Barbara Kingsolver: American Author Challenge

"I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved."

"Barbara Kingsolver was born on April 8, 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland. Kingsolver spent most of her youth on an alfalfa farm in eastern Kentucky. When she was 7 years old, her father, a physician, took the family to what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he worked in public health.

In 1988, Kingsolver's first novel, The Bean Trees, was published. She wrote the book at night while pregnant with her first daughter and struggling with insomnia. She then wrote the short-story collection Homeland and Other Stories and the novels Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven. She has also written nonfiction and essay collections.

She currently lives with her family on a farm in Washington County in southwestern Virginia."

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2015. This author will be read in November. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185195

I've also been looking forward to this one. I read The Poisonwood Bible, pre-LT and really liked it. I did not read anything else by her for awhile, until my LT pals, inspired me to get back on board. I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life and The Bean Trees. I loved both.

This time around, I plan on reading Pigs in Heaven, which is a follow-up to The Bean Trees. I would also like to bookhorn in Flight Behavior, which has received a warm LT reception.

Has anyone read any of her short fiction? I would also be interested in her essay work.

Kingsolver is popular around here, so this should be a good one.

Kingsolver's essays (High Tide in Tucson and Small Wonder)are really good. I may revisit Homeland and Other Stories this month, as I don't remember whether I read all of those or not. I also have Flight Behavior hanging around. I think I have read everything else of hers.

Hey, where is all the Kingsolver love? Can't you tell she is waiting patiently up there?

>4 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda! I would love to try Homeland or one of her essays, but I am not sure I could bookhorn it in, at this time.

I hope to read The Lacuna in November. It's been on ky TBR lust for ages.

I wasn't aware that she lives in Washingon County, VA! I frequently visit friends who live there. It's a beautiful area.

I've got Homeland sitting in the TBR stack here. I may do another.

I am planning to read Animal Dreams. I would love to join you with Pigs in Heaven but I'm going to have to stick with what's on my physical TBR shelves if I am to have a prayer of finishing my ROOT challenge (reading books that I acquired before January 1st)

I can't believe Prodigal Summer hasn't been mentioned. I also enjoyed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Poisonwood Bible.

I have 5 Kingsolvers on my shelves so I am not sure which one(s) I will get to next month.

I've read several of her novels, but The Poisonwood Bible is sitting in a TBR stack so it's the one I plan to tackle in November.

There is some Kingsolver love! Yah!

I think I also have Prodigal Summer somewhere in the stacks.

I've never read any Kingsolver. I'll have to check some of these out.

>12 lindapanzo: I have not read a lot of her work, Linda, but you might like The Bean Trees. Tight, little novel, packed with very good writing and memorable characters.

>11 msf59: I think Prodigal Summer is my favorite of the 3 I have read.

>14 Tara1Reads: That is high praise indeed. I will keep that in mind. Thanks!

>5 msf59: - Oh dear.... the only Kingsolver I own, The Poisonwood Bible, has already been tagged as a read for my 2016 reading. I got nuttin'.

*ducks to avoid any potential megaphones that may come flying by*

I'll be reading Bean Trees, my first one of hers.

The Bean Trees is a favorite, but then I've loved most of Kingsolver. The Lacuna was perhaps the one I enjoyed the least. Prodigal Summer is lush and wonderful.

I'll be reading The Bean Trees.

I read The Lacuna several years ago and almost threw it across the room without finishing it. However, some reading friends talked me down and i took hold of the book and finished it. Glad I did. It's not a great novel, being unbalanced in structure (no I don't mean full of holes, or lacunae) and the second part is so much better than the longer first part. But the overall effect is satisfying because the complexity of it is.

I intend to read more by her. I have Animal Dreams, an early novel, and The Bean Trees, a later one, on my Kindle TBR.

>20 Limelite: I believe The Bean Trees was Kingsolver's first novel, followed by Animal Dreams and then Pigs in Heaven which returns to the characters met in The Bean Trees. All three are great reads.

Kingsolver love here. :)

I have read The Bean Trees and Pigs In Heaven - LOVE, The Poisonwood Bible -4 or 5 times, LOVE - The Lacuna - pretty good, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which I did not love.
Animal Dreams and Prodigal Summer are high on my list. Looking forward to whichever one...

>21 laytonwoman3rd:

Thanks for the correction, I must not have checked editions.

>23 Limelite: That'll getcha every time! It doesn't matter for Bean Trees and Animal Dreams, but Bean Trees should probably be read before Pigs in Heaven.

I'm a fan of Kingsolver so downloaded the short story collection Homeland. Enjoying it a great deal.

Yay! One of my all-time favorite authors. I will start with the first and still my sentimental favorite: The Bean Trees. And I have the cutest edition:



I take great pride in the fact that I bought this novel in 1988, when it was first published, at Women and Children First, a Chicago bookstore. It was on a "New Authors" table. No one had (yet) heard of Kingsolver so I feel a special connection to her.

Weird and out of touch with reality, I know. But still.

I loved The Bean Trees too - I bought it secondhand at Shakespeare & Co in Paris and it's one of those books that I remember where and when I read it. I haven't read Pigs in Heaven but read The Poisonwood Bible a few years ago as part of a group read on here. I liked it but not as much as The Bean Trees.

>26 EBT1002: I love that cover, Ellen! I read The Bean Trees somewhere around that time, too.

I think The Poisonwood Bible is my favorite, followed by The Bean Trees and Prodigal Summer.

I happened to pick up a used copy of Homeland at the library on Monday. I'd never heard of it before.

"Weird and out of touch with reality" Uh...no. That kind of thing IS our reality around here. And we like it that way.

>26 EBT1002: >29 laytonwoman3rd: sometimes I wish we had a "Like" button here in the threads.

>29 laytonwoman3rd: and >30 RBeffa: *big smile*

I have plenty of her books on the shelves and nothing read. Has to be The Poisonwood Bible for me this month.

>27 cushlareads: I have serious bookshop envy about this story.

I'm still enjoying Homeland and other stories.Taking small bites every so often. My favourite so far the opener about a family going on a road trip to visit the grandmother's home on a reservation.

Just finished Homeland and other Stories. I really liked almost all of the stories.

The final story, set amidst a US strike (Why I am a Danger to the Public), is equally powerful. Victoria is a woman in a male dominated field, but she's not backing down:

I'm not that big of a person but I was standing up in front, and when I cussed, they shut up. "If my papa had been a chickenshit like you guys, I would be down at the Frosty King tonight in a little short skirt," I said. "You bunch of no-goods would be on welfare and your kids pushing drugs to pay the rent." Some of the guys laughed, but some didn't.

Other stories deal with complex relationships, misunderstandings and racism in believable communities of characters that often made me want to read more. I'm a fan of Kingsolver and will be adding the couple of hers I've not got to onto the TBR pile pronto.

Guess I'm the only one with no Kingsolver love here. Just finished my first - The Prodigal Summer. I found it saccharine and preachy.

>35 countrylife: Hate you didn't like that one. I've never found a loser in her books, but I didn't read that one.

>35 countrylife: I haven't read that one, but that's how I found Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Preachy. I plan to give The Prodigal Summer a try this month, since it's on my shelf.

Just finished The Bean Trees. I enjoyed it, rated it 3.5 stars, and will read more of Kingsolvers works.

"The sky is perfect black. A leftover smile of a moon hides in the bottom branches of the sugar maple, teasing her to smile back."

"He kisses her hair, which smells like a thunderstorm, and her shoulder, which smells like beach rocks."

-Pigs in Heaven

This one picks up, shortly after the events in The Bean Trees, with the same tone, beauty and richly-drawn characters. My Kingsolver crush continues...

I've started The Bean Trees. So far so good.

I am excited to re-read The Bean Trees. I may go on a little Kingsolver binge and read Pigs in Heaven, too. It's been a very long time since I first read them, but I remember loving The Bean Trees with all my heart and then loving Pigs in Heaven even more.

I'm just a little ways into Poisonwood Bible and just loving the writing.

Karen O.

>42 klobrien2: That's the one I'm reading too.

>43 thornton37814: Good! How are you finding it so far?

Karen O.

I finished The Lacuna a couple of days ago. I didn't like it quite as well as The Poisonwood Bible, mostly because it included real people and real events. I typically avoid books that blend real people and events with fiction because I don't want fiction clouding my perspective of history. (I don't have a problem with real people in fictional settings, though, such as the historical mysteries with Jane Austen as amateur detective.)

I've read Kingsolver's The Bean Trees and its sequel Pigs in Heaven. Both presented good stories, wonderful characters and dialog, but the latter especially disappointed me because I looked for a serious consideration of the novel's central issue. And I thought Kingsolver ducked a serious resolution through unlikely but damned convenient, distant, dormant family ties.

My thoughts on the first book are here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/196008#5344088

And on the sequel here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/196008#5344088

>44 klobrien2: I'm enjoying it, but I haven't had much time for reading. Hoping I get a bit of a chance the rest of the week although I'll be busy with weddings, funerals, etc.

Just finished Prodigal Summer. Not my favorite. This novel is basically about the interconnected-ness of everything. It is beautifully written, the characters are pretty realistic, if not completely likable, and their stories are really the every day triumphs and tragedies of real life. The biologist part of me loved the science bits and the strong women scientists. All that said, I didn't love the book. I find that Kingsolver gets more and more preachy over the years, which is off-putting. I may agree with her on some points, but that doesn't mean I want to be beaten about the head with it.
I do think I will re-read Poisonwood Bible for fun in the next few months. It's still my favorite.

I am reading Flight Behavior and enjoying it.

I finished The Bean Trees and am so glad I did this reread. I loved it again.

I finished and really enjoyed Animal Dreams. Although I won't get to Pigs in Heaven this month, I hope to do so sometime soon.

#48
The only novel by Kingsolver I have read is Poisonwood Bible and I thought that one was very preachy. I figure that essays are by default preachy so her tone didn't bother me so much in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

>52 benitastrnad: That's so true--I expect a point of view in a political/sociological essay, but I resent it in fiction. In an essay, I can feel free to disagree, but in a story I feel hi-jacked. I love Kingsolver's essays, even when I don't always agree with her, but the preachy stories are hard to take.

I'm still slogging my way through The Poisonwood Bible. I just haven't had time to read a book. Hoping that I'll finish it in December. I'm going to probably start something else and alternate reading the two and listening to an audio book. I've got to try to read about 12 books in December. At least this one is started!

>52 benitastrnad: and >53 kac522: I'm about a third of the way through Poisonwood Bible and hope to finish in December. I'm not sure I know what you mean as "preachy." I am appreciating all of the different voices (of the daughters, of the Congolese).

Karen O.

>55 klobrien2: If I remember correctly, it was towards the end of the book that I started to feel the book became more "political." Not that I disagreed with her point of view completely, but it wasn't subtle and hard to escape.

#55
It is more towards the end of the book that it becomes Preachy, but I like the term that kac522 used - political. That is probably the better term. I don't disagree with Kingsolver, but there is no doubt about her opinions or where her sympathies, through the lens of her characters, lie. I am old enough to remember those events. I grew up in a very conservative religious background and my church supported missionaries who were in the Congo at that time and had to be evacuated. It wasn't until I was much older that I learned that the siege and evacuation of the American embassy wasn't caused by religious extremists but by our own governments interference in the politics and government of another country. All of that might be why I consider Poisonwood Bible to have a political message.

>57 benitastrnad: I worked at a seminary library in the 1980s and 1990s where one of the alums was a missionary in the Congo at that time. She was one of those killed in Stanleyville in the 1960s. The university now has a dorm named for her. They also produced a video about her life and work which can be seen at https://vimeo.com/76091429.

I'll be paying attention as I read, but I understand what you're saying. I, too, am familiar with the very conservative religious types, and this book is ringing very true so far (I'm at the point where independence has just been declared in the Congo and the father is refusing to take his family away). Good discussion! I'm glad I "raised my hand."

Karen O.

#58
My Aunt is a graduate of Wheaton College and some of the people who were evacuated were in her class at that school.