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Small Wonder: Essays | 
| Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $0.77
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Avg. Customer Rating:  80 reviews
Sales Rank: 94229
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060504080
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780060504083
ASIN: 0060504080
Publication Date: April 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Amazon.com Review
Readers familiar with Barbara Kingsolver will find that Small Wonder, a collection of 23 essays, shows the same sensitivity and thoughtfulness, the same rich knowledge of and love for the natural world, as her spellbinding novels. In "Knowing Our Place," she describes the two places in which she writes: a tin-roof cabin in Appalachia and her home in the Tucson desert. In "Setting Free the Crabs," she uses her daughter's decision not to take home a beautiful (and occupied) red conch shell from a Mexican beach to illustrate our own need to give up our sense of ownership of the earth, to resist "the hunger to possess all things bright and beautiful." Many of these pieces, like the lovely title essay, were written (or rewritten) in response to the events of September 11, which threw into relief the growing social and economic inequities that are so little remarked on in the American media. These are political essays, although Kingsolver is not a natural rhetorician; her prose is too supple and inclusive. She is more inclined to follow the turns of her mind, like water in a curving stream bed, than to hammer home a point or two. But she has a rare gift for apt allusion (from sources as wide-ranging as Robert Frost to Beanie Babies) and for the elegant use of facts and figures. And she is highly quotable. It is easy to imagine the speechwriters and activists of the next 10 years dipping into Small Wonder for inspiration and the perfect phrase. --Regina Marler
Product Description
In her new essay collection, the beloved author of High Tide in Tucson brings to us, out of one of history's darker moments, an extended love song to the world we still have. Whether she is contemplating the Grand Canyon, her vegetable garden, motherhood, genetic engineering, or the future of a nation founded on the best of all human impulses, these essays are grounded in the author's belief that our largest problems have grown from the earth's remotest corners as well as our own backyards, and that answers may lie in both those places. Sometimes grave, occasionally hilarious, and ultimately persuasive, Small Wonder is a hopeful examination of the people we seem to be, and what we might yet make of ourselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 75 more reviews...
 Inspirational March 5, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found Barbara Kingsolver's "A Small Wonder" inspirational. It's the first time I've finished a book and immediately turned it over and read it again! Ms. Kingsolver is a perceptive storyteller and the way she portrays everyday experiences sheds an illuminating perspective on a better way to experience life - from how we use resources, to how we raise our kids, to how we relate to others. It's a wonderful guidebook for those who are concerned about peace, family and the environment. Everyone should read it because we should all be concerned about these things!
Not a fun read, but a GREAT read January 25, 2008
We just discussed this book at our book club and it was described as "broccoli". It's a book you should read, but isn't one you exactly race back to reading any change you get. This book makes you think, which is great in modern day culture. We discussed the book for 2 hours and didn't even cover at least 1/2 the topics we could have discussed. WARNING: If read with an open mind, it can lead you to make small changes in your life and your community and appreciate all the small wonders in your own life.
Reassurance That There Are Small Wonders and Hope In Post-9/11 December 29, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Barbara Kingsolver
somewhere outside of Tucson
or
somewhere in Appalachia
Dear Barbara,
Thank you. Keep writing! Although this one is not for sissies.
I feel that I can call you Barbara, because I have read most of your books, and, also, knowing you from your books, you would look over your shoulder if I addressed you as Ms. Kingsolver.
This book of essays predicated by events on September 11, 2001, is an outlet for so many of your passions for peace, humanity, justice, children, simplicity, your mother, nature, gardens and hummingbirds, to name a few. So many of them are also my passions, but it is a hard read. Then, so is living in the United States right now with the air filled with fear, anger and hate. As you write, "All of the promises of politicians, generals, madmen and crusaders that war can create peace have yet to be borne out."
You keep reasuring me and others throughout this book that there are small wonders and there is hope.
Your description of the miracle of a hummingbird building her nest outside your window made me gasp with awe. Such a sharing! And the reminder about the importance of diversity which follows sets down the dangers of the genetic engineering of foods so clearly.
"What Good is a Story?" had me marking passage after passage. You describe how I feel about your own fiction:
"I love fiction, strangely enough, for how true it is. If it can tell me someething I didn't already know, or maybe suspected but never framed quite that way, or never before had sock me so divinely in the solar plexus, that was a story worth the read."
and
"The business of fiction is to probe the tender spots of an imperfect world, which is where I live, write, and read."
I thank you for your writing, and I'm looking forward to your next book. Thank you, also, for donating the proceeds from "Small Wonder" to organizations helping to create hope and life in this imperfect world.
Hugs, Judith
by Judith Helburn
for StorycircleBookReviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women
 worst book i've ever read August 13, 2006
5 out of 35 found this review helpful
This book was required reading for my advanced placement english class. I consider myself a lover of the written word. I dream of someday becoming a novelist, or at least an english teacher. It usually takes me 3-5 days to finish a book, especially a good book. It has taken me 2 months to read this book. It is not only boring, but often times repetetive. Barbara Kingsolver relates everything to September 11th. Granted, this was a tragic day for our country and should always be remembered. But I dont see why Ms. Kingsolver found it necessary to write a whole novel about it. I find even less necessary for this to be required reading. Every once in a while Ms. Kingsolver finds the need to express herself with words that are a little more complicated than need be. It was a less than pleasent read and I wouldnt recommend it to my worst enemy.
A thought-provoking book......a place for reflection and solace. August 9, 2006
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I agree with the reviewer who cautioned to take this book in small doses. I was moved to tears by the second page, and realized I needed to pace myself. On that second page, Kingsolver was describing the story of a lost child in Iraq (who was found)....her point of view was from the parents of this child, and the heart-wrenching terror they must have felt as the babysitter came running towards them in tears, without their son. This story has an incredible ending, and an incredible message....as does each essay. Some essays are heavy and may provoke thoughts or ideology that makes you uncomfortable, or disagreeable. That is okay.....that is the point of these essays. (As for the reviewer who noted the author's "sexist" remarks - tell me how many women have started a war. Hello? Open your eyes. That is not a sexist statement, it's a fact). If more people would take Kingsolver's gentle, thoughtful manner of considering how our actions affect the global community and our future generations, maybe we could really improve upon our reputation as uncooperative, self-serving, greedy and over-consumptive Americans. Maybe.
As for reviewers who likened this to an anti-Bush or post-9/11 rant, they obviously didn't read the entire book. There are beautiful essays detailing a trip to the heart of Mexico, gardening with her daughters, and the long-term effects of the food choices we make - among many others.
All in all, I did find myself coming to this book on my lunch hour for a good dose of hope and solace. Sometimes taking time to acknowledge one small wonder in this hectic world can make your mood a little bit lighter.
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