Rating: 
Summary: Read this book only if you enjoy hypocricy.
Review: Read this book only if you enjoy hypocricyThis book reads much like an expanded version of "what I did on my summer vacation," not the "surprising and hopeful" stories I was promised. Depending on your disposition, you will either find Ms. Kingsolver amusingly naïve or downright annoying for her simpleton solutions to world problems, as well as her hypocrisy. If you have the misfortune to be listening to the audio version of this book, you will also get to "enjoy" her Forest Gump draw. She will attempt to present herself as a person who enjoys only the simple pleasures of life and conservative of natural resources. She then goes on to discuss her multiple homes and trips to South America, Japan, Mexico, etc. She states that rain forests should be protected while tramping through one. Most appallingly, she blames the terrorist actions on 9-11-01 on the United States!! She feels that by not giving enough to poor countries, we bring terrorism on ourselves. She chooses not to mention that the U.S. is one of the largest donators of aid to poor countries and only insults her own country for not giving a large enough percentage of its per capita income. Her solution is to give more and "bring down the walls" around the U.S. As a wealthy person herself, one must ask home much Ms. Kingsolver gives to the poor and whether she had "brought down the walls" around her home and invited the homeless to live with her. Her idea of a response to the terrorists' acts is to remain silent. One has to wonder if that would be her solution if a relative of hers had been murdered on 9-11 or if she had the understanding to foresee that the attacks would continue without action on the part of the U.S. Throughout the book, we are constantly told that there is an alternative to our current was, however, not ONCE is a workable alternative suggested.
In one story Ms. Kingsolver actually states that she would have liked to live Europe, but chose to move back to the U.S., in essence to straighten us out. I for one would like to say, please, Ms. Kingsolver, move back to Europe! Also, as a note to her: while she claims to be raising her children in the most "perfect" way, without tv (apparently a great sin to watch!), she had a 3 year old who stated that she wishes she was never born. Here's a tip - any child that young with a death wish needs a therapist, not to mention a more responsible parent. This book left me both angry at Ms. Kingsolver for her holier-than-thou hypocrisy, as well as sad for her pathetic inability to grasp the world issues that she attempts to tackle.
Rating: 
Summary: Getting to Know Barbara Kingsolver
Review: This book surprised me yet again with another aspect of Barbara Kingsolver. There is a wonderful essay describing the good luck she had in getting the word out about her first book. There is a letter to her daughter that every mother should copy and learn from and save. The Letter to My Mother is sharp and shiny and wonderful. The essays talk about the southwest, Kentucky, love, fear, the wonder of nature:there are small wonders of writing and thought and observation all through the book. I think when I finish reading it, I will start back at the beginning.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I could give it LESS than 1 star!
Review: This book reads much like an expanded version of "what I did on my summer vacation," not the "surprising and hopeful" stories I was promised. Depending on your disposition, you will either find Ms. Kingsolver amusingly naïve or downright annoying for her simpleton solutions to world problems, as well as her hypocrisy. If you have the misfortune to be listening to the audio version of this book, you will also get to "enjoy" her Forest Gump draw. She will attempt to present herself as a person who enjoys only the simple pleasures of life and conservative of natural resources. She then goes on to discuss her multiple homes and trips to South America, Japan, Mexico, etc. She states that rain forests should be protected while tramping through one. Most appallingly, she blames the terrorist actions on 9-11-01 on the United States!! She feels that by not giving enough to poor countries, we bring terrorism on ourselves. She chooses not to mention that the U.S. is one of the largest donators of aid to poor countries and only insults her own country for not giving a large enough percentage of its per capita income. Her solution is to give more and "bring down the walls" around the U.S. As a wealthy person herself, one must ask home much Ms. Kingsolver gives to the poor and whether she had "brought down the walls" around her home and invited the homeless to live with her. Her idea of a response to the terrorists' acts is to remain silent. One has to wonder if that would be her solution if a relative of hers had been murdered on 9-11 or if she had the and understanding to foresee that the attacks would continue without action on the part of the U.S.
In one story Ms. Kingsolver actually states that she would have liked to live Europe, but chose to move back to the U.S., in essence to straighten us out. I for one would like to say, please, Ms. Kingsolver, move back to Europe! Also, as a note to her: while she claims to be raising her children in the most "perfect" way, without tv (apparently a great sin to watch!), she had a 3 year old who stated that she wishes she was never born. Here's a tip - any child that young with a death wish needs a therapist, not to mention a more responsible parent. This book left me both angry at Ms. Kingsolver for her holier-than-thou hypocrisy, as well as sad for her pathetic inability to grasp the world issues that she attempts to tackle.
Rating:
Summary: takes advantage of fame
Review: Kingsolver, an extraordinary writer that I usually admire, has fallen with this set of essays. She has taken advantage of her bestselling author role to promote her political views. While it is certainly her right and her freedom that America has bought her to state those views, she would do better to stick to subjects other than political. Many people buy her books because they expect quality from her, not to read her views on living in America today. How quickly her editors and publishers jumped to get a book that was started on September 11, 2001 to the bookstores in April 2002! It says that anything with Barbara Kingsolver on the cover can and will be printed and sold. She says in one our her essays that she is distressed when her daughter comes home from school and announces that the next day they are to wear red, white and blue in honor of the victims of September 11. Kingsolver would rather them wear black rather than patriotic gear. Why? Why honor a country that is dishonest and murderous is her theory. She also suggests cutting up the uniforms of dead soldiers to make a flag rather than the current one so that the nation knows how the ease that we live in in this country was bought. I suggest that Ms. Kingsolver take her lofty ideas with her to Afghanistan perhaps, and live in idealistic freedom there. This will keep her from being angry at the kind of price that is paid for her to live as she does here.
Rating: 
Summary: Review.
Review: If you are stunned that Kingsolver has the audacity to criticize America and its citizens, don't be, the rest of the world shares the same intelligent objections to the emptiness of American consumerism. And most likely if you're amongst those that are stunned it's because you haven't reached out to other sources of world events and opinions besides CNN and your local NBC affiliate. Americans, leading the world's corporate conglomorate, are slowly killing both the ecosystem and cultural diversity. It's not something that's up for debate, it's not something that's defendable, it's the truth, but we're also taught that we're glorious and true and just and so we shouldn't have to take criticism, we shouldn't question status quo. I'm not interested in arguing with anyone, all I will ask of you is that if this book has made you angry, ask yourself "why" and then go out and investigate the truth for yourself. Consider other alternatives. I give the book a positive review because it stratles both mainstream and counter culture society, and can potentionally expand the minds of some persons in great need of just that. Buy it, read it, argue it, debate it, criticize it, mark it up with your pen and tear about pages. Whatever you do, be ACTIVE, engage the possibilities of both great books and your own life.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary work by a remarkable woman
Review: As I began to read Small Wonder I was, as is always the case with Kingsolver's books, amazed and transported by her incredible command of the English language. In this group of essays this skill is even more evident. I find it hard to believe that anyone would find these words "preachy". She describes her world for us (our world too, whether we choose to see it or not) in the most beautiful words I've ever read. As she reveals for us her relationships with this beauty we live in, from the story of a small child mothered by a bear at the beginning of the book, to helping us see what nurtures us and what doesn't in most of what remains, she reveals ever so clearly why we should accept her invitation to see our world as she does. But there is no judgement on those who would rather not. I believe she earnestly expressed this openly in "The One-Eyed Monster and Why I Don't Let Him In" and less subtley in her other essays. That it invoked some guilt in me for my lifestyle I can own as my doing and not her intention. There is more inspiration here than any "preaching" I've ever experienced.
When it's all said and done, it's no small wonder how this woman can create such beauty in words. If you enjoy exquisity written, heart-felt literature, don't miss this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Like prospecting for gold-theres a few nuggets in the mud.
Review: I truly love Kingsolver's writing-the Bean Trees is one of my all time favorite books-- and wish I could give this effort a good review-but I can't. Wading through this series of essays is like prospecting for gold-you will fine a few brilliant nuggets after sifting through a lot of muck. The problem I think is one of connection. Ms. Kingsolver's talent has blessed her with the wherewithal to live a Henry David Thoreau sort of existence. Idyllic as that may seem-and don't a lot of us wish we could live that way also?-that's not the way the world works. The average two-income family with 4 kids and a dog may yearn for the tranquility of a Walden but has to settle, unlike Ms. Kingsolver, for fast food and the grocery store. In too many of these essays Ms. Kingsolver comes across a lot like the feudal lord who thinks the peasants should lighten up and have a bit more fun. The lord would no doubt be surprised that his peasants don't work 18 hour days because they like it, but because that's what it takes to get by. Kingslover advocates a lifestyle that's a choice for her but not an option for most. Her essays preaching the benefits of this lifestyle therefore come across as preachy and somewhat naive. One is left to wonder how someone who can so elegantly imagine the travails of common folks in her fiction can be so oblivious to them in real life. However, when Kingsolver turns to observation and more personal topics, the book shines brilliantly like her novels. "Lily's Chickens", "A fist in the Eye of God", "The One-Eyed Monster, and Why I don't Let Him In" and, most especially "Letter to my Mother" are breathtakingly marvelous stories. In the end I was left with the feeling that had Ms. Kingsolver simply allowed herself to write about life as she sees it rather than try to tell us how to live it, this would have been an infinitely better book.
Rating:
Summary: How dare she
Review: Who does she think she is? Preaching about how this is wrong, that is a waste, we are all just terrible because we watch TV and drive cars. Of course the author herself drives a ten-year-old car, so she is earth-friendly, right? WRONG. Ten years ago, cars polluted far more than the cars of today. Emissions have been refined since then and I feel it's just shocking and wrong for her to moan and complain as she does while she drives from one book signing to the next in her ten-year-old whatever it is that is chewing away the ozone layer with every mile. And excuse me? But the rest of us aren't flying around the country constantly, promoting our books. And do you think this book was printed on recycled paper with vegetable ink? I think not. As if this is not bad enough, the author claims to have begun writing this book September 12...how could she??? I mean, the whole nation was in shock, in horror, and here was this best-selling author sitting down at her computer to write, what she certainly must have known, would be another best-selling book??? I think she's just horrid. I'l never read her again. I'm going to take my book back to the bookstore and many of my friends feel the same way!
Rating:
Summary: Child's Eye View of the Universe
Review: To all adults, especially overly busy parents: Try looking at life through the eyes of a child for just a day. Like Kingsolver, you'll begin to see a universe of delight in the ordinary world surrounding you. Sit down in the backyard like you used to when you were five and pay attention to some of the "small wonders" beneath your feet. For rushed people talking on your cell-phones while racing to work in your SUV's, these essays will pull you over, hand you a lovely warning, and ask you to live more carefully, more joyfully and more prayerfully. For two other titles written for parents on the daily adventure and "small wonder" of raising spiritual children, look for "The Family Cloister" and "The Christian Family Toolbox", both published by Crossroad, and listed at Amazon.com.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: Highly recommended. Honest and beautifully written.
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