Rating: 
Summary: Nobody's Perfect
Review: I thought Barbara Kingsolver could do no wrong until I read this novel. She is still my favorite author, but this book tanks! It was like reading an ecology textbook with lots of sex scenes. If I had to read it for a college ecology class, I'm sure it would have been more interesting than the other text books out there, but as a novel for a typical person, looking for a great read, it was a real disappointment.Save your money, buy any of Barbara's awesome books but this one. My personal favorite is High Tide in Tucson, but they are all wonderful. Read Prodigal Summer only if you'd like academic credit and you can stay awake through boring text.
Rating:
Summary: BORING
Review: After I read and loved Poisonwood, I was anxious to read another Barbara Kingsolver book. This choice was a huge mistake. I listened to the audio version and while Barbara Kingsolver did a good job with the narration, more often than not, it lulled me to sleep. It should have been subtitled: Ecology 101! The chapters involving Luca were the only ones I truly enjoyed. About one third of the way through the book, I just started to skip the chapters about Deanna -- enough is enough with the preachiness -- I was totally bored with her and didn't care a bit what happened to her. It would have been more exciting if the coyotes attacked her!
I felt that I was left hanging regarding what happened with the children and Garnett. At least that storyline had potential. This book may have been much more interesting if it were about 300 pages shorter!
Rating: 
Summary: Kingsolver and Winton
Review: Prodigal Summer reminds me of Dirt Music by Tim Winton: wonderful tales with depth and meaning. They show the complexity of human experience, the depth and range of the forces that move us. I guess that's memories, dreams, our "pilgrim souls within" our animal selves, social selves etc. It seems they try to show the importance of understanding these many parts and depths for integrity. Kingsolver is more and wonderfully earthy. Winton is more in the spirit and also has real men!
Rating: 
Summary: Audiobook edition
Review: I'm a huge Kingsolver fan (though didn't love "Poisonwood Bible"), and found this one truly lyrical. If you like audiobooks at all, this is one to listen to, especially as it is read by the author.
Rating:
Summary: Must Read
Review: One of the most valuable books of our time as far as information about nature wrapped into a entertaining novel. A lot of facts about the circles of life, I share a lot of the characters' views as far as preserving nature. Entertaining love stories, different! Lot of laughs.
Rating: 
Summary: Is there a sequel planned??? Why are we left hanging?
Review: I have read every book Barbara Kingsolver has written. Poisonwood Bible knocked my socks off, that will be a hard act to follow. In Prodigal Summer, I enjoyed the characters she developed and the storyline but I feel the book could have been several chapters longer. When I finished reading it last night I felt disappointed not satisfied. The three storylines needed to come together at the end, to have the lives of the three become intertwined. She started to do this with Garnett and his grandchildren but I wanted to read where Lusa and Deanna meet up and find kindred spirits in each other. Each of the main characters in the three storylines does confront some issues and grow, which is a plus in a novel but I felt like there wasn't any depth here. The ending felt like the launching for a sequel. There was no closure. The resolutions were vague and not powerfully stated. The novel was good, and worth reading but it could have been really great.
Rating:
Summary: Made me a Kingsolver fan for life!
Review: A few years ago I read Poisonwood Bible and really enjoyed it. I would have loved it if it hadn't been for the last few chapters which I felt were tacked on to the end of the story to allow Kingsolver to stand on her political soap box. But after reading my second book by Kingsoliver, I am a fan for life! Prodigal Summer is one of the best books I have ever read. I am amazed it didn't receive higher praise here at Amazon. I love the author's ability to tell multiple stories at one time allowing each of them to develop on their own and yet having them all be somewhat intertwined. And one thing I particularly enjoyed about Prodigal Summer is that the ending wasn't completely sappy and predictable. I was 100% engrossed in this book from beginning to end. Although I am not particularly a love story fan, I enjoyed the developing romances in this book. Kingsolver achieved just the perfect amount of romance without being too sappy. And I always enjoy reading a book where I feel like I am learning something. It is obvious that Kingsolver puts a lot of research into her stories. Now I look forward to reading other novels by Kingsolver and from what I hear I wont be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: An Abundant and Eventful Summer Comes To Appalachia
Review: My husband and I listened to Barbara Kingsolver read her book and it was a wonderful experience. Her excellent reading ability and voice added even more to this lush and beautiful story. There are three different narratives taking place in this book: Deanna Wolfe is a wildlife biologist who's employed by the Park Service. She lives alone and works on Zebulon Mountain. Deanna is a very single minded woman who's main focus is protecting the wildlife and vegetation on the mountain. This summer, her awareness of a family of coyotes in the area makes her very protective and concerned for their welfare. Her involvement with Eddie Bondo, an attractive hunter complicates her life, but gives her the intimacy that she's been missing. Lusa Maluf Landowski lives in the valley. She's a bright young city girl who moved to the area when she married a local farmer. Lusa who's an entomologist seems to have nothing in common with her husband's family and feels isolated from life. After a tragic event takes place, she learns more about herself and her in-laws than she ever expected. I especially liked the narrative about two elderly characters, Garnet Walker and Nannie Rawley who are valley neighbors. They've known each other for years, but have different views on just about every topic. Their encounters add humor to this colorful saga. Garnet, a retired, teacher has a lot of faith in the past and is doing his best to introduce a variety of blight resistant chestnut trees to the valley. Nanny, an independent lady who despite old gossip about her personal life, has always followed her own instincts. She's an organic gardener and hates pesticides which causes problems for Garnet's chestnut seedlings. This is very rich reading! Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, but no "Poisonwood"
Review: Three stories skillfully woven into one, but unfortunately, I didn't like them all. If I could rate them seperately, each would earn different ratings. I felt Deanna was preachy, irritating and hard to like. Like the showy-environmentalist type who doesn't shave her legs. A hypocrit too. (a hunter romance?) Lusa was better - I liked what she did with the goats! Garnett was great and this part of the book actually made me laugh out loud. The idea behind this book was wonderful and I expected to like it more. "Poisonwood" is a pretty hard novel to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: lectures go on and on and on...
Review: One of these three stories might have worked. Too bad that three gave the author even more room for her sophomoric biology lectures. Deanna, the Forest Service biolgist alone up there in the woods is semi-convincing--at least in her yearning to mate. Her obsession with coyotes is something that never gets beyond an idea of the author's. Reading the book, I couldn't help feeling that Deanna herself was only reminded of her obsession with coyotes when the author looked at her outline or notes. In fact the whole book suffers from a contrived plot squeezed in among condescending and sentimentalized lectures on the balance of nature. The character of Lusa is a melange of every cliche Kingsolver could manage to come up with. I felt she was a patchwork of characters the author had tried to make work, and couldn't. The story of the two elderly neighbors isn't a story at all, simply the longest lecture in the book and they are all long. Suffice it to say that one sprays--the other. Those parts were close to unreadable. No one talks like Nanny. This would have gotten only one star except that there are moments in the woods when you almost think it's going to work. The contrived ending is one of those you can almost accept in a Victorian novel--but defintely not these days.
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