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Barbara Kingsolver Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.

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Barbara Kingsolver is a novelist, essayist and poet.

14 books
Book Cover for: I Have Some Questions for You, Rebecca Makkai

I Have Some Questions for You

Rebecca Makkai
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

This book kept me reading late into the night. It is beautifully written... A literary murder mystery (kind of), but that really doesn’t cover it. A nuanced exploration of all the innate or imposed biases that get in the way of truth: racism, sexism, cancel culture. And their dire costs.

Paperback, 2024

$19.00$9.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: The Progress of Love, Alice Munro

The Progress of Love

Alice Munro
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

…one of a thousand books that made me the writer I am, because I learned my craft entirely from reading. I can’t name one best teacher, but Munro is a standout. She taught me that the secret is in the sentences: every one has to be perfect.

Paperback, 2000

$22.00$11.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Pod, Laline Paull

Pod

Laline Paull
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

[Pod] taught me countless facts about ocean life, but the knockout is this one: Humpback whales compose and sing very long songs that they send into currents of water that echo around the planet. Other whales hear and repeat their favorite songs, with some getting worldwide play.

Hardcover, 2023

$26.95$13.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Miss Benson's Beetle, Rachel Joyce

Miss Benson's Beetle

Rachel Joyce
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

If you’re wishing you could be in a faraway land right now, but would accept the alternative route to New Caledonia via a deliciously improbable plot, wonderful characters, sparkling sentences, and too many belly laughs to count: have I got a novel for you.

Paperback, 2020

$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry

Hannah Coulter

Wendell Berry
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

...my literary comfort food. In these books I know I won’t be upset or alarmed, just touched to my core. Berry’s people are my people and I love them.

Paperback, 2005

$16.95$8.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy

Soldier Sailor

Claire Kilroy
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

Oh this novel! Powerful beyond description. I read it in a day, holding my breath, heart bursting. This is essential reading for anyone who ever felt swallowed alive by caring for a child. And essential reading for everyone who hasn’t.

Hardcover, 2024

$26.99$13.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914, David McCullough

The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

David McCullough
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

...a history of the Panama Canal that I brought with me, obviously, on a trip through the Panama Canal. It’s wonderfully researched, and about a thousand pages long. The book lasted longer than the trip.

Paperback, 1978

$22.99$11.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner, Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner

Joan Didion
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

a vulnerable study of grief... I can’t say why I finally picked it up, 20 years after publication. But I did, and you should too... it leaves you convinced that we love best when we understand the inevitability of loss.

Paperback, 2007

$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Cannery Row, John Steinbeck

Cannery Row

John Steinbeck
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

I grew up with no belief that I could be a writer, because I only knew regular people doing ordinary stuff. In my early 20’s, this novel bowled me over by showing me the most beautiful, funny, heroic thing I could possibly write about: ordinary lives.

Paperback, 1994

$16.00$8.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason

Sorrow and Bliss

Meg Mason
Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver

I loved this book. Some novels ask you to work for it, others just say, “Kick off your shoes, come in, let me take you somewhere.” I needed the latter kind... There is plenty of sorrow in this story, maybe more than bliss, but it’s also funny and as endearing as a good friend.

Paperback, 2022

$18.99$9.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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