High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never

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.

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?

Barbara Kingsolver is well known for her fiction, but less known for her writings about science. She is trained in science and is a most engaging writer. This book, and a second book titled Small Wonders, are collections of essay about topics that concern all of us! I hope there will be more of her essays in the future!

Probably one of her most underrated books. Great essays

I truly have a love/hate relationship with Kingsolver. Sometimes I REALLY love her, as in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the Poisonwood Bible. Sometimes I can't even finish the book, such as the most recent one, Flight Pattern. These essays cover both ends of the spectrum. The thing about Kingsolver that absolutely drives me crazy is the sense of moral superiority in which she sometimes indulges (all the while denying it with a false modesty), which in High Tide in Tuscon applies particularly to most of her "travel" essays. The thing I love about her is when genuine emotion shines through the writing, when she's really passionate about something, in this case the ones about her daughter, about mothering, and the two essays that touch on her second husband. Overall, the essays are worth reading. I read all of them because it was a book club choice. Interestingly enough, most of the people in the book club has the same reaction as I did, which prompted an interesting discussion. So, maybe it's the perfect book club choice.

Excellent.

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.

I didn't know what to expect from High Tide, I picked up the book because I am a fan of Barbara Kingsolver's fiction.I found, for the first time, the enjoyment found in reading non-fiction philosophical discussion. The views expressed in these essays made me begin to think, and woke me up from our spoon-fed media world to start thinking for myself. It encouraged me to start researching rather than taking news for granted, and I also now listen to BBC news for a more rounded view. It's been an eye opener and conscious awakening for me.

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.

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.

Book rather ancient but still readable. Everything ok

Stunning author.

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