Exploring the themes of family, community, and the natural world with the vision of a poet and the eyes of a scientist, Barbara Kingsolver writes about ideas as diverse as modern motherhood, the history of private property, and the suspended citizenship of humans in the animal kingdom. Her canny pursuit of meaning from an inscrutable world takes place in surprising places: a museum of atomic bomb relics, a garden invaded persistently by a wild pig, and a high tide in Illinois observed by a troop of oysters.

In sharing her thoughts about the urgent business of being alive, Kingsolver employs the same keen eyes, persuasive tongue, and understanding heart that characterize her acclaimed fiction. Her essays are defiant, funny, and courageously honest.

©1995 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Harper Audio, a division of HarperCollins Publishers (P)1995 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Harper Audio, a division of HarperCollins Publishers

Listening Length

2 hours and 47 minutes
Author

Barbara Kingsolver
Narrator

Barbara Kingsolver
Audible release date

December 16, 1999
Language

English
Publisher

HarperAudio
ASIN

B0000546F0
Version

Abridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	2 hours and 47 minutes
Author	Barbara Kingsolver
Narrator	Barbara Kingsolver
Audible.com Release Date	December 16, 1999
Publisher	HarperAudio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Abridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0000546F0
Best Sellers Rank	#132,951 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #299 in Literary Essays #972 in Nature & Ecology (Audible Books & Originals) #980 in Nature Writing & Essays

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		12%
3 star		9%
2 star		1%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Lilly Trout

I want to be Barbara Kingsolver when I grow up - because one can speak in shorthand like that with friends

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2016

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Whether or not one likes a book is so incredibly subjective, it seems absurd to rate a writer's effort in the same way one would rate a toaster or a car wax. There have been times in my life when I've been moved to tears or laughter by a tome I would have dismissed as uninteresting or unimportant, under other circumstances. And then, there have been other times when I've been so distracted, or for some reason felt so odds with an author's creative effort, it wasn't until later, when I read it again, I truly appreciated all I'd missed the first time around. So, feel free to treat the five stars above as a temporal and situational outburst having little to do with anything but my own general, heady sense of gratitude for Ms. Kingsolver's decision long ago to become a writer, and my more immediate appreciation for her willingness to pull together these particular stories and essays. For many years now, I've been telling my friends, I want to be Barbara Kingsolver when I grow up - because one can speak in shorthand like that with friends. But for those of you who feel they haven't as yet achieved that distinction, let's just say, I think of Ms. Kingsolver as one of my heroines, affording her the same expressions of reverence and awe I reserve for folks like Mary Robinson, Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth May, and Tracy Chapman - these women are not merely changing the world, but encouraging us to walk beside them and find our own ways to stand our ground in favor of justice, kindness, compassion, awareness, and critical thinking. "High Tide in Tuscon," is a portrait of the world in which I am determined to live, written by the author I want to be - seriously, if I may, speaking friend to friend, does it get any better than that?

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Aurora Grace

I loved it except for the travel essays

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2013

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I've got to admit, there were parts where I wouldn't have given this book more than two stars, and parts where I swore it deserved more than five stars. So I'm going to split the difference and give it four stars.

I think where Barbara Kingsolver really shines is when she gets to talking about politically loaded views. She is much more liberal than me, and no one can make me change my mind like she can. Stone Soup in particular was an essay that really stuck with me, where she remarked on divorce and broken families, and really made me see the merits of having an untraditional family. Civil Disobedience at Breakfast was a fascinating take on parenting; it held my rapture even though I'm not a mother ... not even close.

In the Belly of the Beast and Jabberwocky were urgent, emotionally resonating essays on the importance of reducing war and violence, and never forgetting that the people on the other end of the gun are PEOPLE, and not merely faceless, soulless enemies to be destroyed.

I loved reading her accounts on what it's like to be a full time writer, because that's been a dream of mine ever since I discovered reading as a knee-high tyke. Postcards from the Imaginary Mom and Careful What You Let in the Door are two good examples of this.

Where she falls short, I feel, are her essays on traveling. The middle of the book, with The Memory Place, The Vibrations of Djoogbe, and Infernal Paradise, lags. I feel like her travel essays are much more focused on what she observes rather than what she's thinking, and her observations don't have the same enthralling quality that her thoughts and opinions do.

The beginning of her book felt a little haphazard as well. I felt like within the course of an essay, she would sometimes let her mind wander and just follow it wherever it chose to go, and I felt like her prose could have used some tightening. I did not feel this way with her later essays, so perhaps this was a problem that resolved itself as she matured in her writing abilities.

In summation: Not every essay packed a punch. But the ones that did got you right in the gut.

4 people found this helpful

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Jane M.

NOT Very Good

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2020

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The book is wonderful but, the seller advertised it as Very Good and said there was no writing in it. There are at least 20 corners bent down to mark the page and underlining in several spots. I keep all of my Kingsolver books and this one will stand out as not being a keepsake due to its condition.

One person found this helpful

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Kristi L. Marshall

Negative, Judgmental, Preachy, Torture to Finish

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2018

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A fan of the author's Poisonwood Bible, I have been progressively disappointed with her more recent novels. And with this reading, I no longer think I can read her work. As another reviewer commented....my mistake. However, the author claims she writes to share the truth. This is just lazy. A shortcut to get all of her complaints down in written form. A negative voice that it will take awhile to get out of my head. She could pick any one of these topics and put in a creative work of fiction so that the reader could enter a world that might encourage a shared viewpoint. A warning label should be included with this work. Reading it was like sitting next to a grouchy, indulgent, self-serving old relative for two weeks of Thanksgiving dinners.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

afdhadfhadsfg

One of my all-time favorites

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2015

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My favorite Kingsolver book. Her politics are evident in certain essays, so you will probably want to steer clear if liberal leanings really bother you. But Kingsolver also writes in a very grounded and practical way, not too preachy, and I think that is why I am not bothered by the political aspects. I generally steer clear of preachy political books whether I agree with the message or not. But I think this book has a different quality. In my opinion, it touches on certain truths about people and about life. It is a great read.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

D. Cottam

A collection of inspired short essays

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2007

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Barbara Kingsolver never disappoints whether she is addressing ecology,social issues or human relationships. The title essay, typically, shows her ability to take a striking image or idea and follow it into an illuminating and amusing essay touching on many big ideas.She is passionate about everything she touches but also has a wonderful ironic humour. Almost every piece in this wide ranging collection is thought provoking. In particular, her visit to a Titan missile silo and her subsequent reflections are so powerful and eloquent that I found myself physically affected. It is not often that I get goosebumps reading short non fiction collections! Barbara Kingsolver is an important voice of conscience in our times yet never gets preachy.

5 people found this helpful

Roger's Mom

Bi-national appreciation of Kingsolver!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2013

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I (Philadelphia, PA, USA) really enjoyed Kingsolver's essays on family, community, and the natural world in this book.
I sent the book via Amazon.uk (YAY-- makes cross-oceanic book-gifting simple) for Christmas to a Scottish friend who declared it "Just my cup of tea" .

Kingsolver is an acute observer (ocular and philosophical) whose prose is of an intellectually high calibre without being dense. In other words, simple and accessible without condescending. She hooks her readers and draws them in unwitting.

Her novels are equally interesting, and true to life: The Poisonwood Bible (loony-missionary's family travails) was rated as "That's really how it was!!" by a fiction-averse friend, daughter of missionaries who grew up in Iraq.

Shirley

Would use again.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2018

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Book rather ancient but still readable. Everything ok

Jane de R

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2015

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Stunning author.

Avid Reader

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2015

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Intelligent and clear writing on some difficult subjects which are of importance to the human race.

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