Book For The Week 6/30/2013: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible

by

Barbara Kingsolver

My nomination for my library book group's selection for 2013 was selected for the month of July.  I had chosen the title that I had listed as number two for my top ten books out of all the books that I had read in 2012.  You can read my last years review of this book HERE.   This past week,  I finished listening to The Poisonwood Bible on audio for the second time.  Much more of the detail was clear to me and this is a book I highly recommend reading more than once.  So much information is contained with in the story and there are layers of meaning to glean from the novel.  I hesitated to nominate it for reading group because of the area of the country I live in.    It is a very controversial book and I am sure that some members of the local library book group will not like it.  But most of the members are a pretty open to thinking things through and while they might not agree with some of the concepts I trust they will read and digest the book.  It promises to be a lively discussion at the July meeting due to the content of this book.   One question I asked them to be ready to answer is "Who is your favorite character in the novel?".   I adored Adah.  She was the sister in the missionary family who was a twin and had suffered brain damage at birth but was very smart in spite of her physical handicaps.  In the end she came back to America and became a research doctor who studied disease causing micro-organisms of the Congo.  One of the reasons this book is such a favorite of mine is that it clarifies things that were happening in the news when I was a teen and only listening with one ear.  The novels covers the historical time of 1950 to the mid 1990s.   Do follow the links above to learn more and listen to the videos below for back ground history of the area.