Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Our nomal meeting night fell on St. Patrick's day...and we had green-frosted cupcakes to celebrate.  Also, we discovered triskits + Irish cheese + bruscetta = one delicious appetizer.  But on to the book.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.  We didn't hate it, but we didn't love it either.  Kingsolver often weaves multiple storylines together.  To us, one of the storylines grabbed us much more than the others.  It featured a believable lead role, and a believable struggle.  I think it would have been nice if the whole book centered on that storyline.  The other characters could have been woven in through shared scenes or conversations. 

One thing we really enjoyed was the language.  Kingsolver truly gives each character their own voice, and has her characters use their unique voices to help them describe how they percieve their world and how they work through their problems.  That was very neat to read.

The conclusion of the story was a little sudden and convenient for our taste.  (With the exception of our favorite storyline.  We felt that one ended in a realistic place and we enjoyed the journey to get there.)  I would like to read some of her other books to see if this one just rubbed me the wrong way, or if Kingsolver...while very talented...just isn't for me.


Next Month:  Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  I'll be a little transparent here.  It would be nice to find a book our whole group can be excited about again.  That hasn't really happened since "The Book Thief"...and that was several months ago.