Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Barbara Kingsolver's Small Wonder


Barbara Kingsolver

I finished Small Wonder this morning. It is a book of 23 essays by Barbara Kingsolver. And it is a wonder.

The woman writes a fine essay. She made me smile, think, cry, and get angry all at once. Quite a feat.

Usually I read a book of essays in order but this time I started in the middle and read backward to the first one and then started over with the final essay and read toward the middle.

I read her Foreward last. In it, Kingsolver writes that she began the book on September 11, 2001. She didn't know it would would end up as a collection. Instead it began as one woman's response to the terrorist attacks.

I can not find fault with her ideas and opinions about war, family, community, home and homelessness, and the fragility of our planet's flora and fauna. She digs deep and I often found myself weeping at her words.

She mentions a previous book of essays published in 1995. So of course that one, High Tide in Tuscon: Essays from Now or Ever, is now on my To Be Read list. One book leads to another.

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