Prodigal Summer by Kingsolver - Barbara (2013) Paperback

While not a true Kingsolver fan, I am rapidly becomming one! After reading Poisonwood Bible and enjoying it, I read this and absolutely loved it. What I didn't know about ecology, coyotes and moths could fill volumes. I really enjoyed the characters and their interwoven stories and learned so much about the delicate balance of nature. I would recommend this book to anyone without hesitation. It was absolutely wonderful.

A fun and interesting read. Barbara Kingsolver writes an eloquent story about a woman who learns that she can follow her dreams even after being married for many years. It hooks you from the first chapter and doesn't let go till the very end! If you want to learn something while being entertained this is a great book!

As always, I find Kingsolver's character development and descriptions to be detailed and thought provoking. I might have given it four stars but it took me a long time to read, I think because it took me a bit of time to get in to.

I picked up this book after a friend recommended it to me. It isn't something I would normally go for, but I am SO glad I did! The first three pages had me hooked and although I lead a very different life than the three main characters in this book, I can relate to them on a very human level with the struggles they go through in trying to find themselves after loss. The writing is so well done that you just fall into this book and the world these people live in and it is SO hard to put down.

Too many novelists watch the word count too closely. When they reach their target word count they end the novel as quickly as possible. In this novel Ms Kingsolver does that in spades and if I had known that before purchasing it would not have been bought.

Fantastic story with very charming characters. Give this book a few chapters, I guarantee it will grab your attention. I highly recommend this as a summer read. Just loved it, and so did my Book Club!

Author has great ability to draw reader into the narrative connecting disparate characters and making you care about them. She can make you feel as if you were smelling the scent of the flowers and feeling the emotions of the characters vividly.

A bit difficult to get into but engrossing within 30 pages. The parallel stories of those on either side of the ecological debate of hunter/ rancher/ farmer v environmentalist/organic farmer iis enlightening on the perspective of each.

I have only recently discovered Barbara Kingsolver with Fight Behavior, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle- her writing truly speaks to me as a fellow Southerner and one who is very interested in the topics of her books. I will be reading them all and hope there are many more to come.

Excellent novel by Barbara Kingsolver, interweaving her constant themes of nature, character and community.
I became attached to the characters as they evolved, and changed in response to circumstance, and learned even more
about biology, climate and history. Don't miss it.

Barbara Kingsolvers uncanny ability to capture her characters internal communication keeps the reader involved with outcome expectations. The book was great and the way it conludes is really clever.
Great read.

The interweaving of the three women in this book is just beautiful. With the blending of the natural world into the story, I was completely riveted. A book of substance and joy, I bought the paperbackk initially and have been waiting for the kindle edition, just because...

I really enjoyed the three stories that intertwined at the end. I also like the scientific details that the author provides in nature. I just thought that the ending just dropped off in the end not giving the book a full summation.

In Kingsolver's uniquely skillful way, she creates a tapestry of fascinating characters who tell us about the dangers faced by our environment when we fail to pay attention to our actions and their impact. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about nature while simultaneously peering into the minds of some quirky but likable characters.

I've read all of Kingsolver's fiction. A difference between Barbara and other female writers is that I read her books over. Prodigal Summer I've read over and over. I ordered this last one to give as a gift, at least the 4th copy I've given.

Vintage Kingsolver, the themes in the book intertwine between generations, humans, creatures, and earthkeeping. The author connects all of them into an interdependent whole, where the survival and the chance to thrive depend on how the rest of creation is surviving. Filled with unforgettable characters and amazing facts, relationships and situations, humour and tragedy, that the reader can identify with, learn from and be entertained by.

A great way of winding three separate stories together in a fictitious county in the Appalachian region of Virginia. Kingsolver also does a wonderful job of explaining the balance of ecology in this region and parallels it to residents' stories.

A bit preachy, but in an interesting way. Beautifully written in parts, particularly the descriptions of natural surroundings. An easy way to learn some very interesting ecology - embedded in an engaging story line.

This was my second time reading Prodigal Summer. Am not familiar with any other work by B. Kingsolver but truly enjoyed the evolving relationships between the characters and the descriptions of nature in this novel.

This was my second time reading Prodigal Summer. Am not familiar with any other work by B. Kingsolver but truly enjoyed the evolving relationships between the characters and the descriptions of nature in this novel.

I thought Barbara Kingsolver could do no wrong until I read this novel. She is still my favorite author, but this book tanks! It was like reading an ecology textbook with lots of sex scenes. If I had to read it for a college ecology class, I'm sure it would have been more interesting than the other text books out there, but as a novel for a typical person, looking for a great read, it was a real disappointment.
Save your money, buy any of Barbara's awesome books but this one. My personal favorite is High Tide in Tucson, but they are all wonderful. Read Prodigal Summer only if you'd like academic credit and you can stay awake through boring text.

The best recent novel I have read. The English is good, thee is humour and the plot is surprising and believable. There is a little too much coincidence ;but not shocking. I loved the goat marketing twist to tobacco..

Kingsolver's talent at describing landscapes and wildlife in the mots minute details
Is admirable. This allows her to create atmospheres in which the characters can
exist and develop. The reader needs patience for the plot evolves very slowly.

I never knew Barbara had a degree in Biology. Her love of nature and all its creatures and the need to protect them is apparent in this story. I like how each of the individuals she focuses on, end up knowing each other in the end. Our parents taught us to be conservationists and I know what a struggle it is to educate others about each creature's importance in the big picture.

The research that goes into Barbara Kingsolver's books is amazing. This book tells some very real tales of the people in the Shenandoah valley through the complex and interesting characters that she has developed.

Kingsolver explains the interconnected ness of all living beings in a beautifully written, poignant novel. Her characters are memorable, her descriptions are lyrical. I highly recommend Prodigal Summer.

This is a story about some interesting people. The author's description of the flora and fauna make you feel like you are there. She obviously is either very familiar with the area or got some expert help on what grows (both plants and animals) and what it looks like. The characters are strong, independent women for sure!

I like the writing style and I enjoyed the characters, the story, and the message. A lot of the books I read are entertainment for the moment - enjoyable but soon forgotten. As with Poisonwood, there are little things in this book that I will continue to think about. Four stars instead of five because It ended too soon for me - left too many things for me to wonder about and end for myself. I would love a sequel.

This is a complicated interweave of stories which all end up relating at the end - which seems a bit contrived, but kept my interest. THe writing style is excellent, and the imagery of the characters and their relation to nature is excellent.

There was not a dull moment in this novel. Barbara Kingsolver has a way with words and analogies and the descriptions of nature are wonderful. At this transition time in my life, the messages in this book gave me a lot of hope and guidance. I recommend this book for any woman going through a major life change.

Ms. Kingsolver is a student of all things biologic. She uses her scientific interests and her expertise in genus and species of plants and animals to make the setting of the novel come alive in a warm and green and tramping-through-the-woods manner! The words seem too plain at times. But there are ways that Barbara has the ladies and the men use those words that twists their outer selves forward into their deeper selves. These people are developing even as they resist change (or try to). The plot that Barbara conceived has special meanings for the reader. The big events seem to become smaller in light of the decisions that the main characters make. The people in this book are so believable -- surely they have been in Barbara's life in some manner. The message about conservation of the earth is woven into the tapestry of this back-and-forth story about two families who live in a different time. The place is somewhat familiar. The time is sometimes strange. That is the pure greatness of this novel: Ms. Kingsolver make a time of our country when farmers were forced / or chose to move into the city to take factory jobs. That complexity of situations happened 40 + years ago. But because of her supernatural talent, Ms. Kingsolver makes those happenings fresh and endearing to the reader!
The experience of reading this book has made me a richer person -- truly!

I highly recommend it!

The whole book is a sensory delight, pulling one back yo the roots that anchor us. One involved in the story it was hard to come up for air I to my own place and issues, Amazing story teller and a book to loose myself in,.