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Summary: Beautiful Thoughts About Life
Review: Small Wonders is a thought provoking collections of essays by the great wordsmith Barbara Kingsolver. In this collection the reader is treated to heart wrenching descriptions of the natural beauty surrounding us everyday. Kingsolver has an eye that many of us do not possess and is able to write in elegant, flowing prose and capture on paper the heart and soul of the land, animal or body of water she is describing. She uses some of these essays to promote her political views which consist mainly of environmental conservation and peace. She does not shy away from blatant statements about the wastefulness of the American culture and the desicions made by the American government. This may be an irritant to those who do not agree with Kingsolvers views and she acknowledges that many people find her conclusions offensive and quotes one instance in particular, in which during a protest for peace a man shouts to her; "hey lady, love it or leave it." I found that Kingsolver was able to weave her statements so beatifully with her stories that the message did not come across so much as staunch political statements but as common sense. If the environment is exhausted to the point of destruction, it can't support any life. My own criticism is that I did feel hopeless and overwhelmed at times by her descriptions of the rate of extinction, the devastation of rainforests, the wastefulness of modern day culture and the propensity for human destruction. But as Kingsolver states at different points in her essays, all any one of us can do is to become more conscious of the small wonders in each of our own backyards and try to protect them with the ferocity that Kingsolver writes about. A very thought provoking look at our culture, the environment, and the rhythms and beauty of life.
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Summary: Reviewing Patriotism
Review: This is a thoughtful book that covers many political and emotional issues that effect us all. The beginning and end are political in nature and the middle concerns itself with our moral values and judgements. This is a Must Read for all American's claiming to want peace in this world. She insists that the change starts at home and in our local community. This book is for anyone who feels they are an American patriot and asks us to review that commitment and live up to a new challenge, that actions speak louder than words.
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Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I found this book to be a delightful surprise - written with great passion but also with a lot of grace, Barbara Kingsolver is able to express opinions in an elegant and eloquent way that people can hear. Some may feel her opinions are controversial but I don't. For me, her conclusions are wise and obvious. I think this book should be required reading not only in classrooms for the benefit of the next generation, but also for lawmakers that they too could learn from the wisdom of this thoughtful and wise human being. I would like to see this book on everyone's bedside table.
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Summary: Did not agree with her views
Review: This was required reading for an English class. While thought-provoking, her anti-American and radical environmental views are twisted. Seriously, this woman portrays us as fat, greedy slobs and suggests we sacrifice all of our belongings as the only way to rid ourselves of this stigma. YEAH, RIGHT!!! She also advocates electric cars and is against any sort of development. It's a good thing she isn't running the world, or her warped ideas would make all our lives miserable.
Rating: 
Summary: Not brilliant, but worth reading
Review: For all the outcry about Barbara Kingsolver's anti-American, anti-war stance in this book, I was expecting some sort of long winded, rant of a diatribe against U.S. policy in the wake of September 11, 2001. That is what I was expecting. That is what some readers of the book had claimed, that it was ultra-left wing, too preachy, too mired in politics, and riddled with hypocrisy. I disagree. I thought that this was a well written and interesting collection of essays. Also, the collection was not the amount of politicized essays that I had expected and was led to believe. Most of the essays reflect Kingsolver's ecological interests and themes that we see in her novels (most notably in Prodigal Summer). While some essays skirt around the reality of September 11, most deal with the day to day living that Kingsolver experiences and how she tries to live her life in the most environmentally friendly way possible. She writes about independent booksellers are going out of business and how her first novel "The Bean Trees" was heavily pushed through independent stores and this is how the word of mouth spread. And yes, Barbara Kingsolver does write about September 11. She refuses to accept that the attack was at all justified but does acknowledge that there was an explanation for how the hatred for the United States has probably come in part from our foreign policy. To me, this does not seem like it such a radical opinion. While she does spend a little bit of time (one or two essays, really) on some of the political aspects of 9/11, the other times she addresses the subject is in the impact that it has had in her life and her family, and in communities. She grounds most of her writing in the commonplace that is the focus of her fiction. I don't agree with everything that Kingsolver believes in and writes about, but she is eloquent in her essays and I am glad to have read them. As she provides an alternate viewpoint to that which is normally presented in the media/society/government today, it is even more important read such dissident voices. Disagree as we may on a given subject, one of the most important freedoms in America is the right to speak against what one believes is wrong. Barbara Kingsolver is a small voice, but a well spoken one. We should at least listen before dismissing out of hand.
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Summary: Courageous and Touching
Review: I would like to correct one of the reviewers below who claims that the author was only a biology major in college and wonders what her GPA was. She has a master's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Arizona (meaning that her college GPA must have been decent), and has actually worked as a scientist. I found this book passionate and compelling. Whether one agrees with her political views or not, she gives us a lot to think about, and does it very well. This deeply personal work is not to be missed by any intelligent, thinking individual, on either side of the fence. In addition, her lyrical and eloquent language, with which any Kingsolver fans are familiar, is pure delight in this collection.
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Summary: Insulting to Americans
Review: Small Wonders is rambling and self-serving. I felt that it was written to try defend her point of view, much of which has come under scrutiny, and to win back some of Kingsolver's lost fans; lost due to her airing her anti-american polital views. Kingsolver has a lot of nerve trying to manipulate readers by using historical events to support her warped views. I will never buy another book of hers again.
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Summary: Thoughtful and lyrical
Review: Small Wonder is packed with information about biology, the destruction of our planet, man's inhumanity to Man, philosophy - and only occasionally does the reader feel she's being given a lecture. Most of the message comes in 'story,' a kinder and gentler way to impart knowledge.
The title essay has received mixed reviews, dealing as it does with Sept. 11. I found it a beautifully crafted piece of writing, with the information proceeding in a snail-like coil of images and stories that pulled me into its spell.
Small Wonder is a book to buy, to treasure, and to share.
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Summary: Compassionate logic
Review: The themes woven throughout this collection of personal perspectives on human living are passion, compassion, and extraordinary logic. Barbara Kingsolver plunges into her convictions convincingly with a style at once unabashed yet charmingly self-effacing. With every page turned, I felt as though she had somehow read my mind and heard my heart, having captured the essence of her own living so eloquently well that I was consistently left resonating with the truth of her words, and breathing deeply with fulfillment. Alternately in tears then laughter, I lost count of the number of passages that I mentally bookmarked to return to, again and again and again, for solace and wisdom and encouragement. Kingsolver does not shy away from the essential inseparability of living our human lives by immersing ourselves in the political, reminding us that democracy is a participatory lifestyle, and not a spectator sport. By the conclusion of "Knowing Our Place," I found myself wishing that Kingsolver would run for public office. By the conclusion of "And Our Flag Was Still There," she was in the presidential primary, 2004. Perhaps her intention was merely to share insight into her single human heart, and she has done so admirably. Yet Kingsolver's words cut to the quick of our common humanity and collective human soul, capturing the awesome spirit of the human animals we really ARE, as in "A Fist in the Eye of God." Consistently, she provides enlightenment on how to pass each moment with the intent of living with reverence for all life, and without capitulation to the knee-jerk, destructive, and mean-spirited frailties so common to our machismo-saturated culture. Her words are lessons that provide hope, inspiration, and resolve for a brighter world. What a splendid departure from the status quo cynical "leadership" we currently suffer! This book should not only be read, but taken to heart, by every single human citizen of this planet: it is a manual drawn from the experiences of learning about what really matters. In describing her own awkward turns and how they have moved her ever onward toward the light, Kingsolver provides a living example of the inseparability of conscience and consciousness, both in the human world and the natural one. I closed this book with great satisfaction, deeply grateful that these are words that truly speak of, and for, humanity.
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Summary: SMALL WONDERFUL
Review: I am a HUGE fan of Barbara Kingsolver! I enjoy reading her writing style, along with hearing her message. What good is an author without something to say? Whether an author is writing fiction or non-fiction, good authors & good books contain messages. Of course there are messages from the author to the readers in short essays. What's the point of writing if you have nothing to say? An author cannot worry about whether or not the reader is ready for messages presented. This is a beautifully written collection of short essays. These essays contain important messages that must be heard. Write on Barbara!!!
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