And anyway, I'm here to read about your ideas and your suggestions and then judge them for myself, not have them shoved down my throat and denounced if I don't agree with them. Admittedly, I do often agree with them, so I'm not as offended as, say, a reader who doesn't have such strong beliefs regarding feminism would be. Even so, at some really low points, I did groan out loud (out of both exasperation and anger).
Kingsolver seems to ignore those not-so-little things that could weaken her case: staunchly supporting global warming without even mentioning scientific evidence (or lack thereof), check; completely disregarding the cost of those "healthier" foods, check. Coupled with her bragging (she has an entire section devoted to telling us how badly she thought of herself in high school, then gleefully telling us that she was actually very pretty and was valedictorian, even though this has nothing to do with her point whatsoever), this book was nearly intolerable.
So, if you agree with every single thing she says, by all means go for the book. It's eye-opening, in an infuriating way. But remember, if you think you'll so much as question one idea she has, you'll probably start to feel irritated by Kingsolver's smug tone before long.
Note: This is the first book that I have ever quite literally thrown down in disgust.
reflective
A beautiful, beautiful book. It made me want to cry, laugh, dance, love, write bad poetry, and, once I could put it down, go out and live! A compilation of essays, it was easy to read between classes, while eating, and before going to sleep. I recommend this book for nature enthusiasts, environmentalists, mothers, daughters, people who really love Tucson Arizona, and well, everyone.
There was some excellent, personal writing in it, but there was also a hell of a lot of preaching. Jenna read it in the spring of 2002 and was bowled over by it then, but now, after a couple of years of distance from 9-11, it's not so striking.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Giving this book more of a try than on a frenzied research trip 3 years ago gave me a little more patience for it. I still found it rather preachy in many places, but the environmental concerns hit home much more than before, and the discussion around 9/11 and how to "deal with it" is different than most available essays from this time period. It demands patience, but it is a good read.