While she does present us with many problems, at the same time, if you look, she presents us with many solutions. Turn off the TV. (Really! You can still stay informed - these things we call books can educate you about nearly everything!) Grow your own produce, and support local farmers. If you've been driving cars that fall apart after ten years, then next time you buy a car, buy one that will last - preferably a gas-electric hybrid. Find a way to involve yourself in your community. As the saying goes, "Think globally; act locally." All is not without hope.

The world needs more people like Barbara Kingsolver. I am a better person for reading her books.


She does it again   April 7, 2002
 22 out of 28 found this review helpful

Barbara Kingsolver does it again. She manages to write beautiful, heartbreaking, and sometimes funny essays on her daughter raising chickens, biology, growing her own food, writing a "sexy" novel, the demise of independent bookstores, and the heartbreak of September 11th. You might not always agree with Ms. Kingsolver, but by God, you'll be glad she's around to tell her truth.


If you want to stay asleep, don't read this book!   May 13, 2002
 20 out of 23 found this review helpful

I am a long-time fan of Kingsolver's work, enjoying both her writing style and her biologically accurate depiction of the natural world. I think this is a beautiful book that I have already sent to a friend, and highly recommend to anyone interested a better world for all peoples and all species. She approaches her material with reverence, zeal, and laced with personal anecdotes that brings understanding to simple things like how eating bananas and global warming could be related.

I read the reviews of people who found this book too preachy or pedantic. Yes, it is uncomfortable to realize that our own personal habits and attitudes are contributing to world problems - it would be easier to find some kind of external fix rather than the daunting task of changing our own individual lifestyle. And, in many circles it is unpopular to question ANY of our government's programs - even though such questioning was one of the main tenets in founding a democracy. But, to me, it is appropriate that she use her fame as a novelist to shed light on what she sees as the sources of society's ills. I admire her integrity to speak her truth in an effort to wake us up out of a collective stupor. She is not the only person to be questioning the American "consciousness" since 9/11, but she does so with such an approachable and occasionally heartbreaking style that you can't help but be moved.

"Small Wonder" would be ideal for a weekly group discussion. It is a compelling read, while offering glimmers of hope throughout, and a sense that our individual lives and actions do indeed matter.


Powerful!   September 29, 2002
 19 out of 20 found this review helpful

Barbara Kingsolver, a biology graduate and author, ends her first story in "Small Wonder" by writing, "I'd like to speak of small wonders and the possibility of taking heart."
Instead of having a dangerous nationalistic attitude by saying, "Hey, America's the best!" she shows her patriotism for her country by celebrating the good and shining light on the bad so that we as a country might heal.
With great insight and compassion Kingsolver gently helps us become more knowledgeable about our country's challenges and eloquently puts into words what many of us think and feel.
About conservation she says the U.S. citizen's compromise 5% of the world's people and uses a quarter of its fuel. The U.S. belongs to the 20% of the world's population that generates 75% of its pollution. Although we are the world's biggest contributors to global warming we walked away from ratifying the Kyoto agreement with the 178 other nations in 2001. Instead of eating local produce the average American's food travels 5 million miles by land, sea and air. Yet our country possesses the resources to bring solar technology, energy independence and sustainable living to our planet.
About the Government she says we live in the only rich country in the world that still tolerates poverty. In Japan, some European countries and Canada the state assumes the duty of providing all its citizens with good education, good health and shelter. These nations believe that homelessness simply isn't an option. The citizens pay higher taxes than the U.S. and so they have smaller homes, smaller cars, and appetites for consumer goods. They realize true peace is not the absence of tension but the presence of justice.
About wars she says, "The losers of all wars are largely the innocent." Seventy thousand people died in one minute when we bombed Japan in World War II. Then twice that many died slowly from the inside. "Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder, it only adds them." In the last 30 years our government has helped finance air assaults in Afghanistan, Chile, El Salvador, Grenada, Iran, Libya, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Panama, the Sudan, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. Most wars and campaigns are to maintain our fossil-fuel dependency and our wasteful consumption of unnecessary things. We need to stop being a nation who solves problems by killing people and to "aspire to waste not and want less."
About global commerce she says we have a history of overtaking the autonomy and economy of small countries with our large corporations. For example, U.S. corporations and the World Trade Organization are placing pressure on farmers of other countries to buy genetically altered seeds that kill their own embryos. This means the farmers will always have to buy new seeds and pesticides from these companies. The pesticides and insecticides not only kill the unwanted bugs but also the beneficial insects and microbes that sustain, pollinate or cull different species. Kingsolver does not advocate the transfer of DNA genes between species to form genetically altered seeds. We need the checks and balances of genetic variability-it's nature's sole insurance policy. Without genetic variability entire crops are wiped out when environments change or crop strains succumb to disease. Our canceling the insurance policy of genetic variability is "a fist in the eye of God!" A few large American agricultural corporations control these genetically altered seeds and crops.
Kingsover's essays are parables for a gentler, kinder country and world.


A role model for independent thought.   April 11, 2002
 18 out of 29 found this review helpful

As an author (Embracing Fear, HarperSanFrancisco), as a psychotherapist, as a citizen of the United States of America, and as a citizen of the world, I applaud this brilliant collection of essays. Ms. Kingsolver writes simultaneously from the mind and heart, consequently inspiring the reader to think and feel about a variety of important things, from bookstores to global politics. And she entertains us all along the way.

With this book Barbara Kingsolver has for me become a new role model for the importance of independent thinking. Buy several copies, pass them out to your friends, and have some wonderful conversations on somebody's front porch.