List Price: $16.99 Details

Save: $5.40 (32%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns

FREE delivery: July 2 - 4 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: June 30 - July 2

In stock soon.
Order it now.
Want it faster? The Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

$$11.59 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: This item is returnable

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Thursday, June 17 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Jenson Books Inc

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Other Sellers on Amazon

$9.00
+ $4.94 shipping

Sold by: Teknik-books

$14.44
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Fifty Third Street Books

$10.50
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: abookmanondeadwood

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Barbara Kingsolver

Small Wonder: Essays Paperback – April 15, 2003

by Barbara Kingsolver (Author)

207 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$7.49

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover, Deckle Edge

"Please retry"

$11.89

$6.95

$1.25

Paperback

"Please retry"

$11.59

$7.57

$0.94

Audio, Cassette, Unabridged, Audiobook

"Please retry"

$34.95

$8.33

Enhance your purchase

In twenty-two wonderfully articulate essays, Barbara Kingsolver raises her voice in praise of nature, family, literature, and the joys of everyday life while examining the genesis of war, violence, and poverty in our world

From the author of High Tide in Tucson, comes Small Wonder, a new collection of essays that begins with a parable gleaned from recent news: villagers search for a missing infant boy and find him, unharmed, in the cave of a dangerous bear that has mothered him like one of her own. Clearly, our understanding of evil needs to be revised. What we fear most can save us. From this tale, Barbara Kingsolver goes on to consider the chasm between the privileged and the poor, which she sees as the root cause of violence and war in our time. She writes about her attachment to the land, to nature and wilderness, trees and mountains-the place from which she tells her stories. Whether worrying about the dangers of genetically engineered food crops, or creating opportunities for children to feel useful and competent - like growing food for the family’s table - Kingsolver looks for small wonders, where they grow, and celebrates them.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

April 15, 2003
Dimensions

7.96 x 5.32 x 0.82 inches
ISBN-10

0060504080
ISBN-13

978-0060504083
See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Barbara Kingsolver
98
Paperback
$15.99
Barbara Kingsolver
140
Paperback
$14.99
Barbara Kingsolver
225
Hardcover
$14.99
Barbara Kingsolver
2,811
Paperback
$13.69
Barbara Kingsolver
2,671
Paperback
$10.99
Barbara Kingsolver
4,304
Paperback
$10.44

More items to explore

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Alison Bechdel
424
Paperback
$16.99
Ocean Vuong
5,612
Hardcover
in LGBT Coming of Age Fiction
$9.67
Lauren Oyler
267
Hardcover
$21.59
Mieko Kawakami
935
Paperback
$14.51
Ursula K. Le Guin
567
Paperback
$7.25
Alain De Botton
775
Paperback
$16.99

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Observant, imaginative, and both lucid and impassioned.” -- Book Magazine

“This book of essays by Barbara Kingsolver is like a visit from a cherished old friend.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Kingsolver possesses a rare depth of understanding of nature’s complex mechanisms.” -- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“A delightful, challenging, and wonderfully informative book.” -- San Francisco Chronicle

“Essays … [of] great skill and wisdom.” -- Booklist

From the Inside Flap

In her new essay collection, the beloved author of High Tide in Tucson brings to us, out of one of history's darker moments, an extended love song to the world we still have.

Whether she is contemplating the Grand Canyon, her vegetable garden, motherhood, genetic engineering, or the future of a nation founded on the best of all human impulses, these essays are grounded in the author's belief that our largest problems have grown from the earth's remotest corners as well as our own backyards, and that answers may lie in both those places.

Sometimes grave, occasionally hilarious, and ultimately persuasive, Small Wonder is a hopeful examination of the people we seem to be, and what we might yet make of ourselves.

--Booklist

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (April 15, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060504080
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060504083
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.96 x 5.32 x 0.82 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #283,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,358 in Essays (Books)
- #1,484 in Nature Conservation
- #1,836 in Literary Criticism & Theory

Customer Reviews:
207 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		14%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

JBelle

Barbara Kingsolver...need I say more?

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

I've had this book so long, so this purchase was probably for a gift. I am NOT typically one who reads a book of essays, but both of Barbara Kingsolver's books of essays (this one and "High Tide in Tucson") are priceless. Especially "Small Wonders", I felt like she was speaking my thoughts, with my heart. I love so much how she writes and how she thinks. While some of her fiction books I appreciate more than others, just know that I own every one of them and can recommend every one of them, but please do also try her books of essays. She is remarkable.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

David Lupo

See the World with New Eyes!

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. And in a casual conversation with a friend, sometime later, he mentioned having finished her book of essays, Small Wonder. He spoke about how he enjoyed it. I was open to the idea, and obtained a copy for myself.

What a fantastic writer! I enjoyed her non-fiction experiences and ideas as much as I did the novel. She has a great mind, steeped in science and clear thinking. She is quite clear in her view on how she values the world that belongs to us all. She is clear on how she values her family, and how she makes new discoveries in the journeys they take together. She is able to read between the lines of moment-to-moment family living to lay hold of a fresh insight.

Scientifically-gifted, she nonetheless has a great sense of humor. And she has not let Darwin eclipse her sense of God. She writes on nature in a way that the reader can be enticed to slow down and smell the roses on his or her next walk through the park. Her writing makes the deep, dark forest such a friendly place. The armchair tourist will love the places she takes you to see.

She is clear-thinking in her pieces that have a political slant. She has much to teach us about food, and how it is grown, and the ethics of what we choose to eat. I am with her in her stand against the corporation that is out to reap a profit, at the price of human life. And with courage she lets the reader in to her life's painful moments. She is what some people call a contemplative: one who notices things, and can relate them in a way that brings wonder to all.

This is a blessing in paperback form. Informative. Friendly. Enchanting. Truly a great waste of your time.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Washington Patty

Beautifully Written Sanity

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2002

Verified Purchase

Since the Twin Towers crumbled, very few have had the courage to stand up in the face of the Jingoistic, shallow patriotism and say, there is something terribly wrong here! Ms. Kingsolver, writing beautifully as always, manages to make hard fisted moral statements sound like poetry, but nonetheless she says some things that need to be said, and, most of all, need to be heard.Whether it is debunking the nonsense that it is wrong for other countries to attack the US, but fair and just for the US to attack them back, or telling the truth out loud about the US involvement in setting up the Taliban's power in the first place, she tells it truly from her heart, and she tells it right and well. She addresses many topics in this wonderful book of essays, from the death penalty to poetry, to dreadful television, and she manages each time to stand outside of the mainstream point of view and look objectively, and from that stance, to point out the absurdity, and to point out a saner direction. Ms. Kingsolver says peace not war, love not hate, sharing not profit, and these ideas are not new, just stated newly and beautifully at a time when they need so desparately to be heard.
This was a wonderful book and I wish everyone would read it and let it in.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amy

Be prepared to leave your baggage at the door...

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2006

Verified Purchase

When you embark on this journey with Ms. Kingsolver, if it doesn't make you squirm, you're not paying attention.

I got this book on tape because I loved Kingsolver's fiction. I didn't know it was a running commentary on political and environmental issues that are close to the author's heart. I was delighted to find that the author and I share many of the same what could be called 'liberal' views on various issues. This book will make you think about old issues in a new light... but not a glaring one... more like the light that wakes you gently through your window in the morning.

Yes, you may not agree with everything she says, but that's not the author's goal. She states her beliefs in a steady calm voice (I have the cassettes) and gives reasons she came to her current positions. Kudos to her for doing her research before making a sometimes bold statement on a sensitive issue.

Barbara Kingsolver challenges us to find our own voice in the face of the many controversial issues that face us as individuals living in a sometimes not-so-United country. I don't believe she is pushing her own agenda... more sharing her personal journalling on things that are on her mind, and maybe on yours, too. If you don't agree, don't let it ruin the book for you. Look for ways that it can inspire you to challenge or even strengthen your alternate position on an issue.

In the end, after all, aren't our differences and freedom to make our own choices part of what makes this country so great?

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Brooke Vertin

Great essays, especially the Letters

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book of essays was written and compiled soon after 9/11. Some of them deal more directly in response to the climate post-9/11, however, having just read the book in 2013, every essay is still relevant today. I really like Kingsolver's nonfiction and essays (as well as her novels). I originally listened to this on audio book, which is read by her. This was a lovely way to experience the essays, in her slow yet passional voice. I recommend both, audio and paperback! My favorite essay is her letter to her mother.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Good read

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2019

Verified Purchase

I love her diversity and each chapter is on a different subject. She gives a educated summary on many subjects and is quite opinionated (and for me, in a good way.) I would recommend this book.

Helpful