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Summary: A Harlequin Romance for the Organic Gardener
Review: Thin plot and flat characters. I think the author forgot to develope the characters, choosing to spew the "organic" and "naturalist" religion instead. I myself am a firm organic gardener, but I don't think I could have stood another flowery passage describing the importance of bugs and the concepts of predation. The editor failed to do his/her job allowing lengthy descriptions like a garden as having peppers with bright green and red ornaments and eggplants with beautiful purple gifts. (My organic garden certainly doesn't look that way.) The plot seemed like a junior highschool kid's dream of a perfect world in which folks who don't harm nature end up on top. The strings which tie the three stories together are contrived -- they seem to have been added as an afterthought.I thought I was a Kingsolver fan after reading Poisonwood Bible, but this book certainly changed my mind on that.
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Summary: GREAT BOOK!!
Review: Barbara Kingsolver is a master at story-telling, and this book is no exception....escpecially for animal lovers.
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Summary: Lyrical
Review: This book was a wonderful diversion for me. I so enjoyed its character's stories reminding me how our lives are indeed intertwined; how despite life's curve balls, it's our response to them that's within our control. While we near chaos there is a greater order so sweet you can almost smell and taste it; a potential so great we should be excited by the prospect. A lovely story of humanness and nature to bring us close to the beauty that resides in the whole of life.
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Summary: Predators, Moth Love and Old Chesnuts
Review: I listened to this audio book for much of the later part of April as Spring approached my area & I'm not sure if I'll ever see things the same again. I felt like she was trying to put across a couple of major (& of course a whole bunch of smaller) points with this book: 1.) all life is interconnected and it keeps moving on whether we're really alive or not and 2.) reproduction can be beautiful and it's all around us. Think about *that* the next time your car is covered with pollen!
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Summary: Nature lover
Review: Buy it,the book is worth your time. I live in a rural area, and bald eagles, coyotes, deer, racoons, otters, and all sorts of birds have been known to visit my front yard. I don't feed them , but they find enough to eat. Read this novel if you like animals, plants, or any sort of nature.
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Summary: a good read
Review: Overall, this was a good story that made me think more about the relationships between man and nature, predator and prey, even though I've heard a lot of it before from my environmentalist sister. The lengthy dry descriptions of nature that made up a lot of the beginning of the book and that were peppered throughout the rest of the story got boring. But I liked how the author slowly started to show the relationships between all the characters and I liked how their stories began to intertwine with each other. I really liked the Garnett-Nannie story; quite amusing. The book was a bit preachy, but a good read nonetheless.
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Summary: A book to be read outdoors
Review: In "Prodigal Summer" Barbara Kingsolver gives us three very readable storylines that tangentially intersect. As a analytic reader, I immediately went about trying to figure out the connections between the characters and storylines.
About a third of the way through the book, I spent a few hours outside reading on a nice day. That when it hit me that the power of this book isn't in the characters or the storylines, it is in the storytelling. I found myself more absorbed by the natural world around me. Suddenly I wanted to know the names of trees, and flowers, and even insects (thanks to Lusa).
At the end, the storylines all wind up about step before where I saw them finishing, but that might just be a matter of taste. Some folks might like a little mystery and imagination to play a part in the ending of a good book.
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Summary: tedious plot, flat characters
Review: I've read several Barbara Kingsolver books in the past and was surprised at how amateurish I found her writing in this novel. The themes were trite and the characters very poorly drawn. The description of Eddie Bondo (something about his being short, with the kind of muscles you could see through his clothing and a body so accustomed to activity that it was tensed even when it was still) could have been lifted straight out of a Louis L'Amour western or a supermarket rack romance novel. I had no interest in watching the sexual tension mount between Bondo and Deanna, and I found it very easy to put the book down and not pick it up again. I thought Kingsolver rather heavy-handed in her environmentalist agenda. I appreciate her enthusiasm, but political passion doesn't necessarily make for great or believable writing.
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Summary: Beautiful book.
Review: I liked this book for the beautiful language and unusual descriptions of natural phenomena. Sometimes Kingsolver hits you over the head with the book's message, but I was involved enough in the lives of the characters that I was willing to overlook that. I recommend listening to it on tape.
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Summary: Barbara Kingsolver deserves a medal
Review: I loved this book so much, I was almost afraid to share it with my friends. It spoke so intimately to my own heart and mind that I didn't want to hear it if my friends didn't love it, too! As always, Ms. Kingsolver creates a rich, thought-provoking world, in which the characters are strong and interesting individuals. This book may be too "preachy" for some (about the environment), but in my opinion, it's a sermon that people need to hear.
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