Animal Dreams

Rating:
Summary: Kingsolver is amazing!
Review: This book is definitely in my "favorites" list. Kingsolver manages to address the issues of mundane everyday life & make them magical. Her writing flows like nothing I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: CONFUSING AND BORING
Review: This book was suggested to me for a summer reading list. I read the book. Well not really, I was so lost and extremely bored with the story that I never finished it. I had about 20 more pages to read and I couldn't do it. It may make more sense to an adult reader, but if you are under the age of 18, don't read this book, I doubt it'll make sense.

Rating:
Summary: HELP HELP HELP
Review: This book was the worst piece of literature I've ever read. If it was my own property and I wouldn't have to read it for my English class, it would have entertained my garbage can instead. The author seems to have serious trouble with the world around her and a notorious passion for the overuse of metaphores. Two times I actually fell asleep while reading this book. Her characters lack personality, the whole plot seems unrealistic, but as if it tries to convince you of its reality. Especially the main character Cosima, who wants to look like a outsider but then complains about it all the time, is missing a realistic personality. If you are worried about nature, DON'T WASTE PAPER LIKE THIS.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious, middle-brow, melodrama
Review: Of all the literature I have ever read in my life, nothing has ever inflicted more pain. I was constantly overwhelmed by an urge to impale the book against the nearest object that would suffice for the task. At one point, my desperation became so acute that I actually attempted to eat the text in an attempt to end the suffering. The book is nothing more than trite melodrama. Its theme -going back to your roots, rediscovering your identity and finding your true place within the world- is likewise trite, as well as pretentious. Kinksolver seems to have an obsessive compulsive tendency towards excessive metaphor usage. Belongs in the nearest trash heap along with all the other mediocre literature ever written.

Rating:
Summary: Once you start reading, you can't stop reading
Review: I did not like the beginning of the book, in fact I had to read it several times (the beginning) in order to understand it . But later on the story got so interesting I could'nt stop reading . Barbara Kingsolver definitely deserces some credit for this book .

Rating:
Summary: The best thing since sliced bread, or something like that!
Review: The whole story is about the south west and interlocking society between the 'old' traditional ways of the spanish stich and bitch club, the slightly more modern generation of teenagers, and the very traditional and family based society of the indians that surround the small town of Grace are blended together so brilliantly in this masterpiece. I have never read any other work by Barbara Kingslover before, but this book has inspired me to read, something I thought I would never have any interest in. In order to truely appriciate this book though, you must have visited the south west at least once. The book holds a special meaning for each individual reader, instead of one generalized truth or lesson that just anyone can draw from it. That is what makes this book so special, especially to me. I have never even heard anyone talk with such meaning and truth as this book has. I hope that you decide to read it and love it as much as I have!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: good...but not great
Review: The book was well written, but there was nothing extremely exciting emphasized, therefore making the book boring, making readers think something cool is coming up, but there isn't.

Rating:
Summary: If you love the desert Southwest, read this book.
Review: "Animal Dreams" is one of those books people either love, or just don't get what all the hoopla is about. After the first 50 pages, I found I couldn't put the book away. Barbara Kingsolver writes in such a manner that you forget you are reading text. Her colorful discriptions of the Southwestern landscape and people engulfed all my senses. The characters were very realistic to me, because I know those same people, only by different names. There may be character development flaws and storyline weaknesses, but I am not a literary critic. I read for pleasure, and for me, this book contained many miles of enjoyment. If you want to read a book that will skillfully transport you from where you are, "Animal Dreams" has that magic. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone, because you have to have a certain kind of vision to see how beautiful the desert and it's people are. If you don't already have a sensability of wonder and affection for the region, then you're probably one of those people who just don't, and won't, ever get it.

Rating:
Summary: Teen in Cinci
Review: Barbara Kingsolver continues to amaze me. Even though she has a lot of repition in her novels considering they are all affiliated with her own background and that can get kind of boring, she is awsome and her stories are powerful. Read all of her books becuase they are all so good.

Rating:
Summary: The best of Kingsolver so far
Review: Although it deals less with ethical and political issues than "Pigs in Heaven," I found this the most reaching and characteristically interesting of Kingsolver's novels. The children's relationship with their father, Homer's view of the sisters' childhood contrasted with Hallie's and Codi's, was amazing. The idea of childhood rejection and the graceless return home was to me not only interesting, but personally involving. Flawed only by an unrealistically bright everything, resolving all of the issues too thoroughly.