Rating: 
Summary: Give me a break!
Review: When I first began reading The Bean Trees, I could relate to the main character. She was several years younger than I, but basically matured during the same period of time. What really got to me was that I found it highly, if not extremely unlikely that a 22/23 year old in the late 70's would even consider keeping a child that someone left in her car. If she even had considered giving the child to the proper authorities I might have found it somewhat believable. If this did appear in the book it was soo brief to have escaped my notice. This issue somehow permeated my thoughts while reading the book and for that reason I couldn't involve myself to the greatest extent.
Her writing style is interesting and poetic but give me a break. I still can't believe anyone, especially with her desire to start a new life, would have kept a child. Very unrealistic how the care of the child was underplayed.
Rating: 
Summary: A little girl named Turtle....
Review: THE BEAN TREES is a novel about a young woman, Taylor Greer, who leaves her home state of Kentucky to find a life outside of what she knew - growing up to become barefoot and pregnant. She wanted more than that, but she did not really know what she wanted.She finally arrives in Tucson and meets a woman who wants to give Taylor a 3 year old child. Taylor promises to take care of the little girl. Whether the woman is the child's mother, we never do find out. But Taylor does find out right away that something is not right with the child. Turtle, the name Taylor gives the child, does not talk. Taylor also finds bruises over the child's body while giving her a bath. Maybe Taylor has saved this child from a horrible life, but now she is responsible for the welfare of this little Indian american girl. But now what to do? No money and no job, and she's got a kid she never planned on having. Taylor and Turtle end up in a small town in Arizona and after meeting several nice people who help them out, they end up living with a gal named Lou Ann, who has her own story to tell. The book is intertwined with the stories of both women so we get to know them both very well. Along the way they meet and get involved with a hispanic couple, Estevan and Esperanza. They are from central America, and their story is a mystery, except we know Esperanza knows very little English, and Estevan was an English teacher in his home land. The four of them, along with little Turtle, become good friends, and soon Turtle is responding to the love she is getting from her new family. But there is still the mystery of what really happened to little Turtle.... THE BEAN TREES is the 2nd Barbara Kingsolver novel I have read, THE POISONWOOD BIBLE being the other one. This second novel reads quite differently than POISONWOOD BIBLE did, and I guess one reason is that THE BEAN TREES was written over a decade before. Ms. Kingsolver's skills as a story teller greatly improved between these two novels, but that does not mean THE BEAN TREES is a poorly written book. On the contrary, I found it very well written and enjoyable to read. The feel of both books is very different. While POISONWOOD had the feel of an epic, THE BEAN TREES was a much more simpler novel (being a much shorter novel helped!) I can't say whether one book was better than the other. I liked both equally. What I'm finding I really like about Ms Kingsolver's books is that she is very good at character developement. She knows how to paint a character well enough that I was able to picture right away what these characters were all about. They were not shallow one dimensional people, but people I could care about. Obviously, I am giving THE BEAN TREES a glowing recommendation. It was probably one of the better books I read in 2001.
Rating:
Summary: aimless?
Review: i'm not an avid reader of fiction, though my mother thinks i should be. from a xmas wish list full of non-fiction works, the chose "the bean trees." what choice did i have but to read it?
the first few lines grabbed me. in fact, almost all of the lines grabbed me. i saw that some called this book "aimless." i guess i can accept that, if by "aimless" they mean "realistic and unpredictable." i despise a lot of novels for their blatent plotline--something "the bean trees" is lacking. this is the novel for poets in love with real life. it is much closer to jack kerouac than it is to danielle steele, and that's just one of the reasons to love it.
Rating:
Summary: Aimless, drifting plot lost this reader.
Review: After reading The Poisonwood Bible, I decided to read some of her other works. The story started out with promise - a young woman on here way to anywhere is handed an unwanted child. Taylor's character was plucky and quirky enough to keep me interested. Once she finds a destination to settle in, Tuscon, AZ, the plot begins to meander without much conflict to stir things up. I usually go by the "fifty page rule" - if I'm not totally involved by page fifty, I stop reading. In this case, I got halfway through the book - over a hundred pages before I gave up and quit reading. As this was written well before the Poisonwood Bible, one can see a dramatic improvement from The Bean Trees to her more recent works.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking story of Family Values
Review: Imagine leaving your hometown because you don't want to suffer the same fate of being "barefoot and pregnant," only to have to take the responsibility of a child you really didn't need. The Bean Trees is an amazing book that gets your attention from page 1 to the end. A story of the value of family and friendship, brought to present times. What makes this book so great is the connection to present day struggles. A must read book.
Rating:
Summary: Barbara Kingsolver rocks
Review: All I have to say about this woman and her book is she is amazing. If you haven't read any of her books - run to the book store NOW! Ok yes, Oprah brought her to my attention, and once I got past the word "bible" - I finally allowed myself to read The Poinsonwood Bible - amazing. And then I bought all her other books and read them - multiple times. And her books have to be in my top 10 favorite books of all time. That's how good she is.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst
Review: Barbara Kingsolver is a master of the maudlin, self-pitying novel. Her writing style is sub par which doesn't help her boring and predictable story lines. Keep this soporific book on the shelf for when you have kids, it will have them sleeping in seconds.
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet and Touching
Review: I just finished reading this book for my comp. lit. class ,and it's absolutely one of the best novels I've ever read. I found that Barbara Kingsolver's style of writing in "The Bean Trees" is very much like the style she used in "The Poisonwood Bible" (also a book I recommend). She becomes her characters, in a way, and makes everything she writes about seem so real. You feel involved in the story, as if you're there with the characters. I'm sure many people could relate to the way her characters talk and think, the things they talk about, and the experiences they have. These elements are what make Barbara Kingsolver's novels such engaging page-turners.
"The Bean Trees" is about a spunky, spirited, Kentucky born girl named Taylor Greer. She was raised by her mother in a poor, rural Kentucky town--- a place she desperately wanted to leave. She manages to leave Kentucky in her early twenties and heads for the open road. She's not sure where she's going, but figures that almost anywhere is better than Kentucky. She travels in a beat-up '55 Volkswagen that requires a push to get moving.
She ends up in Tucson, Arizona with a three year old American Indian girl she names Turtle, given to her by an Indian woman who told Taylor to "just take it" (referring to Turtle). Realizing that she's now a parent, Taylor knows she has to be more responsible. She takes a job at "Jesus Is Lord Used Tires" in Tucson, which also happens to be a sanctuary for Central American refugees, and finds a roommate, with whom she becomes good friends.
The story follows her new life in Arizona and different relationships Taylor forms, most importantly, the one she comes to have with Turtle.
This book is so touching and real, yet it maintains a wry sense of humor. You get to know the characters and become attached to them. Toward the end of the book, I came close to tears, as Taylor had to say goodbye to two good friends. Despite this, the ending leaves you with hope.
Rating:
Summary: Truth and Beauty
Review: "I have been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Hardbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign." Suddenly you're right smack-dab in the middle of Taylor Greer's life, and from page one, you're loving it. Or, maybe I should say you're loving her. You know those books where it's as if the narrator is really talking to you? The Bean Trees is a perfect example. Taylor's voice is easy and conversational, with a definite southern twang, and when you're reading the book, you can just picture yourselves sitting on someone's front porch, drinking iced tea and talking through sunset until the stars come out.
Taylor's life is no picnic, though. During the course of the book, she leaves behind her nondescript future in Kentucky, and travels to Arizona, gaining an unlooked-for toddler named Turtle on the way. In Arizona she meets people she normally wouldn't, and learns a lot about life and hardship in the process. She finally gains the courage to put air in a tire after an old woman named Mattie, gives her a job at Jesus is Lord Used Tires. She meets Lou Ann Ruiz, who was emotionally abused and later abandoned by her husband. And she meets Esperanza and Estevan, a married couple, former teachers in Guatemala, whose daughter was taken from them, and who illegally escaped government persecution
The book was incredibly real. (...) a lot of stories will give you this happily-ever-after ending, gift-wrapped, with all the lose ends tied up neatly in a bow. But not The Bean Trees. Its reality is one of the reasons it is such a wonderful book. But despite its almost harsh truth, it leaves you with a sense of the beauty of the world, and a belief in the underlying goodness of the human race.
Rating:
Summary: The Bean Trees
Review: RJ Dunn
Casserly - pr. 6
Book Review
1st quarter
THE BEAN TREES I felt that the book The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver was overall a very good book. It had an interesting topic that a teenager may be very interested in. That is, that it is about a girl, Marietta Greer, who decides she is ready to leave the town she was raised in, get away, and start her own life. She purchases an old car, and decides to drive until it breaks down, which will be where she starts her knew life.
This book had a good topic and plot, and was well written. The topic was good because it discussed a topic that most teenagers think about, and it did so using a girl with a good head on her shoulders. Barbara Kingsolver came up with a good plot for this book because it gave the book a good twist, the events that she went through with Turtle. This kept the book interesting after it seemed the book was becoming predictable. This book was written well, it was easy to read, and there was too much pointless detail. Kingsolver also gave depict and interesting characteristics and feelings to the characters. She made them seem very real, as if you were watching what was going on. She made them have real feelings and attitudes. All together she did a good job putting this book together.
If I had any problems with the book, it would be that I felt the book was intended more for a female audience. There were certain parts of the book that didn't mean anything to me, parts that I didn't really want to read and parts that I couldn't associate with. This didn't take away from how good the book was, it just seemed more appropriate for a girl to read the book rather than a guy.
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