Rating: 
Summary: Worth the effort...
Review: This book is a bit hard to follow initially, as it tells three stories at once. But as you prgress thorugh the book the connections between the stories become more and more clear, and each chartacter takes on a new depth. A fascinating look into what motivates individuals and how life can change when we least expect it. A definite "chick" book, as my husband would say.
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best
Review: Oh how I long for the days of The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. Sigh. Somehow, I think those days are long gone. The Prodigal Summer is too nature oriented for my liking, too much emphasis on farming, harvesting and insects. There is character development but it just takes too long to get there. Bring me a STORY for heaven's sake.
Rating:
Summary: Prodigal Summer is a Joy to Read
Review: The characters in Barbara Kingsolver's book "Prodigal Summer" leap off the pages into your heart: Deanna, a reclusive wildlife biologist, who has a soft spot for coyotes. Eddie, Deanna's boyfriend, who is a coyote hunter. Lusa, a former postdoctoral assistant, who's specialty was studying the pheromones of codling moths. Cole, Lusa's farmer husband, for whom the codling moth is a pest to be eliminated with insecticide. Nannie and Garnett, a pair of feuding neighbors, who wrangle about her organic gardening and distaste for insecticides. Kingsolver reveals through their stories the delicate balance of how all life is interconnected and interdependent. Eddie learns from Deanna why Coyotes bread faster when they're hunted. Garnett learns from Nannie why pest bugs increase faster when sprayed with broad-spectrum insecticides bringing huge profits to the chemical industries. Prodigal Summer is a joy to read, especially for nature lovers, conservationists and those concerned about the planet.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and fragrant!
Review: This book entangles the nature of history, love, and the environment in a way that makes you want to learn more about each one. I couldn't wait to read each new chapter when I'd finished the one before. It's full of warmth, knowledge, and characters bursting with real qualities that everyone can either relate to or enjoy. Although I liked "Poisonwood Bible" this one was a much easier and enjoyable read. Let the language take you away!
Rating:
Summary: Prodigal writer
Review: Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful. It's a rare book these days that captures me the way Kingsolver managed to do with Prodigal Summer. Although I've enjoyed every book she's written, this masterpiece shows how a good writer can continue to evolve and improve her talents no matter how good she was to begin with. By the second paragraph I was hooked. What's the book about? People, their relationship to each other and to the natural world around them. The characters are alive. The writing itself exquisite. To savor every moment, I limited how much I read of it every day knowing that I would be heart broken when I finished. I was. You will be, too.
Rating:
Summary: Human/Nature
Review: Beautiful book...she blends the natural world with the world of people so skillfully that sometimes there is no distinction. We are, after all, animals.
Rating:
Summary: Good but lacks the impact of Poisonwood
Review: I've spent the last two years lending out my copy of Poisonwood Bible to the point the cover is tattered. Somehow I don't think Prodigal Summer will meet the same fate. Not that it's a bad book. It just lacks the power of Poisonwood. Perhaps it's due to the less exotic setting.Still, Kingsolver actually makes the triple and parallel plot device work pretty well. I didn't expect to like the "Old Chesnuts" plot but it was the one I looked forward to most by the end. While the eroticism of "Predators" was fun, Deanna's preachiness wore thin quickly. And while it wasn't exactly a fun read, I suspect that Lusa and the "Moth Love" story line may actually linger the longest. I read this for a book club and it produced the good (but not great) discussion common when everyone in the group is essentially in agreement about liking the book. I'd give it 3 and 1/2 stars if the system allowed.
Rating: 
Summary: another good one
Review: not kingsolver's best but so what. she is one of the best writers around so average for her is terrific. she is so good at expressing intimacy with her characters and prodigal summer is no exception. her character is so like the coyotes she loves.
Rating: 
Summary: Ms. Kingsolver is becoming her own religion
Review: I will begin by saying that I have read all of BK's books and consider myself a fan. And I am seriously disappointed with this book. I support the author's view on things in this book (Rachel Carson is one of my personal heroes) but the problem is Kingsolver has gotten so SURE of herself. In Prodigal Summer, her characters are so black and white and her antagonists are simple and dumb (and by dumb I mean to use the proper definition of "being unable to speak"). She frequently gives her protagonists a soap box to stand on and lets them preach, preach, preach and of course the antagonists they are pitted against have nothing to say in return, no thought-provoking balanced argument serving to show that there are no easy answers in this world of ours. As I've mentioned before my personal views coincide with Kingsolver's and I WISH that the antagonists of my life were as dumb and as easy to debate as the small-minded, religious, pesticide-spraying, wildlife-hunting bunch in Prodigal Summer. The other huge problem I have with this book is how inaccurate some of it is. This is the first book of BK's in which I am knowledgeable about some of the subject matter. I am disappointed by her ignorance of what the circle of life has evolved into today (no, that hamburger did not just take ONE life) and am appalled by her unwillingness to concede that there might be some things she isn't knowledgeable about . Some of Kingsolver's "proclamations": Deanna's feeling "a little bit anemic" from not eating meat. You can neither be a little anemic nor get anemic from not eating meat. The idea that all women naturally cycle with the moon and should be able to tell when they are ovulating by the calendar is incredibly false. Deanna adds "How can people be so STUPID about their bodies?" Oh my Ms. Kingsolver, it is the luteal phase that is consistent not the pre-ovulatory phase, you gotta do some extra things to calculate when you are ovulating other than just looking at the moon. And even the L.P. varies from woman to woman. I could go on and on but I think there's a 1000 word limit? BK even stoops to cheap shots. When asked if she was a vegetarian Lusa says with a laugh "No, I'm one of the other Christianities." And we all know how BK feels about Christianity. Your veil of tolerance is slipping a bit, Ms. Kingsolver. Perhaps the most disappointing is that after reading all of BK's other books I was inspired. Inspired because I learned something and inspired to learn more. After the Bean Trees trilogy I researched the Native American situation in our country today. I read Winona Laduke and other authors. The Poisonwood Bible was an amazing experience and a catalyst that changed my life in many ways. Needless to say, I felt cheated after reading Prodigal Summer. Bottom line is Prodigal Summer seems to have come out of a precocious, intelligent but arrogant twenty something author bent on telling the world how stupid they are instead of the author that I had come to respect.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful read
Review: You know how it is when a book is so good that you don't want it to end? Well, that hasn't happened to me in a long time, but it did with this one. It was hard to put down and my mood was up all the time I was reading it, plus the ecological implications are inspiring and thought provoking. The characters are wonderful. I swear I became attached to them. read it, you won't be sorry!
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