Rating: 
Summary: I'm exhausted!
Review: Well, If you have come this far (reading this review), you already know what the book is about. Let me tell you how I felt after I finished this book. Exhausted! Melancholy! I needed a nap! I further felt like exploring more of the history of the Congo. I was a child who's knowledge of anything to do with the Congo was limited to the pictures in National Geographic. I have been exploring other mediums of history on the Congo since I put this book down. I bet you will too! What else can I say? Read this book! It will enrich your life!
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT READ
Review: Since buying this book I have already read it THREE times. Although I love to read I'm usually somewhat picky as to what I do read. It has to spark my intrest from the first sentence--this book did just that! Even though it might seem long--the whole book is an interesting series of events that all tie together--taking the reader through the ups and downs (and eventually the downfall) of the Price family. Told by the four daughters and wife of Nathan Price, we get beautifully detailed scenes. Through which we also learn about the personalities of each character and how each one will act in a certain situation. the author obviously did a great deal of research on the topic. Being able to give rich descriptions, strong characters, a believable plot, all with the strong and true background of the Congos fight for independence.
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Summary: Great story that teaches!
Review: I loved this book! There are not many books that when you read them, they transport you to a different time/place and immerse you so completely in them, that you end up learning about another culture -- its language, politics, traditions and way of life. Memoirs of a Geisha is one such book, and if you liked it, you should also try The Poisonwood Bible. While I liked Kingsolver's other books, this is truly her best. The characters are so well developed (how many times do you get into a book with several main characters and you have to keep flipping back, asking yourself "Now who is the author talking about, which one is she?", etc. That does not happen with Poisonwood. The four daughters are so distinctly different, yet completely believable. I laughed openly at Rachel's mutilation of certain common phrases (taking things for "granite", for example), and loved Adah's palindromes. I can't say enough -- just read it!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Book With Message and Inspiration
Review: This book is far more than a novel. I see it now for its title: a bible on feelings and ideas that come together magnificently. This book could easily be the centerpiece of dozens of college classes including history, religious study, philosophy, and economics. I really felt more worldly for having read it. Kingsolver's metaphors and use of the African double meaanings gave me an intellectual read that I have not experienced since reading literature in college. This novel will surely become a classic in years to come surely fore its literate beauty and interwoven meaning if not for its historical perspective. A must read for all those who love true literature and a must for book groups who desire a book with depth and breadth.
Rating: 
Summary: Good....with reservations.
Review: This was the first Kingsolver book I'd ever read. Several of my college professors were reading it and talking about it, so I decided to give it a try. Having lived overseas myself as the child of missionary parents, some of the issues in the book hit very close to home. I understood the cultural faux pas and the shock of moving to a strange new world, and Kingsolver's portrayal of these things was believable. It is not the best written book I've ever read. The multiplicity of voices at times makes for a rather cluttered narrative, and some of the word play gets a bit annoying. The techniques Kingsolver uses are not highly original, but it is a good read because of the conflicts it presents
Rating:
Summary: Great on one hand, but on the other......
Review: I read this book for a literature class that I am currently taking. Kingsolver amazed me with her different techiniques. How many writers can develop five characters so well and give them their own original voice? However, the end of this book began to get boring. It got too much into the political problems of the Congo. It tended to go on and on in the end-which was an extreme disappointment to me.
Rating: 
Summary: Great until halfway.
Review: This title was great until halfway. The author's understanding of Africa, it's culture and it's traditions surpasses many other romanticized works (including non-fiction) written about the continent. Her insights are truthful and spot on regarding the juxtaposition between a Christian, European/North American culture of wealth and technology and an African Naturalist,land based culture of material poverty. For these insights alone, the book is well worth reading and New Agers could glean a lot from the spiritual implications of the African concept of "Muntu." What is more, a deeper social aspect comes out clearly in the story, that of European/North American physical, emotional and spiritual isolation due to it's individualistic pursuit of monetary wealth at the expense of those who lag behind and have no family or cultural support system, old age pension or medical ensurance compared to the poverty sticken African whose social structure in based on the health and well being of the whole tribe and it's survival where it is not a social norm of the strongest and fittest surviving, but one of Ubuntu and reaching out to our neighbour. Both sides have their strong and weak links and both have lessons to give to the world in it's pursuit of health,(which the former have more of) wealth (again which the former have plenty of)and happines (which the latter seem to be more capable of inspite of diabolical living conditions). Which brings me to the second half. Rachel is predictable and evolves as only such a character could. Leah too, due to her personality follows a predictable path, but Adah, again she is left behind by the author herself. I was not looking for a happy ending or a hero of the story, but Adah's character, her life path and her understanding of the acceptance of Africans for their disabled should have given her character a far broader spectrum of participation in the history of the continent. Her medical expertese in viruses such as Aids and Ebola could have taken this book to the climax that it deserved, even if an unpleasant one, of the ravages of Aids and Ebola which have left whole villages such as the one in which they lived, decimated far more surely than an ant invasion ....... and yet did not. I doubt if Adah herself would have been satisfied with such an end to the tale of the one that was left behind, herself and the continent that shaped her. Instead it is Leah, yet again who takes the lead, a predictable "white apology" if ever there was one.
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Summary: You will never think the same way about leftovers again.
Review: This book is one of the most impactful I have read in the last few years. Barbara Kingsolver captured my attention by presenting different characters with their respective personalities and dialogue about the experiences of a family far away from home. It is at the same time humorous and extremely thought-provoking. The Poisonwood Bible brought to light economic and cultural realities of Africa in a way that I will never forget. Don't miss this story!
Rating:
Summary: 10 stars
Review: So many reviews means so much passion! No surprise since this book is amazingly phenomenal in its scope - the mother and her daughters are so amazingly diverse, the plot is as suspensful as as a thriller, the writing flows off the page to transport you into the jungle. Take this book through to the end and you will be amazed. I have read hundreds of books (honest) including all of Kingsolver's work (except her latest) and I can honestly say that Poisonwood Bible is the best novel I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: the voices spoke true and clear
Review: Poisonwood was my book club selection this month and our group will surely have mixed reviews. I found it compelling and am indeed sorry to finish it. To get more of Africa, I searched my old National Geographics for "real" pictures of the Congo. Kingsolver is the master of the metaphors ( "I had washed up there [Africa} on the riptide of my husband's confidence and the undertow of my children's needs") The riptide of my husband's confidence! I'm hooked. Told through the eyes of the girls, the story grows as they do, their voices distinct from one another. By telling this tragedy through 4 lenses, Kingsolver paints a much richer picture of the Congo. Her sympathies surface, but by the time they do, I am captured, and want to know her truth. Who could possible say the world had done right by Africa? With "Heart of Darkness", way back in college, for who has read it since, we knew the game was to save Africa from herself. As Kingsolver describes, we are "Exploitive and condescending, in the name of steering her clear of the moral decline inevitable to her nature." With this work she has brought what she knows and woven it into a beautifully tragic story that will linger with the reader long after the last page.
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