Kingsolver, Barbara. Small Wonder: Essays. © 2002.

Barbara Kingsolver is, in my humble opinion, one of America’s greatest living thinkers and writers. A biologist by training, she has expanded her repertoire to include numerous works of short fiction and several acclaimed novels (among her best known is The Poisonwood Bible, the story of a preacher who uproots his family and moves them to the Congo, where they try to convert the locals but end up trapped in the middle of a violent civil war).

In Kingsolver’s latest book, Small Wonder, she gathers together a number of essays she has written about topics ranging from genetic engineering to motherhood, and mused on topics from television and why she doesn’t watch it to the tragedy at Columbine and what we can learn about ourselves and our culture from those events. Among her most powerful pieces are those she wrote following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including her much-published piece, “And Our Flag Was Still There.”

Kingsolver, as a biologist, naturalist, and extremely eloquent writer, manages to blend her talents together to offer thoughtful, powerful, and passionate statements about the most pressing—and often most controversial—current issues. She offers a sane, carefully documented argument about the importance of teaching biology in schools, a personal explanation of how she enacts her beliefs about living simply and in harmony with the earth in her own life, and many other thought-provoking essays.

I admire Kingsolver’s ability to be passionate about her beliefs without being condescending towards those who do not share them and without demanding that the rest of the world see things her way. She is a truly compassionate and gifted writer, and her books are well worth your time and attention.

Other Kingsolver titles:
Homeland and Other Stories.
Animal Dreams
The Bean Trees
Pigs in Heaven
High Tide in Tuscon
Prodigal Summer