Rating: 
Summary: Amazing--don't miss this
Review: The Poisonwood Bible was an amazing book. Little plot--that is, there's no climax visible at first, but it makes up for everything in the way it is told. Beautiful. Each of the narrating women seemed to be alive. Looking at the book days after I'd finished it, I marveled that the characters were only words on paper. This was a book that I could not, really could not, put down. I slogged through the first hundred or so pages to meet my reading quota for the week (the book was a school assignment), but once I'd made it that far, I found I had to keep going. I spent all of one weekend devouring it. It's the kind of book you don't want to read again after you finish it, an exausting read. But it grows on you, and you'll pick it up again. Don't miss this. God, I loved that book.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful blend of characters. Researched well.
Review: The developement of the characters over a span of forty plus years is an accomplishement in itself. Then add to it her research of this era, and this incredible novel takes you away. It was fun and fascinating. I enjoyed immensley the way each character had a distict voice. I did not give her five stars because there were a few sections that felt like words were used to simply make the book longer--where four or five sentences would have worked, eight or ten paragraphs were constructed. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, appreciated the immense effort to assemble such a story, and am grateful for her contribution to literature.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this one!
Review: Barbara Kingsolver has written an amazing story of a southern missionary family in Africa. I would recommend it for the disfunctional family story or for the setting in revolutionary Africa. Together it's a complex, well written, compelling read.
Rating:
Summary: Voices of 2 Generations of Women Opened My American Eyes
Review: Having loved other Barbara Kingsolver books and not questioning that I would enjoy it, I opened this book and found myself not in the south west or middle America landscape of her other books, but instead in Africa, the Congo. I was at first taken back, but realized I was not alone in my journey for the characters are American and see Africa and the Congo through American eyes. It is from this that the culture barrier is layed bare, and its the Amercians that ultimately are naked in this world. The story is told through the voices of the mother and her daughters as they come to live in Africa as a missionary family headed by misquided minister. The mistakes and friendships they make, the misunderstandings and illusions they have, and the family love and angst of a life together between connected but very different people are explored in all the rawness with which we actually live. Read it and escape to another world. Read the first chapter out loud. Finish by reading the last chapter out loud. It brought my book club to tears.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best book I've read in the past five years
Review: I was unprepared for the impact this book would have on me during and after I read it. It has flaws, but the power & beauty of Kingsolver's prose, her depictions of the Congo, missionary work and the world of 1960's Africa thru the eyes of four women are astonishing. I still cry when I think about this book five months later.
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: Barbra Kingsolver will capture your heart and move your soul. The Poisonwood Bible digs deep into the interrelationships of a family struggling with personal failures and their fight for religious beliefs in a country torn apart by war and racism. The book is stimulating and thought provoking. You will come away with a new perspective on the ways of the Congo.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting!
Review: Certain images still haunt me even though I read the book many months ago. Ada's word games are now my own. I purchased the book three times only to give it away to friends. They agree. It's worth the read!
Rating:
Summary: Riveting first half but then . . .
Review: The writing of the first 3-4 pages is exquisite; the first half of the story is riveting. The unloving, reality-denying nature of the father's understanding of Christianity is shown, not just asserted. After the climax in which the mother leaves the tunnel-visioned father, the book dissolves into describing the less interesting storylines of the girls' fates. Their stories would have been better told in two pages at the end of the first half. The politically correct sermonizing of the second half of the book was less clear-sighted than the religious criticism: after all, Leah sacrificed the safety and health of her children to her personal veneration of Anatole as blindly as her mother sacrificed her children to her husband's religious beliefs.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I love Barbara Kingsolver's other books and I admire her politics. Unlike other reviewers I appreciate the history and politics in this book. Besides being a great story it inspired me to learn more about the Congo/Zaire, Patrice Lamumba, colonialism,and Mbuto, which in turn had me reading about Rwanda,South Africa,Uganda,Ebola, the CIA, Mountain Gorillas,consumerism and Belgium. I love a book that makes me want to learn more and this book certainly did. Besides that, it's entertaining, good fiction! The character's are amazing. I read constantly and this book it one of the few that I wanted to start again as soon as I was finished. If you liked it I'd recommend reading "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild for more history of the Congo.
Rating: 
Summary: Correction
Review: My previous review (sent less than an hour ago) contained the statement."What Baptist preacher anywhere in the world..." I would like to qualify that with one single word to say, "What fundamentalist Baptist preacher..." The word, "fundamentalist" is essential.
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