This story stays with you.

Bean Trees
The novel Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is such a heart-touching book. It is the story about a woman names Taylor and her journey from her confining home in Kentucky. This journey is filled with ups and downs with unforgettable experiences. Taylor only has a car and very little money, yet she is so courageous and determined to find her true calling. I personally loved this book and all of the characters. This book was so unique but really pressed upon an important issue in today’s society, immigration. It is also about woman empowerment, and Taylor’s courage in the book is really inspiring. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to others and I found it very captivating and enjoyable.

Wonderful story. Yes, it took a few chapters for it to engage me, but the warmth of the place created made me feel near Turtle and Taylor. I loved the speech patterns; "I don't know how the good Lord packed so much guts into one little person," Taylor says to Mama, and it's true of Taylor too. I also enjoyed Unsheltered...

skimmed a lot.

I really enjoy Kingsolver's strong female-centered stories. This one did not disappoint. While written about 30 years ago, it has some really current thematic material in the form of a Guatemalan immigration story.

The story reflects in horrific truth what was actually unfolding under the Argentinian dictatorship in the 1970's. How courageous of the author to undertake in a first novel such a situation which also reflects the reality of challenges of our Indigineous Culture in North America.

It took me a bit to get into the "Bean Trees" but by one third the of way through I was hooked. Tyler, Turtle and friends are out of the ordinary people on an journey not planned whom you soon become attached. Kingsolver's writing style grows and is extraordinary by the end. I signed out "Pigs in heaven" the sequel as soon as I finished.

Funny and touching and painful and affirming. Not a word is wasted in the writing in this novel. Kingsolver's use of language in story-telling is masterful. Her characters are real and flawed and lovable.

The protagonist, Marietta Greer, is a tiny-town Kentucky girl raised by a strong single mother who kept body and soul together through housecleaning work.

Wanting something more for her life than she can find in her hometown, Marietta works and saves her money until she has enough to buy a mostly-running car. Then she sets off driving west, ending up in Tucson.

By the time she arrives there, she's changed her name to Taylor and received the surprise gift of a non-verbal toddler, a little girl she calls Turtle. Taylor makes a home with another single mom, while landing a job at Jesus is Lord Used Tires, also a stop on the underground railroad for Guatemalan refugees(It's the 1980s.) She learns that the world can be both a whole lot worse and a whole lot better than she'd ever known.

I read this book as a novel study for one of my students it was better than I anticipated. I enjoyed the characters and story lines. I enjoyed seeing the characters develop from the beginning to end. It was a simple read and enjoyable.

I picked this up a few years ago, needing 'anything' to read and found it to be much better than I had expected. Very funny in places and I'll try another by Kingsolver, maybe Pigs because it sounds like Part II