Rating: 
Summary: WONDERFUL!
Review: This is the best book I've read in several years. I read it several weeks ago, over a weekend, and the story and the characters made a powerful impression on me. It's fascinating how the same novel can be perceived so differently by various readers. It's difficult for me to understand how anyone could not be moved by writing of this caliber, and I find it interesting that some have let what they see as some kind of insult to Baptists, or to Christians in general, color their vision. I don't think fine points of doctrine...such as modes of or appropriate age for baptism...were really the issue to Nathan Price. He was obsessed with having *his* way with the villagers and was locked in a power struggle of his own making with the village chief that went much deeper than a difference in religious beliefs. Nathan had lost his way long before he dragged his family to the Congo, and he continued in a downward spiral, as evidenced by his increasing abuse and neglect of his wife and children. He was falling apart, as did his family and his mission. Surely we all know that the title "Christian minister" doesn't confer some magical kind of goodness or immunity from criticism upon a person. History is replete with inhumane horrors committed in the name of Christianity. That doesn't make all Christians bad people, but we shouldn't feel compelled to defend or deny those atrocities. Christ himself reminded His followers that unkindness toward their fellow man was tantamount to the same toward Him. *Of course* there have been kind and loving missionaries (one such, the man who'd previously held the post at Kilanga, is a character in this novel). Ms. Kingsolver is not slamming religion; she simply shows how poor and empty preaching and scripture-quoting can be if our actions reveal a callous and bitter heart. Nathan's inability to master the nuances of Kilanga's native language resulted in his words' being misinterpreted by those to whom he preached, but his insensitive behavior reinforced and magnified the distortion. The overall lesson of this novel is, I think, how we each affect and are affected by everything and everyone that touches our lives... and what an awesome and humbling thing that is.
Rating:
Summary: The First Oprah Book club novel I liked
Review: I am not a writer but a reader so forgive this review if it is too simple for you. This novel focuses on the Price family who are transplanted to the Belgian Congo due to their minister father's, Nathan Price, need for redemption. The novel's first half displays quite vividly what the Belgian Congo would look like to an American family during the 1960's. To say it lacked the comforts of home is an understatement. It also shows how different people, namely the Price women and Nathan Price, view the people of this place. The way Kingsolver writes each chapter with a different voice lets you know exactly what each member is thinking and why. I couldn't put the book down after chapter 3. The second half of the book does get somewhat political, yet because I knew almost nothing of African history it was very interesting. Again, we see Africa through the eyes of Price women. However, it is not the Africa that they first came to and it makes you wonder if it is not the Africa that they once loved. I read this book in my "spare" time, which says a lot because I have a 3 month old so the only sleep I got was from 2am when I put the book down to about 5am. Quite a sacrifice for me an 9 hour a night sleeper.
Rating: 
Summary: Edit! Edit! Edit!
Review: This book desperately needs to be edited.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read - So I'm Told.
Review: Members of my book club were impressed by this work, and most stated that it was the best book that they had read in the last 20 years. With that, I eagerly picked-it-up but after fifty pages could not wait to put-it-down.
Rating:
Summary: Truly a work of Art...
Review: From the moment I closed the cover of this thick 543-page book, I felt an odd sense of achievement. Or maybe a bit of relief. Relief, not in the typical sense, meaning you are glad that it is over, but a strange tranquil peace since you now know the whole story. I reclined in my chair and took a deep breath to reflect on what I had just read. Such an intense story of the lives of a mother and her four daughters packed into so few pages. Never in my life have I read such an astounding story put together with such astonishing refinement. The ways in which the author put together her words and sentences is nothing I have ever encountered in a fictitious novel. One may think that I am deranged for rambling on about a book, but this is truly a work of art.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting and beautifully written tale
Review: When I picked this book up at the bookstore, I wasn't all that enthused about it, but it was for my book club. Almost as soon as I started it I was taken with the author's unique and expressive powers of description. I grew up in the Middle East, and I have travelled through Africa. The descriptions of the jungle, the people, the climate....everything....made me feel like I was sitting right there with the Price family. The story of 4 daughters and their mother, all at the mercy of a deeply disturbed man whose psychoses are cloaked by wild-eyed religious zeal, haunted me and stayed with me long after I read the last page. I felt a surge of nostalgia when reading about how woefully unprepared the family was for life deep in the Congo. The story is written from the point of view of each daughter and the mother. How the author managed to keep it all straight in her head well enough to get it down on paper is beyond me. The story doesn't have a particularly happy ending; even so it is a wonderful book and well worth the time it takes to read it.
Rating:
Summary: WHEW, EXHAUSTING
Review: Let me start by saying I tend to like the Oprah picks, it's a great way to read books that I'm not familiar with or normaly wouldn't read. However, I really had to force my way through this one. I found the story compelling and loved how it's told through each woman's voice. Kingsolver is so descript in her vision of the Congo you almost feel the symptoms of malaria. That said, this is not a feel good read, bright spots are few and far betweeen. I kept thinking "when are they going to catch a break?", to no avail. And there are some lulls that seem to exist to make this an "epic". I would give it 3 1/2 stars based on the voice of Adah-how about a sequel just based on her life.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for me thanks.
Review: This is a character driven story as you may have read from other reviewers. Each character is very rich in description and motivation. However, there emotions are so extreme as if to prove pts about society. The good people in this book are sooo good and of course the bad are sooo villainous. I didn't care for most of the characters because to me they seemed very flat.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Book
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in the last three years. The story is breathtaking; the descriptions go beyond reality itself and into poetic depth, and the characters are fascinating. It is impossible to read this book and not to have one's heart go to Africa and to the people so movingly painted by Kingsolver.
Rating:
Summary: I found it hard to put this book down!
Review: I chose to read Poisonwood Bible because it was listed as an Oprah Book Club selection. Having never read a book from her list before, I was intrigued by what she would be recommending to her readers. I was immediately impressed. What I found most interesting is the fact that this book had not one, but 5 different narrators. I felt that writing the various chapters with different voices was a great way to develop the 5 characters, who were united in some way in how they felt about the father of the family, a baptist minister stubborn in his need to save the African peoples from damnation. The book is written on an epic scale, spanning several decades as we watch the 4 daughters change and grow, created by the life they live in the Belgian Congo. The four daugthers and their mother go through devastating tragedies during their years in Africa, and what they see and experience shapes them into the adults they later become. I think this book is a "must-read", but be warned - it's over 500 pages if I recall properly.
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