Rating: 
Summary: the best essay collection I've ever read
Review: The first essay is a little strained, but the following essays demonstrate why Ms. Kingsolver is an excellent fiction writer. She brings the same gifts to her nonfiction. Her range of knowledge - the animal kingdom, single motherhood, education, anthropology - is truly impressive. The book is written in a warm, personal, down to earth style.
Rating: 
Summary: The SeniorNet Online Book Club found this book interesting.
Review: The SeniorNet On-Line Book Club (http://www.seniornet.org/index.html) read High Tide in Tucson as its January 1997 selection. The following are selected review comments from our members based on the initial chaper are representative of the comments we made on each essay. Our overall rating was 3 on a scale of 4.
Among her many talents, Kingsolver is a Naturalist, and although her essays do not rival those of the author of "The Burgess Shale" she does cite him several times in this book and thereby earns my respect. Though this first essay is predicated on "Natural History", I prefer to discuss that particular area in subsequent treatises. I, too have done my share of "Beach-combing" and have raised Hermit Crabs (In the Caribbean). I think Kingsolver starts this series with observations and comments that immediately alert us to the fact that she is uncommonly perceptive and a "Real Human Being", one of "US", who has not become so enamored of herself as to lose the humility necessary to be, as she puts it, " A good animal, today ..........and take this life for what it is" (LJ Klein)
Content was good, but she was too verbose for me. She took too many words to get her point across. I'm not a big user of adjectives. Will reread and read others when I get book, but will have to withold my praise for now. ... I guess I couldn't get over style to enjoy content. I get that way sometimes--stubborn and opinionated. (Ruth Warren)
It is salutory -- and doubless fashionable -- to be reminded from time to time that humankind's animal needs are simple and basic. But I hold with those who value the trappings of civilized human society, without which, as Hobbes put it, human existence would be "...solitary, nasty, brutish and short." The human animal has a wonderfully complex brain, and is able--as Kingsolver is of course doing here -- to analyse its own drifts and instincts make comparisons and communicate these thoughts to others of its kind. Long live the technology that enables Kingsolver to return from her day in the desert, write down her experience, publish her essay by the thousands. (Carolyn Andersen)
I agree that this book expresses Kingsolver's understanding of her stages in life. Interesting to read because her experiences are so universal, yet with her delicious wording it relieves the heaviness of the lesson, and supplants it with wry snickers. However, she describes her enchantment with the desert beautifully. Her day with the caves and the former inhabitants is an experience we share, and the changed perception was certainly "life-changing". (Rhea Coleman)
...She is a great writer. I thought it was very interesting how Kingsolver opened this essay with a mini essay about hermit crabs and then through the following little essays wove a thread through her life similar to that of the crab's, ie, being uprooted from her Kentucky and the crab from the Bahamas, exploring her new land in Arizona and the crab getting used to his new surroundings in the aquarium. This lady has an astute knowledge of the English language and an uncanny ability to put her thoughts into words that seem to portray exactly what she is thinking and what we need to hear. She stirs my thoughts like a small eddy in a lazy mountain stream. (Patrick Mulligan)
I really liked this essay. I must point to my particular bias. That writers must not only have something to say it's important how they say it. I expected to be bored...who reads essays not me unless "driven." In this case surprised and delighted, laughing at her descriptions of the animals and able to envision her imagery. (claire read)
I knew I would love the book while reading through the first essay, because she and I think much the same way, only of course I could never express myself quite like that. What I thought about many times since reading that book is the fact that "life is made of frightening losses and unfathomable gifts." We all know that is true, but I've never read it expressed as well. My terminology runs more to "We were never promised a Rose Garden." If you make it.....it is because you have learned to cope, and in this life you have soooo many opportunities to try and try again to get it right. I also appreciated what she said about children learning discrimination from their parents. Reminded me of that wonderful song from "South Pacific","You've Got to be Taught." (Fran Ollweiler)
Barbara Kingsolver is a wonderfully adept writer who can describe things so well that you can actually see it. Her description of moving from Kentucky to Tucson and how the life in Tucson was so different from the life she knew really hit home for me. We all do start new lives over and over as Barbara said. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job or a limb or a loved one. Each new scary or nice happening in our lives forces us to gather our resources and face whatever it is that we are dealt with in life. (Ruth Levia)
Barbara Kingsolver not only writes in a very interesting style, but she also teaches a lot. I was amazed that while being very fascinated with the essays, I feel I learned something from each one. I knew nothing of the hermit crab and thought her descriptions were very interesting. I enjoyed her discussion in this essay about the effect of the lunar cycles and the tides in Tuscon. The tie-in of the internal clocks of animals in the Chicago experiment fit well with the theme of this essay. Her trek into the uncharted wilderness in western Arizona provided a very thought provoking experience as expressed by the wonder of finding the corn-grinding stone and her unwillingness to remove the stone from that location. Think it exhibited a reverance for the past that comes through very clearly in her essays. (Larry Hanna)
I loved the images of water and tides in the essay. When we first voted to read it, I thought, essays?? Oh, no....boooooring. Boy, was I wrong. I'm trying to pay attention to what I know are themes in the essays- she herself says "my intent was to make it a book with a beginning, and end, and modicum of reason." I see joy and hope personified by the water images in the essay. She states," I have taught myself joy, over and over again, "and, "Let me dance in the waves of my private tide, the habits of survival and love." The message is coping, and hope: "High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is." I found the first chapter to be a wonderful blend of the "linear thinking" of the scientist and the far reaching imagination of the poet in the author. Huxley was said to be Darwin's Bulldog- Kingsolver, I think, is Darwin's bard- the singer of the verses of evolution- revealing and reveling in both its mysteries and its elegance. (Ginny)
I love Kingsolver's style. High Tide in Tucson expresses a wonderful way to live your life. We should always be in touch with our internal "tides" and acknowledge the rocks in the stream. (Sandy Bridgforth
Rating: 
Summary: Nature is good
Review: This book connects me with natur
Rating:
Summary: A book of hope, of finding adventures. High Tide!!!
Review: This book of essays reads like a novel. From the very first story about a hermit crab who finds himself in the desert of Tuscon, which is an allogory for those of us who find ourselves displaced at times, to the hopeful last essay in which the author writes about her new life, this is an inspiring book to read. It becomes one of those books that you give to friends because you know it will touch them in some way. Barbara Kingsolver is an exceptional writer with insight into our hearts and minds
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Summary: Exceptional Writing
Review: This collection of essays is nothing less than an ecstatic celebration of life, expressed through exceptional writing. Kingsolver's perspective is multi-dimensional: the perspective of a scientist, writer, and rock 'n roll keyboardist. The attention she brings to the natural world in her writing accomplishes what good writing should: it expands the universe and brings critical attention to things we might otherwise take for granted or never have even thought about. These essays are human and believable. I particularly admire Kingsolver's ability to weave her belief-system (her feelings and thoughts about alternative familes, feminism, sustainability and the environment) into her writing without apology. Kingsolver writes about Hermit crabs, her daughter, a trip to the Canary Islands, writing, West Africa and other phenomena of the human condition. Anyone interested in creative nonfiction -- or life, for that matter -- shoudl read this book.
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Summary: Thought-provoking and occasionally hilarious
Review: This collection of Kingsolver's essays makes thought-provoking and occasionally hilarious reading. Be warned: if you don't share her values, you probably won't enjoy it because unlike her fiction it doesn't cloak those values in story. Yet even then you may find it interesting, because you'll learn a lot about how Kingsolver writes. From conceiving her characters and building their worlds (something literary novelists must do just as surely as must sci-fi writers), to marketing the books after publication, she takes the reader of these essays on a lively journey through her own version of the writing life. Recommended, although not as highly as her novels.
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Summary: Confessions of a Reluctant Rock Goddess
Review: This is my first look at Barbara Kingsolver. I am not much of a fiction reader, but when I saw that she had written two volumes of essays and she is a member of the Rock-Bottom Remainders, I had to take a chance. After reading the first of the two volumes, I am a fan. High Tide in Tucson is a better than some collections because Kingsolver has rewritten many of the pieces. Some of the essays were originally magazine articles, so she was able to rewrite them without the length and editorial restrictions imposed by the original publication. And she arranged them so that they flow, if not exactly like a story, at least so that the sequence makes sense, rather than just a random selection. She warns us ahead of time that these need to be read in order -- no dipping into them here and there. Kingsolver writes here about the desert, her year in the Canary Islands, a visit to Benin, being a parent, love and divorce and new love, and writing. She also covers war, wildlife, and how she came to be the keyboardist for a bad rock group. Even though these essays are more than nine years old, they don't seem dated at all. Even the piece on protesting the first Persian Gulf War is pertinent. I especially enjoyed Kingsolver's writing on writing. She loves being a writer and everything about it. Except for book tours. Her piece on a long and dreadful book tour is one of my favorites, and the funniest. Her decision to pack light and take only a minimal wardrobe gets her into trouble several times. Although I still don't plan on reading her fiction, I am looking forward to the second volume of Barbara Kingsolver essays, Small Wonder.
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Summary: Hermit Crabs have new meaning for us . . .
Review: This well-written and entertaining book was partially responsible for my move to Tucson. My husband and I discussed moving to a warmer climate for the winter and Tucson "won" after I read Kingsolver's book. I also enjoyed hearing her soft, comfortable voice on tape as she read these essays to us on one long, cross-country journey. Thank you for this, and all your books Ms. Kingsolver. I've been a fan for years.
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Summary: Hermit Crabs have new meaning for us . . .
Review: This well-written and entertaining book was partially responsible for my move to Tucson. My husband and I discussed moving to a warmer climate for the winter and Tucson "won" after I read Kingsolver's book. I also enjoyed hearing her soft, comfortable voice on tape as she read these essays to us on one long, cross-country journey. Thank you for this, and all your books Ms. Kingsolver. I've been a fan for years.
Rating:
Summary: Some chapters are great, others not so great
Review: When the author writes about her world travel experiences...she makes us feel like we were there. Seeing it all, enjoying the mystery and magic of exotic places, people, and small joys she finds along the way. She loses me when she preaches her own liberal doctrine to us readers. Her politics are hard to stomach and are so idealistic...it's plain to see the author is a life long "tree-hugger" from the 60s. Fine for her, but I think her opinions should be left out of the book. When she just tells us what she sees and what she enjoys about it...we as readers and happy...we don't care why you left the USA. Obviously, is isn't so bad here dear, you came back and sold a lot of books, hmmmm!
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